The Inaugural Translanguaging Institute Inspires Action
The first-ever Translanguaging Institute in the U.S. was held on June 8th and 9th in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Close to 100 educators, administrators, and researchers participated in the inaugural event. The topic this year was Translanguaging Across Contexts. The institute was designed to provide a transformative professional learning event exploring the role of translanguaging as a new approach to pedagogy and effective teaching for bilingual and multilingual students. The speakers included were Dr. Ofelia Garcia, Dr. Susana Ibarra-Johnson, Dr. Mariana Castro, Dr. Nelson Flores, Dr. Daling Fu, Dr. Socorro Herrera, and more acclaimed researchers.
The first day of the Institute focused on Translanguaging Foundation. The topics included “Knowing Your Students’ Linguistic Repertoire”, “Translanguaging and the multilingual brain”, “¿Qué onda con translanguaging in bilingual science education?”, “An exploration of multilingual ecologies in educational spaces”, and “Biliteracy Instruction through a Lens of Strength”. The second day aimed to discuss “Translanguaging Transformation”. Some session topics were “Nuestro Ser: Translanguaging as Power”, “Translanguaging and Learning in Middle School Computer Programming and Mathematics”, “Translanguaging into Raciolinguistic Ideologies”, “Beyond Literacy: Sustaining Translingual and Transcultural Practices in Literacy Instruction”, and “Transladoras sin fronteras: Merging linguistic borderlands to take up students’ translanguaging corriente”.
The inaugural event created lots of excitement among educators and inspires action to promote Translanguaging serving multilingual learners. The event organizers, DLeNM, and Velázquez Press are exploring the second institute in 2024.
