Civic Engagement Lunch Talk – “Amplifying Latinx Families’ Language Education Rights: Luchando for Urban Dual Language Bilingual Education”

Join the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement for our first Civic Lunch Talk of the new year.

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Professor Zitlali Morales, PhD, Ramona Alcalá, PhD, and Megan Marshall, ABD in Hispanic and Italian studies, will present their research on “Amplifying Latinx Families’ Language Education Rights: Luchando for Urban Dual Language Bilingual Education.”

“During the 2022-2023 academic year, our research collaborative conducted workshops with Latinx, predominantly Spanish-speaking parents around the Chicagoland area. We presented three key pieces of information regarding language education within Chicago: 1) the differences between program models that their children have access to; 2) how to access dual language bilingual education (DLBE), the program that has been shown to best support emergent bilinguals; and 3) how they can advocate for a DLBE program if one does not exist in their neighborhood school. Thereafter, we invited parents to fill out a brief survey about their understanding of and experience with language education for their children, as well as their involvement with their children’s schools. A subset of these parents agreed to also participate in individual interviews where they shared some of their own schooling experiences, as well as their wishes for their own children’s education. Our culminating activity was a Dual Language Bilingual Education Parent Summit hosted at UIC. During the summit, we shared further resources with parents (such as bilingual book vendors and a talk regarding bilingual speech-language services) and invited them to participate in a focus group conversation. As a group, parents shared their experiences and hopes with respect to language services in school and beyond.

We will present some of the information about language education in the state of Illinois shared with Chicago parents, as well as the total number of parents we engaged in this project. Additionally, we will share some preliminary results from quantitative analysis of the surveys and qualitative analysis of the interviews and focus group.”

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