Elementary school children bring a rich diversity of language to classrooms, a richness that often goes undervalued in educational settings in which teachers feel they must and do emphasize dominant ways of using English. The ways in which teachers interact with children about their language use can influence the linguistic belonging of children…

This study examines how language ideologies are negotiated and navigated in a linguistically diverse kindergarten group in Germany, focusing on the multilingual language practices of teachers and children. Drawing on data generated during 3months of focused linguistic ethnographic fieldwork, I analyse situations in which children and teachers…

This article explores the findings from a formative study focused on language and literacy development in an international school's K5 classroom in South America. The teacher's pedagogical goal was to increase the amount of English used by students related to the social context of a restaurant. The intervention involved an integrated literacy and…

Young children bring rich social, cultural, and political knowledge to school, cultivated in their homes and communities. This knowledge, ranging from household skills to multilingual practices, is often marginalized in schools that value different norms. Drawing from ethnographic studies in Illinois and New York kindergarten classrooms, this…

This study examines the relationship between early reading identities and social status in school contexts. Reading identities, or the ways that a child constructs the self as a reader across contexts and time, have been posited to be closely linked with social status. This single-case study examines the reading identities and social status of one…

In this article, the author considers the affordances of bringing theories of affect (e.g., Davies, 2014; Dutro, 2019; Leander & Boldt, 2013) to understandings of meaning-making with culturally sustaining picturebooks within an intervention setting. Culturally sustaining picturebooks are defined as books reflective of multiple languages and…

The increasingly diverse population of young children in the U.S. requires innovative culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy practices in early childhood education. Through parent-child ethnography, we share two stories of a multilingual and multicultural mother and daughter who created and enacted new storytelling practices in the…

The importance of supporting children's reading engagement and reading comprehension from the early years is widely acknowledged, particular for children growing up in areas characterized by socioeconomic challenges. This mission is collectively shared by teachers and librarians, although with differing starting points and responsibilities. This…

California's K-12 student population is one of the most linguistically diverse in the nation, with nearly 40% of students who speak a language other than English. Despite federal and landmark K-12 policies supporting inclusion for multilingual learners (MLs), as revealed by the literature, MLs are often viewed through a white normative…

Reading identities, or the ways that a child constructs the self as a reader across contexts and time, play a role in the development of early reading. Prior research on reading identities has reported primarily on the identities of monolingual children. This multiple case study examines the reading identities of young multilingual children.…

Language separation policies in two-way bilingual education (TWBE) reflect ideologies of double monolingualism (Heller, 1995) and ignore the sociolinguistic realities of bi/multilingual students (García & Lin, 2017). This case study investigates the design and implementation of collaborative multilingual identity text projects (Prasad, 2018)…

Developing student interest is critical to supporting student learning in computer science. Research indicates that student interest is a key predictor of persistence and achievement. While there is a growing body of work on developing computing identities for diverse students, little research focuses on early exposure to develop multilingual…

This paper addresses the interactional dynamics of one bilingual, two-way immersion classroom where children came from diverse linguistic, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Based on an ethnographic discourse analytic study of one kindergarten TWI classroom, I analyze interactional data using participant frameworks as the unit of…

According to the national framing of the Swedish preschool system, educators are expected to act as mediators of the dominant language while simultaneously promoting multilingualism. Previous research shows that educators display an insecurity as well as a lack of knowledge of how to implement this dual undertaking. This article examines…

Purpose: This study aimed to explore "why and how" the teachers' personal funds of knowledge and identity are connected to their classroom beliefs, knowledge, and practices. Design/methodology/approach: The study lasted one academic year (October 2021 - July 2022). We used multiple data sources, including semi-structured individual…