Dr. Molly McManus wins grant to study use of bilingual, bicultural development in classrooms

Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Development Molly McManus and colleagues were awarded a research grant from the Spencer Foundation to study and support early childhood teachers in Texas and California learning from and integrating Latine immigrant parents’ knowledge about bilingual and bicultural development into their everyday classroom practice. Teacher education does not systematically cover critical perspectives of parent engagement and marginalized communities. This leaves many teachers’ negative biases about minoritized families to inform classroom practice. This also excludes Latine immigrant parents from informing curriculum and pedagogy in the same way white, middle-class parents do. Unchallenged teacher bias and absent parent voices means children from immigrant families encounter subtractive educational experiences that diminish academic achievement. This study aims to reverse these outcomes by centering Latine immigrant parents’ voices as a stimulus to engage teachers in dialogue aimed at sowing the seeds of conscientization in their attitudes and practice to ultimately develop more equitable and culturally sustaining learning opportunities.

Published in the SF State Campus Memo on August 28, 2023