Promoting critical literacy among emergent bilinguals: an exploration of their identities

This study was an action research study that examined how second grade bilingual children defined “the word and their world” (Freire & Macedo, 1987) during literature discussions; that world is structured by societal, school, and classroom constructions of race, culture and languages when students discussed literature books that pertained to these topics. More specifically, I looked at how Latino students negotiated their understandings and enacted their multiple identities during literature discussions, how the identities the teacher held and the identities she placed on her students were negotiated through dialogue in order for students to start thinking about what it meant to be growing up bilingual in today’s political context, as well as how the books the students were discussing influenced the conversations. This study also captures an educator’s commitment towards nurturing critical consciousness among her emerging bilingual students. Data collection consisted of audiotaping literature discussions over a five-month time period. Using inductive analysis, I, as both the research and educator, worked to understand how students used their voices to express their ideas in literature discussions as well as how they navigated aspects of their identity when reading and responding to literature chosen to reflect their cultural and lived experiences. Through this study, I investigated the dialogue of young students in relation to discussions on race, ethnicity and multilingualism around books read during literature discussions as well as their development of critical consciousness