Home-School Connections in a Multicultural Society: Learning From and With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families

311 Pages·2009·1.8 MB·Language, Culture, and Teaching Series

by  Maria Luiza Dantas, Patrick C. Manyak

Home-School Connections in a
Multicultural Society
Educators everywhere confront critical issues related to families, schooling, and teaching
in diverse settings. Directly addressing this reality, Home-School Connections in a Multi-
cultural Society shows pre-service and practicing teachers how to recognize and build on
the rich resources for enhancing school learning that exist within culturally and linguistic-
ally diverse families.
Combining engaging cases and relevant key concepts with thought-provoking peda-
gogical features, this valuable resource for educators at all levels:
• Provides detailed portraits of diverse families that highlight their unique cultural
practices related to schooling and the challenges that their children face in school
settings
• Introduces key sociocultural and ethnographic concepts, in ways that are both access-
ible and challenging, and applies these concepts as lenses through which to examine
the portraits
• Shows how teachers and researchers have worked with diverse families to build posi-
tive relationships and develop learning activities that incorporate children’s unique
experiences and resources
• Engages readers in grappling deeply and personally with the chapters’ meanings and
implications, and in envisioning their own practical ways to learn from and with
families and children
Disrupting deficit assumptions about the experiences and knowledge that culturally and
linguistically diverse children acquire in their homes and communities, this book will help
educators to extend their notions of learning resources, to rethink the conventional
practices used to evaluate and foster students’ “readiness” for school learning, and to
reconsider the types of knowledge and dispositions that teachers in a multicultural society
need in order to foster student engagement and home-school connections.
Maria Luiza Dantas is Educational Consultant and Visiting Scholar at the University of
California, Santa Barbara.
Patrick C. Manyak is Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Department of Elementary
and Early Childhood Education, University of Wyoming.
Language, Culture, and Teaching
Sonia Nieto, Series Editor
Dantas&Manyak(Eds.) Home-School Connections in a Multicultural
Society: Learning from and with Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse Families
Janks Literacy and Power
Nieto Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical
Perspectives for a New Century, Second Edition
Botelho&Rudman Critical Multicultural Analysis of Children’s
Literature: Mirrors, Windows, and Doors
Spears-Bunton&Powell(Eds.) Toward a Literacy of Promise: Joining the
African-American Struggle
Bruna&Gomez(Eds.) The Work of Language in Multicultural
Classrooms: Talking Science, Writing Science
Morrell Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of
Access, Dissent, and Liberation
Edelsky With Literacy and Justice for All: Rethinking the
Social in Language and Education, Third Edition
Harmon/Wilson Beyond Grammar: Language, Power, and the
Classroom
Berlin Contextualizing College ESL Classroom Praxis:
A Participatory Approach to Effective Instruction
Vasquez Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young
Children
Goldstein Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural School:
Choices, Risks, and Dilemmas
Collins Community Writing: Researching Social Issues
Through Composition
Visit www.routledge.com/education for additional information on titles in the
Language, Culture, and Teaching series.
Home-School Connections in
a Multicultural Society
Learning from and with Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse Families
Edited by
Maria Luiza Dantas
Educational Consultant and Visiting Scholar at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
Patrick C. Manyak
University of Wyoming
First published 2010
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
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© 2010 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Home-school connections in a multicultural society : learning from and with
culturally and linguistically diverse families / edited by Maria Luiza Dantas,
Patrick Manyak.
p. cm.—(Language, culture, and teaching)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Home schooling—Social aspects—United States. 2. Multicultural
education—United States. 3. Bilingual education—United States. I. Dantas,
Maria Luiza. II. Manyak, Patrick.
LC40.H6384 2010
371.19′20973—dc22
2009018390
ISBN 0-203-86843-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–99756–9 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–99757–7 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–86843–9 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–99756–0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–99757–7 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–86843–0 (ebk)
Dedicated to our families and the many families who continually
teach us about diversity, resilience and ways of knowing and
acting as change agents. Patrick also dedicates this book to the
Latina/o families that embraced and fed him and enriched his life
immeasurably during his years as a bilingual teacher in
Pasadena, California, in particular, the Mora family, Maria
Quiroz, and the Colorado family.

Contents
Foreword xi
SONIA NIETO
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
PATRICK C. MANYAK AND MARIA LUIZA DANTAS
PART I
Home–School (Dis)connections 17
2 “Lost Boys,” Cousins and Aunties: Using Sudanese Refugee
Relationships to Complicate Definitions of “Family” 19
KRISTEN H. PERRY
3 The Impact of Social Dynamics on Immigrant Children’s
Language and Literacy Practices: Learning from
Asian Families 41
GUOFANG LI
4 A Mother and Daughter Go to School: A Story of Strengths
and Challenges 59
CATHERINE COMPTON-LILLY
5 Discontinuities and Differences among Muslim
Arab-Americans: Making It at Home and School 76
LOUKIA K. SARROUB
6 Building Connections between Homes and Schools 94
MELISSA M. SCHULZ
viii Contents
7 Fostering Academic Identities among Latino Immigrant
Students: Contextualizing Parents’ Roles 112
LILIA D. MONZÓ
Teacher Commentary
SIMEON STUMME 131
PART II
Curriculum Transformations: Learning with Families 135
8 Do You Hear What I Hear?: Using the Parent Story Approach
to Listen to and Learn from African American Parents 137
PATRICIA A. EDWARDS AND JENNIFER D. TURNER
9 Home Visits: Learning from Students and Families 156
MARIA LUIZA DANTAS AND MICHELLE COLEMAN
10 Networks of Support: Learning from the Other Teachers in
Children’s Lives 177
SUSI LONG AND DINAH VOLK
11 Issues in Funds of Knowledge Teaching and Research: Key
Concepts from a Study of Appalachian Families and Schooling 201
ELLEN McINTYRE
12 How Knowledge Counts: Talking Family Knowledge and Lived
Experience into Being as Resource for Academic Action 218
ELIZABETH YEAGER AND RALPH A. CÓRDOVA, JR.
13 Respecting Children’s Cultural and Linguistic Knowledge:
The Pedagogical Possibilities and Challenges of Multiliteracies
in Schools 237
MARIA JOSÉ BOTELHO, SARAH L. COHEN, LISA LEONI, PATRICIA CHOW,
AND PADMA SASTRI
Teacher Commentary
CHRISTINE KANE AND KIM DOUILLARD 257
Contents ix
PART III
Conclusion 263
14 Home–School–Community Collaborations in
Uncertain Times 265
FRANCISCO RÍOS
List of Contributors 279
Index 281