Transforming critical listening through co-design: Latine families and bilingual teachers collaboratively reimagine dual-language literacy curriculum

Abstract

This dissertation examines how collaborative curriculum co-design between bilingual teachers and transnational Latine families can transform dual-language education by centering family knowledge and reshaping power dynamics. Scholars (e.g., Palmer et al., 2019) have called for bilingual educators to critically listen to Latine families, who have often been excluded, marginalized, or silenced in dual-language programs (e.g., Burns, 2017; Chaparro, 2020a; Shannon, 2011). Despite their goal of fostering sociocultural competence, dual-language programs are often shaped by neoliberal pressures and rely on translated curricula disconnected from families’ language practices and cultural experiences. This participatory study positioned bilingual teachers as transformative intellectuals and Latine families as critical pedagogues, combining practitioner inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2015) and solidarity-driven co-design (Ishimaru et al., 2018) to deepen critical listening and redistribute power in schools. A group of Latina bilingual teachers participated in teacher inquiry sessions to reimagine their family engagement practice. A subset of these teachers then co-facilitated co-design circles with Spanish-speaking families in their classrooms, with researcher support. Together, each co-design team redesigned a literacy unit to incorporate families’ voices, perspectives, and expertise. Findings reveal that inquiry and co-design reshaped teachers’ understandings of family engagement, prompting them to critique traditional approaches and view engagement with Latine families as a political act. Teachers and parents drew on their personal, professional, and transnational identities and experiences to inform their commitments to collaboration. The co-design process fostered trust and redistributed power by positioning parents as co-experts in curriculum design, creating opportunities for families to directly influence curricular decisions implemented in classrooms. Through this process, parents surfaced linguistic, pedagogical, cultural, and values-based expertise that enriched curriculum development. Findings also highlight the importance of transnational and intergenerational knowledge and literacies, as families and teachers drew on home literacy practices, cultural traditions, and experiences across national contexts to collaboratively reimagine dual-language curriculum. Together, these findings demonstrate how curriculum co-design can deepen critical listening, redistribute power, and support more culturally sustaining, community-centered approaches to dual-language education.