CPF Magazine Winter 2020 Issue

In my interviews with parents, I’ve found myself surprised by
parents’ expressions of appreciation that the school affirmed to
their child the value of their family’s home language and culture
through MPBL. The sense that has emerged is that MPBL builds
reciprocal relationships among teachers and families. One mother,
for example, who had compared trying to get her daughter to
learn Farsi to forcing her to eat her vegetables, recounted:
“[My daughters] weren’t curious about this ‘other’ language
for a long time and the writing the translation in Farsi was a
good thing and [my daughter] was happy that I could actually
do it for her… it kind of opened up the door a little bit. Like
she now thinks she’s more interested in the language.”
When schools affirm students’ home languages and cultures,
parents become language and literacy experts in the eyes of their
children, and multilingual parents are empowered to actively
participate in their child’s learning at school and at home.
Another parent further explained how valuable it is for parents
to have their children’s home languages affirmed by the school:
“ I think the project has been good for [my daughter] because I
think sometimes you need to mirror back to a child what they
have… It hasn’t been apparent to them as a gift possibly and
so having the school… pay attention to that is a way of saying
to them, ‘You guys have gifts! [It’s] a really lucky thing that you
have access to another language!’ It’s also powerful when it
comes from teachers… As a parent when you hold the mirror up
to your child to say, ‘This is the wonderful gifted person I see you
are,’ it’s like, ‘Whatever, Mom.’ I think [kids] dismiss it. I think
they’re pleased on one level but you as a parent sometimes
don’t have as much weight. But when an external person
validates that, it gives them a level of thoughtfulness about
themselves that they don’t necessarily get when it’s just a
parent mirroring back… When it’s valued elsewhere it’s a
solid reinforcement!”
My current research investigates MPBL as a school-wide
strategy for building multilingual language awareness and
intercultural understanding with a local elementary school in
Madison, Wisconsin. In this work, parents’ reflections about
their children’s collaborative multilingual work continue to
affirm that teachers and parents must be partners in raising
children to become thoughtfully engaged citizens in our diverse
world. In closing, listen to the responses of parents following
the creation of multilingual class books with five Grade 1
classes as part of a science unit about plants:
“I was so pleased with the book I was almost brought to tears.
Particularly considering the xenophobia in our culture today, it’s
a wonderful way to promote the inclusion of different languages
and cultures. Thank you!”
“I think it was great to have [children] working on something together.
This book is definitely something we will keep and reflect back on and
share with other family members.”
“We wished we could have contributed with a foreign language of
our own! [ Our son] can recognize the different languages (mostly)
on sight. He was very proud of being able to say a few sentences
in Arabic.”
“My sense is that seeing… languages together in the book gives
children the visual reminder of other classmates’ perspective. This
project seems original, creative and useful!”
Around the world where racial, linguistic, religious and political
differences threaten to divide communities, the need to build bridges
among teachers, students and families from diverse backgrounds is
critical. Affirming and leveraging students’ cultural and linguistic assets
helps move towards building more inclusive schools and gives students
an opportunity to learn how to work together across their differences,
within the microcosm of their classrooms. n
This parent’s reflection highlights that MPBL can forge
mutually beneficial relationships among teachers, students
and parents that multiply opportunities to affirm children’s
identities as they integrate creatively their home and school
language and literacy practices.
[1] J. Cummins and M. Early, Identity Texts: The collaborative creation of power in multilingual schools (London: Trentham, 2001).
[2] This research was generously supported by a Joseph Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate scholarship (2010-2013) from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council.
CPF MAGAZINE WINTER 2020 9