María Teresa de la Piedra

Literacies and Quechua oral language: Connecting sociocultural worlds and linguistic resources for biliteracy development

This article presents partial findings of an ethnographic study in a Quechua rural community in the Peruvian Andes. It discusses the uses of hegemonic Spanish literacy practices in the school. These were characterized by emphasis on formal issues over meaning; students’ lives, cultural, and linguistic resources were ignored. However, there were spontaneous uses of literacy by children that resisted the school’s dominant literacy practices. Local literacy practices in other social contexts included the use of oral Quechua in order to make meaning of written text. These are cultural resources that teachers may use in the classroom. The article offers a discussion of ‘hybrid literacy practices’ as possibilities for connecting sociocultural worlds and linguistic resources for biliteracy and academic development.This article presents partial findings of an ethnographic study in a Quechua rural community in the Peruvian Andes. It discusses the uses of hegemonic Spanish literacy practices in the school. These were characterized by emphasis on formal issues over meaning; students’ lives, cultural, and linguistic resources were ignored. However, there were spontaneous uses of literacy by children that resisted the school’s dominant literacy practices. Local literacy practices in other social contexts included the use of oral Quechua in order to make meaning of written text. These are cultural resources that teachers may use in the classroom. The article offers a discussion of ‘hybrid literacy practices’ as possibilities for connecting sociocultural worlds and linguistic resources for biliteracy and academic development.

Meaning Making and Translanguaging in a Two-Way Dual-Language Program on the U.S.-Mexico Border.

The article analyzes meaning-making practices in a two-way dual-language (TWDL) program on the U.S.-Mexico border among transfronterizo and Mexican-origin youth. In the article, we show that emergent bilingual learners and their teacher participate in activities that mediate understanding of science content knowledge. We show how the teacher of a fourth-grade TWDL classroom creates a borderland space in which the full repertoire of students’ languages, including translanguaging, is recognized and validated. We illustrate how the teacher, Ms. O, guides students to use strategies and meaning-making tools in both languages to construct meanings of the science content. We also demonstrate how she scaffolds students’ language development, develops students’ higher-order thinking, and involves all students in constructing understanding. We end with a discussion and suggestions for dual-language teaching.

Transfronterizo literacies and content in a dual language classroom

Abstract The purpose of this article is to discuss the ways in which young transfronterizo students who live between the two worlds of El Paso (USA) and Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) bring their literacy practices and content to the classroom. Drawing on the data gathered during a 3-year ethnographic study, we illustrate how transfronterizo texts and content are used for academic purposes, in particular in the context of learning narrative writing. We present the case of one transfronteriza teacher who successfully facilitated literacies crossing numerous borders. We frame our discussion of transfronterizo literacy practices drawing on literature from dual language education, the Continua of Biliteracy Model, and the New Literacy Studies. We show the recontextualization and transcontextualization of texts and practices. These processes help us understand biliteracy development in this border area, which is both global and local. We argue that developing awareness of how transfronterizo literacies are used in classrooms can provide teachers and researchers of linguistically minoritized students in other contexts with a better and complex understanding of the resources students bring to school in order to recognize ways in which to capitalize on these mobile resources for relevant educational experiences.

The literacy practices of transfronterizos in a multilingual world

Abstract This introduction provides the background for this special issue by first describing the US–Mexico border, a fascinating context in which to research issues related to Spanish–English biliteracy and multilingualism. We present main points in the prevailing discussion within the field of literacy studies about issues of multilingualism and local–global contexts of literacy. Drawing from literature on transnational literacy, we examine arguments about the recontextualization of texts and literacy practices. In this volume, authors demonstrate how texts, linguistic practices, and discourses are part of the fluid traffic across the US–Mexico border. In the course of analyzing transfronterizo literacy practices, the articles take into account local and global contexts of literacy from different perspectives, such as colonia studies, genre studies, disciplinary discourses and identity, notions of time and space, the continua of biliteracy, and the new literacy studies. Because we see ourselves as border educators and researchers, informing educational practice in sites where these issues emerge as everyday events is the broader intent of this special issue.

Literacies crossing borders: transfronterizo literacy practices of students in a dual language program on the USA–Mexico border

Abstract Research on transnational literacies has generally focused on youth who live in one country and communicate using digital literacies across national boundaries. Our work contributes to this literature by providing a view of transnational literacies that are unique to the USA–Mexico border region. The students in this ethnographic study navigate two countries, two languages, and two homes on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. This article describes the literacies that these transfronterizo youth acquire as border crossers. Our focus is on the print and digital literacies learned outside of the classroom and how these are being used by the students in academic settings.

Tanto Necesitamos De Aqui Como Necesitamos De Alla: "Leer Juntas" among Mexican Transnational Mothers and Daughters.

This paper presents part of the results of a qualitative study about literacy practices of Mexican transnational mothers, who live in and frequently cross the border between two countries (the United States and Mexico). Drawing on sociocultural approaches to literacy and literature on transnationalism, I analyze one practice: leer juntas (reading together). Leer juntas is a literacy practice that mothers shared with their daughters, as a part of maintaining the Spanish language as well as Mexican ways of living and being. It is also a transnational literacy practice, which connects the mothers with other relatives across the border. Finally, in some cases it is a biliterate practice, where daughters and mothers use both English and Spanish. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice.This paper presents part of the results of a qualitative study about literacy practices of Mexican transnational mothers, who live in and frequently cross the border between two countries (the United States and Mexico). Drawing on sociocultural approaches to literacy and literature on transnationalism, I analyze one practice: leer juntas (reading together). Leer juntas is a literacy practice that mothers shared with their daughters, as a part of maintaining the Spanish language as well as Mexican ways of living and being. It is also a transnational literacy practice, which connects the mothers with other relatives across the border. Finally, in some cases it is a biliterate practice, where daughters and mothers use both English and Spanish. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice.

Violence on the US–Mexico border and the capital students use in response

Recent studies have identified multiple forms of capital that Latino students acquire in their homes and communities. Influenced by these studies, this article examines how transnational students of Mexican origin use various forms of their community’s cultural wealth as tools to survive situations of violence in Mexico. In this article, we present how children experience violence, particularly drug-related violence across the border. We also discuss the ways in which the students’ resiliency (resistant capital) helps them in their daily lives. We focus on how students, despite their experience with violence, draw on their border rootedness, on transnational knowledge, and on resilient resistant capital in order to meaningfully participate in an elementary school English–Spanish dual language immersion program.