Alison G. Dover, Fernando (Ferran) Rodríguez-Valls
Foreword by: Ofelia García
Publication Date: April 1, 2022
Pages: 176
Learn how to enact curricular, pedagogical, and policy shifts that nourish students’ linguistic repertoires, redefine teaching and learning as reciprocal endeavors, promote student-to-student interactions that help newcomers feel less isolated, and create opportunities for students to experiment with language in both academic and informal settings. Drawing on their experience working with hundreds of educators and thousands of students in linguistically diverse school settings (grades 7–12), the authors challenge readers to engage in critical, collective action as they transform their approach to languaging, agency, and authority in the classroom. Ideas and strategies come alive through classroom vignettes, student stories, and samples of student poetry, prose, and art—as well as examples of linguistically affirming approaches to online teaching. The book is an enlightening professional conversation that represents the importance and impact of multicultural and culturally responsive education that ultimately leads to linguistically inclusive education for newcomers and other language learners.
Book Features:
Alison G. Dover is an associate professor in the Department of Secondary Education at California State University, Fullerton and coauthor of Preparing to Teach Social Studies for Social Justice (Becoming a Renegade). Fernando (Ferran) Rodríguez-Valls is a professor of secondary education and coordinator of the Bilingual Authorization Program at California State University, Fullerton.
“Poetry, picture books, portraits, mapping, caminatas, comics, icebreakers, and narrative writing are used not only to provide the rich educational context that emergent bilinguals deserve, but also to brave up and clearly reveal the strength of diverse students that traditional schools have hidden for so long.”
—From the Foreword by Ofelia García, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Brimming with innovative ideas and rooted in their longstanding relationships with those they call emergent plurilinguals, Alison Dover and Fernando Rodríguez-Valls have provided educators with a thoughtful, critical, and hopeful guide. The authors’ combination of practical activities and a strong, social justice–oriented lens will appeal to those who work with emergent plurilingual students and want to disrupt ‘schooling-as-usual’ overall.”
—Kate Seltzer, assistant professor, department of language, literacy, and sociocultural education, Rowan University
“It takes ‘braving up’ to put together this radically forward-looking book. The breadth of coverage is impressive. It promotes inclusive and sustainable pedagogy by stretching our thinking, encouraging innovative practice, and redefining success for the teaching professionals and the learners. It is a groundbreaking book that will impact on the way we educate newcomer and emergent plurilingual students in and for the future.”
—Li Wei, director and dean, University College London Institute of Education
“What if schooling affirmed the identities, cultivated the brilliance, and sustained the sophisticated language practices of our plurilingual students? This question serves as compass for Radically Inclusive Teaching With Newcomer and Emergent Plurilingual Students. Rejecting what is, this book paints a picture of radically inclusive teaching; of dreaming up what might otherwise be if we were to radically work toward justice for plurilingual students. Offering a powerful constellation of pathways and practices for radically inclusive teaching, this book is not only a call to action, but a cartography of more just and equitable schooling.”
—Mariana Souto-Manning, president, Irving and Neison Harris President's Chair, Erikson Institute
“Accompanying insightful critiques of prevailing ideologies and educational practices is a breathtaking range of examples for curriculum, student engagement, teacher preparation, policy advocacy, and community organizing that reframes language and learning and centers justice. Dover and Rodríguez-Valls's book was collaboratively authored with hundreds of educators and students and is overflowing with resources, entry points, and inspiration for any and all of us to join them in Braving Up.”
—Kevin Kumashiro, former dean, University of San Francisco School of Education; author, Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education
“Radically Inclusive Teaching With Newcomer and Emergent Plurilingual Students is a book that must be added to the professional development libraries of practicing teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators! Dover and Rodríguez-Valls provide important conceptual lenses for work with newcomer and emergent plurilingual students and also explore and explain radically inclusive pedagogies educators can use right away in their classrooms. The authors challenge us to always place students at the center of all of our work, to work toward the creation of new definitions of academic success and support, and to work toward sustaining radically inclusive teaching for all of our students.”
—Kevin Roxas, associate dean, Western Washington University
“In Radically Inclusive Teaching With Newcomer and Emergent Plurilingual Students: Braving Up, Dover and Rodríguez-Valls challenge educators to radically disrupt and transform the frameworks, practices, and educational contexts that have long misconceived and undermined the voices and ways of being of newcomers and emergent bilinguals, even in programs and initiatives that were created for them. The voices of students, teachers, and educational leaders in this book offer hopeful, practical, and courageous illustrations of agency and ingenuity that dare educators to stretch the boundaries of what is possible for an education that truly sees and hears these students.”
—Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, associate professor, Arizona State University
Contents
Foreword Ofelia García ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Braving Up: The Journey Begins With Questions 1
Why This Book? 2
What Does It Mean To Be Brave? 3
What Does It Mean To Be Proficient? 5
Who Are We? 8
What Can We Learn Together? 9
If I Were to Change the World, by Gurpreet Mangat 10
Part I: Foundations
2. The Ground on Which We Stand: Conceptual Foundations for Braving Up 12
The Power of Languaging 12
Braving Up: Stretching Our Practice 13
From Language to Languaging: Adopting a Heteroglossic Ideology 14
Challenging Linguistic Dominance 17
Centering Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogy 20
3. "This Is How School Should Be!": Learning from the Language Explorers 23
Day One: How it Begins 26
The Months Before: When It Really Begins 27
Getting Ready: Building Our Foundation 28
Experiential Pedagogy as Professional Learning 30
Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: From Teacher to Team 31
If I Were to Change the World, by Gea Lopez 37
Part II: Radically Inclusive Pedagogies
4. Who Are You? Exploring Identity and Community in the Classroom 40
Breaking the Silence 41
Nourishing Brave, Heteroglossic Classrooms 42
Braving Up by Sharing Who You Are 43
Inviting Students In 48
Exploring Identity: Who Are You? 49
5. Who Are We? Crossing Borders With Arts-Based and Plurilingual Pedagogies 58
Embracing Our Borderlands 58
Crossing Borders with Children’s and Young Adult Literature 61
Exploring Identity with Arts-Based Pedagogy 62
Pushing Beyond Words with Picture Books 67
Using Children’s and Young Adult Literature as a Springboard 69
6. Can You Hear Me? Amplifying Student Voice Within and Beyond the Classroom 74
Students’ Voices Teach Us Who They Are 76
Amplifying Student Voices in the Classroom and the School Community 79
Learning With and From Students 82
7. And Then We Had to Pivot: Bringing Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Teaching Online 88
Humanizing Online Learning 91
Breaking the Silence: Engaging Students and Building Community 93
If I Were to Change the World, by Mac Arjey Caisip 106
Part III: Stretching Beyond the Classroom
8. Redefining Success: Comunidad, Confianza, and Complexity 108
Redefining Success 108
Experimenting with Languaging and Syntactic Complexity 111
Comunidad, Confianza, and Complexity 114
Developing Heteroglossic Proficiency 118
Empowerment and Agency 118
9. Blossoming From Roots to Trees: Supporting, Sustaining, and Advocating for Radically Inclusive Teaching 122
with Renae Bryant
Know Your Context 123
Find Common Ground 125
Engage Key Stakeholders 127
Establish a Programmatic Identity and Build Capacity 129
Plan for Sustainability 133
If You Were to Change the World: Next Steps in Radically Inclusive Teaching 136
Notes 137
References 140
Index 152
About the Authors 161
Additional readings and professional learning resources on the companion website at tcpress.com/dover-resources
2023 ELATE/NCTE James N. Britton Award
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.