SUSTAINING THE EMPODERAMIENTO OF SPANISH HERITAGE LEARNERS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL THROUGH CRITICAL SOCIOCULTURAL PEDAGOGIES

Abstract

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US and thus it comes to no surprise that schools across the country have Spanish heritage language learners across all grades and at different level of proficiency. Many of these students come to the World Language Spanish classroom with funds of knowledge from different cultures, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds since the group of learners is as far as being a monolith as the diversity within Latinx identities. Although their presence in our classrooms is statistically expected, World Language education and teacher preparation is primarily geared towards second language (L2) education rather than the reality of mixed (L2 and heritage) language learners. Engaging in research that places heritage language learners in the center thus becomes an act of resistance and a question of social justice within the field. Although there have been studies that focus on Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs), there is a call for more studies in different contexts that show practical applications of asset-based pedagogies and critical language awareness within a multiliteracies framework. This dissertation is a practitioner researcher qualitative case study of students enrolled in a dual-enrollment Spanish writing course. Data includes observations, lesson notes, student and teacher generated reflections, and student artifacts to better understand how SHLLs in an upper-level secondary course generate and conduct their own inquiry projects in response to learned topics that focus on multilingual identity, activism within US Latinxs, climate issues, and social-emotional health and well-being. Beyond building awareness in students, this study focuses on how students and their teacher engage in critical literacy practices for students to see themselves as agents of change and how this in turn sustains their multilingual identities.