Katy transforms storytime: Culturally sustaining pedagogy in the community

Abstract

The increasingly diverse population of young children in the U.S. requires innovative culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy practices in early childhood education. Through parent-child ethnography, we share two stories of a multilingual and multicultural mother and daughter who created and enacted new storytelling practices in the context of community storytime. We analyze the stories through the dual lenses of sociocultural theory and culturally sustaining pedagogy and find powerful opportunities for culturally sustaining pedagogy when a child and parent are invited to share stories from their heritage cultures and encouraged to take leadership in developing and enacting multilingual pedagogies in educational spaces. We offer implications for future research for a deeper understanding of culturally sustaining pedagogy through sociocultural theory in the field of early childhood education.

Reconceptualizing Family-Centered Partnerships in Parent-Implemented Interventions

“…By aligning family-centered PII partnerships with the vision of culturally sustaining pedagogies, we widen our lens of influence to include not just young children and their families, but also their communities. While evidence of the application of culturally sustaining pedagogical approaches is limited in EI/ECSE, its use in early childhood contexts shows support for children and families in multiple domains of learning, such as multilingual language practices (Wang, Thomas, Cahill, 2022). The practices we apply to partnerships have the potential to result in positive outcomes for communities as we uphold families’ participation in both heritage and contemporary culturally shaped daily routines, activities, and linguistic practices.…”

“…By engaging in reflection, both the parents and the practitioner can attain a more nuanced understanding of their cultural positions, their cultural and linguistic practices, and especially for practitioners—how their work can sustain the cultural practices for both the family and the community (Paris, 2012; Wang et al, 2022). The practitioner’s reflective practice will be based in the critical understandings, and established prior to and throughout their partnership with families.…”