Dissertation Defense Announcement Ed.D. Program: Gabriela Colon “Home Language Connections: Understanding Families’ Spanish Language Practices to Support Family Engagement Opportunities”

Family engagement can have a significant impact on student academic success (Sawyer, 2022; Gross, et al., 2020; Tang, 2015), yet a specialized approach may be needed to address the needs and strengths of the individual families involved (Morita-Mullaney, 2021). Spanish-speaking families are unique in terms of the length of time they have been in the country, the mixed use of languages at home, their ideas around language and literacy development, specific resources and learning needs, and their goals for their children regarding academic success and language development. There has traditionally been a deficit perspective in viewing the achievement of multilingual learners and the level of involvement of their families (Morita-Mullaney, 2021; Duarte, 2019), which could cause abandonment of the home language to gain mastery in English. This language loss or language shift can result in negative impacts on a child’s identity, family relationships (Kohnert et al., 2005), connection to their community, and the ability of parents to support home-based family engagement opportunities. This qualitative study draws on an asset-based approach and sociocultural, translanguaging perspective that leverages and sustains the home language in and outside of the home (Garcia, 2020). This research describes the key findings of interview data from 20 unique Spanish-speaking families and how they communicate at home. This study highlights the roles that home language policy and practices play in home-school collaboration and our students’ learning of language and literacy. Findings demonstrate that multilingual families engage in a variety of rich practices to support language and literacy. Furthermore, most parents are extremely motivated to support their children, describing taking on roles of motivating their children with academics and maintaining their home language. While parents were generally positive and appreciative of the schools and teachers, they also described room for improvement in having more consistent communication in their home language and more opportunities for active engagement with the school. Recommendations for teachers, administrators, and policy include diversifying communication methods, discussing needs and goals with parents, and co-constructing learning communities where multilingual students and families see themselves, their language, their culture, and their goals valued within the school community. Keywords: multilingual learners, multilingual families, family engagement, Spanish-speaking families