Multilingual Students as Ethnographers: Toward a Culturally Sustaining Education Model for Elementary School Indigenous-Language Speakers
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Starting in the 1980s and 90s, indigenous Mayan communities began to form in the US. Many members of these communities speak a language besides English or Spanish natively and are subject to a number of social barriers and discrimination, including access to a quality education. Situated in a bilingual Spanish-English elementary school in the Pacific Northwest, the study explored the multilinguistic practices of nine 4th grade Mayan Mam speakers using PhotoVoice. After being asked to show “the languages of [their] lives,” students took photos using a disposable camera for a period of three weeks. Afterward, students were asked to select one photo each and participated in PhotoVoice interviews conducted in a group setting. Students were asked about the photo they selected, as well as more about their linguistic practices inside and outside of school. Using a combination of both a-priori and emergent codes, 102 photos in total were coded. The photos as well as recordings and transcripts of the PhotoVoice interviews and participant demographic information informed analysis. Analysis results showed student conceptions of Fishman’s sociolinguistic domains. Actual participant descriptions of place-based linguistic practices complicate this finding somewhat, suggesting that languages described by participants as separate may see considerable overlap in practice. The study also found that although Mam was not described as a language used in school by the students, Mam was incredibly present in the home and with family; furthermore, half of prompted participants expressed some interest in the possibility of using Mam in school in the future. Finally, although some students described the utility of Mam as a common language in order to help those who don’t speak another language, others described a preference for Mam as a motivating factor for use. Building on Martínez’ work on language ideologies, these findings suggest that although students did express attitudes that reflected dominant language ideologies whereby Mam is deemed a non-academic language, student interest in the use of Mam in school simultaneously challenges this notion. Therefore, some students articulated what Martínez refers to as counter-hegemonic language ideologies, in which a language is valorized in spite of its current subordination in society. These findings demonstrate the potential benefits of facilitating autoethnographic exploration of linguistic practices in the classroom, particularly in a culturally responsive context.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 31, 2017 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gilbert, Vanessa Kay |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford School of Education |
|---|---|
| Subject | bilingual education |
| Subject | photovoice |
| Subject | ethnography |
| Subject | autoethnography |
| Subject | language ideology |
| Subject | culturally sustaining pedadogy |
| Subject | culturally responsive education |
| Subject | indigenous languages of Guatemala |
| Subject | Mayan languages |
| Subject | Mam |
| Subject | Kanjobal |
| Subject | Spanish |
| Subject | dual-immersion school |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Gilbert, Vanessa. (2017). Multilingual Students as Ethnographers:
Toward a Culturally Sustaining Education Model for Elementary School Indigenous-Language Speakers. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Undergraduate Honors Theses, Graduate School of Education
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- vgilbert@stanford.edu
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