“I bring them here to tell their stories”: Transnational Latina mothers' critical literacy practices in an intergenerational storytelling workshop

Abstract

Family literacy programs are potential spaces of empowerment for transnational families, yet often draw from deficit logics that fail to acknowledge the rich language and literacy practices of Latinx communities. We brought together theories of critical literacy and theories of mothering as critical work to document how transnational Latina mothers in an intergenerational storytelling workshop reshaped the space toward their own goals. We explored how mothers in the workshop served as critical literacy pedagogues by writing, reading, and redesigning the workshop space in ways that asserted agency, fostered intergenerational learning, and pushed back against deficit narratives. We offer insights from the workshop experience to suggest ways in which educators, both in family literacy and K–12 settings, can learn from and partner with transnational parents.

Intergenerational Learning and Its Impact on the Improvement of Educational Processes

“…In this area, it also points to the need to implement literacy programs for transnational families (Latina mothers context) such as those collected by Gonzales et al [19], using workshop to promote learning in design, development of literacy skills, knowledge and experience through storytelling, as well as workshop, as investigated by Hébert et al [20], in an urban school context with a rich and culturally diverse population, where a short digital story is created through technological resources, as a means of sharing experiences and knowledge, resulting in a greater cognitive background that helps and boosts the digital competence of their children. Another of the resources developed is the creation of eco-schools in Africa to promote intergenerational interaction on climate change from within the family [21].…”