A Public University and a Small-Town Library: Community-Engaged Learners Foster Literacy, Diversity and Bilingual Identity in Rural Minnesota (66292)
Session Chair: Windy Roberts
Friday, January 6, 2023 (14:45)
Session: Session 4
Room: 321A
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
The United States is an increasingly diverse and multi-lingual society, but when Americans imagine populations of native Spanish or bilingual speakers, they often imagine large urban areas or parts of the Southwest. We happen to live and work in a small, rural community in Minnesota whose Spanish-speaking/bilingual population has increased steadily over the past two decades, creating a significant cohort of young people ideally poised to develop a truly bilingual and bicultural identity. However, the local community and education system face challenges (in terms of funding and expertise) in effectively serving this population in this way. Embracing a key element of our university’s mission, we have explored ways to incorporate community-engaged learning strategies into our academic program as a way to both expand students’ experience with language and culture and work toward a more inclusive community that can better position this young population to fulfill its bilingual and bicultural possibilities. We have begun regularly assisting our local public library staff in expanding their collection of authentic and high-quality materials in Spanish to give ample opportunities for Spanish-speaking children and teens in the local community to maintain and develop language and literacy skills and cultural connections. At the same time, we involve and empower our advanced and intermediate-level university students in the process of selecting, evaluating, and promoting these materials to the local Latinx community, using tasks and assignments tailored to the needs and abilities of both groups and offering them many of the documented benefits associated with bilingualism.
Authors:
James Wojtaszek, University of Minnesota, United States
Windy González Roberts, University of Minnesota, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr James Wojtaszek is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at University of Minnesota, Morris, United States
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