Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools: Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups

Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning, this book examines how the everyday language practices and cultural funds of knowledge of youth from non-dominant or minoritized groups can be used as centerpoints for classroom learning in ways that help all students both to sustain and expand their cultural and linguistic repertoires while developing skills that are valued in formal schooling. Bringing together a group of ethnographically grounded scholars working in diverse local contexts, this volume identifies how these language practices and cultural funds of knowledge can be used as generative points of continuity and productively expanded on in schools for successful and inclusive learning. Ideal for students and researchers in teaching, learning, language education, literacy, and multicultural education, as well as teachers at all stages of their career, this book contributes to research on culturally and linguistically sustaining practices by offering original teaching methods and a range of ways of connecting cultural competencies to learning across subject matters and disciplines.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the Volume -- Everyday Learning: Centering in Schools the Language and Cultural Practices of Young People from Non-Dominant Backgrounds Inmaculada Ma García-Sánchez and Marjorie Faulstich Orellana Chapter 1-- Learning by Observing and Pitching In: Implications for the Classroom Maricela Correa-Chávez and Angélica López-Fraire Chapter 2 -- Seeing Together: The Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous Families in Chicago Urban Forest Walks Ananda M. Marin Chapter 3 -- Building on Students’ Cultural Practices in STEM Tia Madkins and Na’ilah Nasir Chapter 4 -- "They Think Detroit is Just Litter": Youth Challenging Environmental Injustice Through Participatory Research and Civic Engagement Enid Rosario-Ramos and Jenny Sawada Chapter 5 -- Leveling the Politicized Experiences of Children from Mixed Status Families: Connections to Civic Education in Elementary Schools Sarah Gallo, Holly Link, and Jessica Somerville Chapter 6 -- Linking Church and School: Language and Literacy Practices of Bilingual Latinx Pentecostal Youth Lucila D. Ek Chapter 7 -- Figurative Language in Religious Community Contexts: Opportunities to Leverage and Expand Bilingual Youth’s Linguistic Repertoires Mariana Pacheco and P. Zitlali Morales Chapter 8 -- Centering Shared Linguistic Heritage To Build Language And Literacy Resilience Among Immigrant Students Inmaculada Ma García-Sánchez Chapter 9 -- Finding a Way into Story Worlds: Youth Co-Narrations of Cross-Cultural Lives as Analogue for Academic Literary Talk Patricia Enciso Chapter 10 -- Where Everyday Translanguaging Meets Academic Writing: Exploring Tensions and Generative Connections for Bilingual Latina/o/x Students Ramón Martínez, Leah Durán, and Michiko Hikida Chapter 11 -- Immigrant Youth Reading Stories in Translation: Lessons for Literacy Instruction in School Jennifer F. Reynolds and Marjorie Faulstich Orellana Chapter 12 -- Exploring, Thinking and Learning about Languages and Literacies with Young People in Super-diverse Australian Classrooms Jacqueline D’warte Chapter 13 -- Leveraging Youth Cultural Data Sets for Teacher Learning Danny Martinez, Elizabeth Montaño, and Javier Rojo Afterword – Don’t Believe the Hype: Reality Rules! Carol D. Lee

About the Author :
Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Temple University, USA.. Marjorie Faulstich Orellana is Professor of Urban Schooling in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Review :
"This is a powerful collection of ethnographically grounded work that insists on the visibility of everyday and out-of-school practices in deepening our understanding of inclusive learning. This timely exploration of the diverse contexts of learning is an urgent call to consider the full complexities of the multiple spaces that are navigated by students. This volume opens possibilities for researchers, practitioners, communities and policy-makers to focus much-needed attention on the breadth of knowledge across contexts that constitutes robust and enduring learning." Norma Gonzalez, Professor Emerita, University of Arizona, USA. “García-Sánchez and Faulstich Orellana have pulled together an impressive collection of careful, long-term studies of language-in-context to illustrate how ‘everyday learning’ can be reconceptualized as something that really happens every day and in all contexts, including schools. The everyday practices discussed range from Moroccan students’ comparisons of varieties of Spanish in Spain, to conversations about ‘good citizenship’ among students who have precarious immigration status. Through such everyday discussions about language, youth from minoritized groups, their peers, and their teachers build the knowledge to traverse contexts and cross communities. The chapters in this volume show us how this high-level intellectual travel is already being done, and how we all can, and must, all do more of it." Betsy Rymes, Professor of Educational Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, USA. "This book is a unique and powerful volume that extends our understanding of culture and equity in education. It breaks down false binaries between academic competences and the linguistic and cultural knowledge that young people bring to the classroom at the same time as it instigates new thinking and models of what truly meaningful, creative, cultural sustaining and expansive learning can look like in schools. All educators committed to equity and social justice will value the breadth of insights into youth and community practices and educational implications shared in this book." Wan Shun Eva Lam, Associate Professor, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, USA. "The authors provide a compelling counter-narrative emphasizing non-dominant communities' role in furthering children's academic achievement. Ample resources are provided for those committed to decolonizing educational practices and research to ensure educatinoal parity for all students" Amirreza Karami and Charles Johnson Carter, International Journal of Language and Culture