Multiliteracy and Language Arts for Multicultural Classrooms

As schools receive increasing numbers of children from diverse backgrounds, teachers are challenged to offer meaningful instruction to scaffold their reading and writing development. The chapters in this volume feature asset-based approaches to literacy instruction. Readers will discover chapters informed by critical frameworks: The Community Cultural Wealth model (Yosso, 2005), the findings from the Funds of Knowledge (Moll, et al., 1992), and the contributions of Multicultural Children's Literature (Iwai, 2019) for culturally efficacious instruction and cultural preservation (Iyengar & Smith, 2016). 

Irrespective of content area, all educators contribute to the literacy development of all students. However, not all teachers are equally skilled in appropriate (i.e., asset-based) instructional delivery for linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms. Literacy instruction that embraces multiple perspectives should not be limited to the Language Arts curriculum. Culturally efficacious literacy practices (Flores, et al., 2018) benefit all students in all subject areas. Whether a mainstream, multilingual, bilingual, Dual Language, or ESL classroom, opportunities for literacy explorations from divergent perspectives can be embedded throughout the curriculum if the teacher actively embraces diversity.

The co-editors assembled chapters with a focus on various multimodal expressions (e.g., oral histories, picture books, visuals). Multiliteracy practices (e.g., biliteracy, translanguaging), including instruction offered at school or in naturalistic settings (e.g., temple, community centers), are found within the volume. Contributions explore empirical studies of children’s writing (e.g., memoirs, testimonial narratives) or research studies about bilingual-multicultural children (e.g., cultural studies, critical literacy).

The collection of chapters presents Language Arts instruction that promotes culturally efficacious and linguistically sustaining pedagogy. Many times, children who come from poor or under- educated communities are subjected to a deficit-based curriculum (e.g., poor families have given their children nothing of educational value). In contrast, all chapters in this volume are informed by sociocultural theory and offer asset-based approaches (e.g., poor communities have knowledge and skills that should be the basis of instruction). 

With the same understanding, chapters in the volume foreground systematized communication beyond the linguistic modes (e.g., visual arts). Whether empirical studies, practical guides, or models, contributions to the volume have direct application to multicultural-multilingual classroom contexts. Using their research expertise and experience in education, the authors offer insights and provide models, effective strategies, and theoretically grounded pedagogical approaches to enhance the (multi)literacy development of all students.