Dialogic teaching and multilingual counterpublics

Abstract

This article explores what happened when we co-constructed language and literacy curricula with Latina/o immigrant families and youth in two interrelated community-based educational classes as part of a research partnership with a diverse Catholic Parish. We employ theories of publics/counterpublics to characterize the participants' racialized and criminalized experiences within the dominant public discourse on immigration, as well as their agency in resisting such framings. We argue that adopting an inquiry stance into our practice, which situates teaching within larger sociopolitical contexts and power dynamics and encourages self-reflexivity, was a necessary component for our dialogic pedagogy. Our findings illustrate how participants mobilized their cultural resources for social critique through learning experiences that reflected community concerns, and promoted civic engagement. We conclude by identifying four ways in which we were able to create the conditions for dialogic teaching that tapped into participants' multilingual counterpublics.