Latina Mothers Reclaiming “Competence” in a Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Program

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how Latina mothers with multilingual children institutionally designated as English Learners negotiated dominant notions of competence in their dual language bilingual program. Findings demonstrated that Latina mothers reclaimed competence for themselves and their children by interrogating intersecting, hegemonic constitutions of competence while employing various forms of motherwork to support their children’s learning and well-being. Specifically, they sustained their children’s expansive, historicized identities and language practices, advocated for their children’s access to interdisciplinary, multimodal learning experiences, and asserted their children’s right to wellness and personal agency in utilizing bilingual educational spaces. Findings from this study have implications for how to contest problematic institutional conceptualizations of families in schools, and how to create programming and leadership structures that elevate Latina mothers as critical leaders of collective mobilization efforts aimed at equity and justice in bilingual educational programs.

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