Home-School Connections in a Multicultural Society: Learning from and with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families »

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.

Educators everywhere confront critical issues related to families, schooling, and teaching in diverse settings. Directly addressing this reality, Home-School Connections in a Multicultural 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 linguistically diverse families.

Combining engaging cases and relevant key concepts with thought-provoking pedagogical 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 accessible 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 positive relationships and develop learning activities that incorporate children’s unique experiences and resources

Disrupting deficit assumptions about the experiences and knowledge that culturally and linguistically diverse children acquire in their homes and communities, this book 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.

Foreword Sonia Nieto xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

1 Introduction Patrick C. Manyak Maria Luiza Dantas 1

Part I Home-School (Dis)connections 17

2 "Lost Boys," Cousins-and Aunties: Using Sudanese Refugee Relationships to Complicate Definitions of "Family" Kristen H. Perry 19

3 The Impact of Social Dynamics on Immigrant Children's Language and Literacy Practices: Learning from Asian Families Guofang Li 41

4 A Mother and Daughter Go to School: A Story of Strengths and Challenges Catherine Compton-Lilly 59

5 Discontinuities and Differences among Muslim Arab-Americans: Making It at Home and School Loukia K. Sarroub 76

6 Building Connections between Homes and Schools Melissa M. Schulz 94

7 Fostering Academic Identities among Latino Immigrant Students: Contextualizing Parents' Roles Lilia D. Monzó 112

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 Patricia A. Edwards Jennifer D. Turner 137

9 Home Visits: Learning from Students and Families Maria Luiza Dantas Michelle Coleman 156

10 Networks of Support: Learning from the Other Teachers in Children's Lives Susi Long Dinah Volk 177

11 Issues in Funds of Knowledge Teaching and Research: Key Concepts from a Study of Appalachian Families and Schooling Ellen McIntyre 201

12 How Knowledge Counts: Talking Family Knowledge and Lived Experience into Being as Resource for Academic Action Elizabeth Yeager Ralph A. Córdova, Jr. 218

13 Respecting Children's Cultural and LinguisticKnowledge: The Pedagogical Possibilities and Challenges of Multiliteracies in Schools Maria José Botelho Sarah L. Cohen Lisa Leoni Patricia Chow Padma Sastri 237

Teacher Commentary Christine Kane Kim Douillard 257

Part III Conclusion 263

14 Home-School-Commumty Collaborations in Uncertain Times Francisco Ríos 265

List of Contributors 279

Index 281