Amplifying Newcomer and Emergent Plurilingual Students’ Voice, Agency and Authority through Enactments of Authentic Cariño

Abstract

U.S. educational systems routinely dismiss and discount the voices of newcomer and emergent plurilingual students, and instead privilege ideologies of whiteness, ability, and English monolingualism. In this paper, we use a case study from a month-long arts- and literacy-rich summer program in Southern California to examine how three educators’ enactment of authentic cariño led them to disrupt culturally and linguistically subtractive practices and co-create educational processes that honor and amplify newcomer students’ voices, agency, and authority. After examining ideological, curricular and pedagogical elements of their approach, we focus on implications for our collective efforts to re-imagine schooling as a radically inclusive space that unapologetically supports and sustains the voices, agency, and humanity of newcomer and emergent plurilingual students and communities.