Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism, and Critical Consciousness for All: Proposing a Fourth Fundamental Goal for Two-Way Dual Language Education

Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism, and Critical Consciousness for All: Proposing a Fourth Fundamental Goal for Two-Way Dual Language Education

I read many articles this semester – a bit too many actually – but the one that caught my attention the most was Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism, and Critical Consciousness for All: Proposing a Fourth Fundamental Goal for Two-Way Dual Language Education by Deborah K. Palmer, Claudia Cervantes-Soon, Lisa Dorner & Daniel Heiman.

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I have developed a reasonably strong interest in bi-literacy and biculturalism, and this one talked about Critical Consciousness which addresses bilingualism and bi-literacy which are some of the main goals of Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE). The writers basically advocated the addition of Critical Consciousness (CC) as the fourth goal to the already established three goals of DLBE: grade-level academic achievement, bilingualism & bi-literacy and socio-cultural competence.

First, they define the four elements of CC which are interrogating power, critical listening, historicizing and embracing discomfort. They start by expanding on the concept of the constant interrogation of power. It raises critical questions around those who are in power and the language that they speak which eventually dominate the social discourse too in various academic settings such as schools and parent-teacher meetings. The article then goes on to describing critical listening by stressing the importance of paying attention to marginalized communities, and listening to their needs and daily-life struggles. Historicizing is all about foregrounding the local history, its significance to the local people, and then making decisions according to that information. The article then underscores the importance of initiating and having uncomfortable conversations and discussions all the time as that is integral to the rest of the three elements of CC.

Last, after presenting their case, they once more advocate adding CC as the first and the main goal of DLBE as practicing CC will eventually make it easier to achieve the remaining three goals of DLBE.    

Reference

Palmer, D.K., Cervantes-Soon, C., Dorner, L. & Heiman, D. (2019). Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism, and Critical Consciousness for All: Proposing a Fourth Fundamental Goal for Two-Way Dual Language Education. Theory Into Practice, 58(2), 121-133.

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