Multilingual Authors “Standing Taller” in Multimodal Translanguaging Spaces: Developing Writerly Identities through Arts-rich Translanguaging Pedagogies  

In many schools around the world, plurilingual students are positioned through a deficit lens as language and literacy learners and struggle to find their way into a writer’s identity. The importance of creating a translanguaging space to support plurilingual learners is well established in the literature (Durán & Palmer, 2014; Espinosa et al., 2021; García et al., 2017). Schools have much to learn from community organizations and initiatives that create space for learners to bring their full meaning making repertoires to bear. Working from this viewpoint, we will explore a case study of an arts-rich bookmaking experience in and out-of-school settings demonstrating how it opens up multiple entry points into resourceful multilingual writerly identities. 

In this presentation we will draw on a case study with a class of fourth grade students in Melbourne, Australia who took part in a six-week collaborative book making experience, facilitated by professional artists and supported by Kids’ Own Publishing. The students engaged in multimodal meaning making to create a collaborative book where all their voices and languages were celebrated. The theme for the book stemmed from the workshops’ exploration of students’ unique identities and languages. The class invented a monster named Yjaaz who wanted to steal the talents and languages of children from around the world but who ultimately found a friend in a young multilingual girl. A translanguaging space supported students in seeing themselves as resourceful multilingual writers and artists.  

This project involves the intersections of arts-rich pedagogy, the practice of teaching about, with and through the arts (Ewing, 2019), and the development of young children’s multilingual texts, awareness, and writerly identities. The out-of-school space allowed us to push against the constraints often imposed around literacy learning in mainstream classrooms. Finally, we will share how we have applied what we have learned to develop pedagogical approaches for the classroom to promote school literacy while valuing students’ full meaning making repertoires.