10-4 Educators as Advocates

Now you have the necessary background knowledge about how to ask critical questions and awareness of a few federal and state policies and standards to help you advocate for children who are multilingual learners. This section discusses a few ways to advocate on an individual level, daily.

Humanize Relationships

As an educator, you are part of a community–so be involved! Get to know people on a personal level and listen to their stories. Partnering with families and communities needs to come from a genuine place and should not just serve as a way to check off a box on an advocacy checklist.

Invite conversation, practice listening skills, and respect boundaries. Be aware of the languages spoken in the community and take the time to learn what you can of the languages spoken by children who are multilingual learners in your program.

Create and Participate in Dialogue

Don’t be afraid to create and participate in dialogue. Share positive ways you are engaging with your larger community and how your learning environment/program celebrates children and families.

Keep in mind the unique experiences of all children who are multilingual learners and their families, and recognize there is always more you can do to better support them. Ask critical questions to move from ideas to practice. Resistance and movements toward justice have always been a collective effort. Sharing ideas and perspectives is necessary to advocate for children who are multilingual learners.

Stay informed

Stay informed about issues that may affect the community you serve and children who are multilingual learners. This will help you recognize context and complexities in the experiences of each child and how to best support them. This is also a way to engage students in conversation around issues that affect their lives (in a developmentally appropriate way), building their critical thinking and consciousness. Finally, this is a way to stay engaged with families and build community.

Hold yourself accountable

To be an advocate for children who are multilingual learners, we must all hold ourselves accountable and work to continue our advocacy wherever we can. This looks different for everyone; figure out what being an advocate looks like for you.

Does it mean showing up to vote to protect immigrants and refugees? Does it mean boycotting businesses that discriminate against Spanish-speaking customers? Does it mean confronting a loved one that makes a crude joke at the expense of Muslim communities? Think about actionable ways you can be an advocate in your everyday life and continue to seek information and ideas beyond what this course has to offer. Continue providing loving critiques of this course, institutions, society, yourself, and other stakeholders to move toward justice and contribute to the well-being of all children.