Being seen and heard: exploring the classroom participation and literacy practices of three Guatemalan students in their first year of U.S. schooling

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways in which three Guatemalan students, in their first year of schooling in the U.S., engaged in written and oral classroom literacy practices in their all-English social studies class. This dissertation also explores the instructional practices that created the classroom environment in which students participated. This study, which is grounded in sociocultural and critical theory, examines the role of culturally-relevant pedagogy and an ethic of care in the instruction of immigrant students with interrupted formal educations. This study extends the existing body of research on the language and literacy instruction and development of Latina/o students by documenting possibilities and potentialities for accessible instruction across cultural and linguistic borders in an all-English classroom.