Soria Elizabeth Colomer

Participants’ experiences of the qualitative interview: considering the importance of research paradigms:

We used a multiple-case study to investigate participants’ experiences in interviews from six qualitative studies that differed in interview orientations, designs, methods, participants, and topics. Roulston’s (2010a, 2010b) interview orientation heuristic guided our ‘paradigm-driven’ analysis of participants’ experiences. We found no differences in participants’ articulation of benefits and risks by interview orientation. Participants’ experiences differed based on the opportunity to reflect on their interview experiences, the sensitivity of the topic explored, and the number of interviews conducted. We discuss the implications of our findings for ‘paradigm-driven’ qualitative research and suggest ethical questions qualitative interview researchers can ask to maximize the benefits of their interviews.

“There Are No Known Benefits . . .” Considering the Risk/Benefit Ratio of Qualitative Research

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are responsible for weighing the risks and benefits of research participation. Qualitative researchers note numerous instances where IRB ethical frameworks fail to align with the ethics of their research projects and point out that IRB understandings of the benefits and risks of research often differ from those of the participants they seek to protect. This qualitative cross-case research investigates participants’ interview experiences in six qualitative studies that differed in their methods, subject of focus, and populations. Our findings indicate that contemporary IRBs’ use of population “vulnerability” and topic “sensitivity” to assess project risk does not adequately determine the benefits, risks, or ethicality of research. We recommend that IRBs treat as real the evidence for benefits in qualitative research, recognize that sensitivity and vulnerability do not predict risk, and encourage researchers to attend to relationships in their projects.

Writing through Partnership: Fostering Translanguaging in Children Who Are Emergent Bilinguals.

A critical function of schooling is to provide young writers with opportunities to explore real-life, out-of-school experiences through writing. However, literacy instruction in U.S. schools primarily (and sometimes almost exclusively) focuses on the tested skills, with little recognition of children’s diverse backgrounds and experiences. The predominance of English-only instruction further limits the potential for many children who speak languages other than English at home to develop a sense of agency that is fundamental to academic development. Although bilingual and bidialectal children bring rich linguistic and cultural repertoires that could serve as resources for the development of school-based reading and writing, curriculum is seldom structured to take advantage of these resources. This study reports on two minoritized kindergarten students in a dual language (DL) classroom. The study documents how the teacher’s use of “buddy pairs” created a classroom environment where students could take risks and participate in translanguaging. Results show that both emergent bilingual students benefited from a classroom environment in which their home language was valued and translanguaging was encouraged.

Latina Spanish High School Teachers' Negotiation of Capital in New Latino Communities.

Based on a qualitative study documenting how Spanish teachers bear an especially heavy burden as unofficial translators, interpreters, and school representatives, this article documents how some Latina high school Spanish teachers struggle to form social networks with Latino students in new Latino school communities. Employing social frameworks, the author uses data from semi-structured interviews with six north Georgia Latina high school Spanish teachers to explore the types of capital these Latina high school Spanish teachers exchanged with Latino students in new Latino school communities. Additionally, she reveals how sociocultural forces impacted participants’ negotiation of capital in these contexts. Finally, the author provides suggestions and ideas for further study to better understand how Latina Spanish teachers might increase their own social networks in order to provide more capital to Latino students and their families.

Biliteracy of African American and Latinx Kindergarten Students in a Dual-Language Program: Understanding Students’ Translanguaging Practices Across Informal Assessments

This article uses a translanguaging framework, together with critical case sampling and qualitative analysis, to explore how six students approached literacy in an integrated dual-language (DL) program in a low-income, working-class, predominantly African American school. Students’ translanguaging practices encompassed a broad repertoire of features that included home language, academic language, metalinguistic awareness, and lived experiences across home, school, and community contexts—many of which likely to go unexamined with traditional standardized testing. Educators working with minoritized DL students are encouraged to adopt a translanguaging lens when assessing students’ bilingualism and biliteracy to more fully capture students’ linguistic repertoire.

Understanding racial literacy through acts of (un)masking: Latinx teachers in a new Latinx diaspora community

Abstract As Latinx teachers are recruited to work in U.S. schools, a continued agenda to understand their experiences is warranted. This multiple case study considers the storytelling of six Latinx teachers in a new Latinx diaspora community. It documents both their racial literacy (the ability to resolve racially stressful issues) and their experiences with (un)masking (literal and figurative ways to cover or embrace racial markers). This study reveals the tensions that arise when Latinx teachers attempt to define their identity in social spaces where their languages, bodies, and names, among other markers, are racialized when read by others. Implications for teacher education include a call to include storytelling as a pedagogical tool to develop Latinx teachers’ racial literacy skills. By experiencing storytelling in their own schooling, Latinx teachers are more likely to model such racial literacy skills in their schooling communities; thereby, empowering a generation of students to enact more humanizing behaviors.