The Translanguaging Working Group at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven held their final meeting on December 10, though it’s clear that their work to promote equity for multilingual students will continue! The six teacher participants acted as co-researchers in Kristin Bengtson Mendoza’s dissertation study, which uses critical participatory action research methods to explore teacher learning in communities of practice. The group, which met throughout the fall, engaged in learning about translanguaging theory and pedagogy, created personal language portraits, and reflected on their own development of critical language awareness and translanguaging stance in their work with adolescent newcomers.
Kristin is moving into the data analysis stage, and she expects to defend her dissertation, The Development of Educators’ Critical Language Awareness and Translanguaging Stance in an Adolescent Newcomer Program, later this spring at Southern Connecticut State University. She will be excited to share her findings with the ARTLC community, and she remains grateful for ARTLC’s ongoing support of critical educator-driven learning and research.
