Multilingual multiliteracies of Emergent Bilingual families: Transforming teacher’s perspectives on the “literacies” of family engagement

Abstract

Emergent Bilingual families interact with their children across their shared languages and resources, creating unique literacy activities. As a form of family engagement, teachers can observe these created literacies within Emergent Bilingual families, and attempt to transport such practices into classrooms. There is, however, a danger that the different dynamics of classrooms may constrain how Emergent Bilingual students express themselves, affecting how they are mis/understood by others. In this paper, teachers explore the family literacies of one Emergent Bilingual family from their classroom, identifying how families use print, media and school resources to create unique literacies or multilingual multiliteracies. Because teachers see themselves as literacy experts, they often translate what they learn from Emergent Bilingual families’ literacy practices into technical classroom strategies, intending to garner more connections across home and school. These family generated strategies, however, can foreclose on the curiosity and reciprocity between teachers and families that is central to family engagement. The discussion identifies different ways to conceptualize and plan for school literacy events, flipping expertise from teachers to Emergent Bilingual families.