Brokering Tareas

Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies

By Steven Alvarez

Subjects: Education, Language And Culture, New York/regional, Bilingual Education, Multicultural Education
Paperback : 9781438467207, 212 pages, July 2018
Hardcover : 9781438467191, 212 pages, November 2017

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Muchas Manos Hacen Ligero Trabajo

1. Mexican New York City: Making Community at MANOS

2. Translanguaging Events: Homework Literacies at MANOS

3. Translanguaging in Practice: Homework, Linguistic Power, and Family Life

4. Brokering the Immigrant Bargain: Negotiating Language, Power, and Identity in Mexican Immigrant Families

5. Brokering Communities: Community SuperaciĆ³n and Local Literacy Investment

6. Tareas, Community, and Brokering Care: Mentoring Local Languages and Literacies

Appendix A
A Note on Ethnographic Methodology

Appendix B
MANOS Member Contract

Notes
References
Index

Provides concrete examples of homework mentorship and positive academic interventions among immigrant families.

Description

Winner of the 2019 Outstanding Book in Community Writing Award presented by the Coalition for Community Writing

Brokering Tareas examines a grassroots literacy mentoring program that connected immigrant parents with English language mentors who helped emerging bilingual children with homework and encouraged positive academic attitudes. Steven Alvarez gives an ethnographic account of literacies practices, language brokering, advocacy, community-building, and mentorship among Mexican-origin families at a neighborhood afterschool program in New York City. Alvarez argues that engaging literacy mentorship across languages can increase parental involvement and community engagement among immigrant families, and offers teachers and researchers possibilities for rethinking their own practices with the communities of their bilingual students.

Steven Alvarez is Assistant Professor of English at St. John's University.