HD-371 1!

Ruiz

MOD 7:
Signature Assignment

Moises Ruiz

HD-371

N. DeWeese-Quiroz

April 22, 2017

HD-371 1! Ruiz

Introduction

In observing the preschooler child named Allie who was in a Head Start

program run by Options for Learning program, I was able to determine several factors

and make some educated guesses about her and her background/ethnic culture. Allie is of

Hispanic/Latino cultural background and she speaks primarily Spanish so it is a given

that she is now bicultural due to her living in the United States, and learning English as a

second language therefore becoming a bilingual child. Allie is Ericksons third stage

Initiative vs. guilt ages of 3-5 years (Erikson, 1988), as they begin to socialize with

others. Allie is also in Piagets second stages which is called Pre-Operational (McLeod,

2009), which range from the age of 2-7 years old, where children begin to understand

symbolism and can pretend during play, but not fully understand logic and see things

from others point of view. This inability can be a barrier especially for children who are

bicultural and bilingual, there can be a adversity between the two cultures and languages

that they must over come. Allie may begin to notice and realize that she are not the same

as other children her class and that the dominant language differs from there own ethnic

language.

Using the Tri-Literacy Model developed by S. Cronin & W. Chin, we can provide

assistance to the childs ability to transition to English learning but also acknowledge her

cultural heritage. Gone are the days where children who were bicultural where hit for

speaking Spanish in school, or scolded for being of Hispanic/Latino heritage, that

approach to education was ill fated and culturally damaging to those children who are

now adults and lack that connection to their ancestors and culture.
HD-371 2! Ruiz

Tri-Literacy

Olga Winbush adapted this model to help children in the same predicament The

tai-literacy model is a pedagogical model, which seeks to support bicultural childrens

development and serves to redefine schooling for bicultural children. There are three

stages involved with the tri-literacy model: stage one involves a child who is grounded in

their own culture, stage two includes resilient child who can negotiate the culture of

power, stage three using the childs own culture as a bridge to learn about other cultures

and develop an alliance.

Since acculturation is a process as flowing from contact between dominant and

non-dominant cultural groups (Smokowski & Bacallao, 2011), a child in stage one

must be firmly rooted with their home or ethnic culture. Allie has lived and been

immersed in the Hispanic/Latino culture as observed by her Spanish skills and ability to

communicate in that language clearly, she is familiar not just with simple sentences but

has thoughts and processes when she want to the lady bug project. The tri-literacy

model suggest a child must be allowed to develop their identity within the context of

their culture (Cronin & Chin, 1998), Allie has already has her identity which she

expresses herself with her cultural language of Spanish. The teachers in the classroom

also know Spanish which they use to communicate with Allie, they not only speak in

Spanish to her but they translate the words and sentences into English to begin Allie

understanding and transition the English language. The learning classroom environment

reflects the childs culture from the language to words and labels found through the room,
HD-371 3! Ruiz

for example in the Dramatic Play area the doll bin is labeled DOLLS and

MUECAS with a third visual cue, a picture of the dolls in the bin.

Stage two teaches the child by giving them tools to negotiate the culture of

power (Cronin & Chin, 1998) giving the child the necessary education to navigate and

understand the dominant culture. This was observed in Allies class when the teacher

spoke during breakfast time and said one phrase in two languages Com se dice? How

do you ask? Please help. The teacher was using a bidirectional approach with Allie as

they communicated. The teacher is giving Allie the tools of understanding both languages

Spanish first to acknowledge her culture and then English every time she speaks to her.

There is acknowledgment of her own culture followed by the association in translation

into the dominant language in this case English. In an effort for Allie to learn English she

is poses a question by the teacher to the group at the table about what would happen if

she would pour too much cereal in her bowl, Allie understood the actions but not too

much of the words, but was able to comprehend the meaning of the words and actions.

The final stage is made within childrens schooling for them to learn about the

culture of others in very in-depth ways (Cronin & Chin, 1998), multicultural

curriculum is not the ends to the mean it is the beginning of education children like Allie.

Activities and projects that are multiculturally based is only the first step, bicultural

children need to have agency within the walls of their own classroom and beyond, to see

themselves and their culture represented all around them. Seeing not just one culture

represented but all will only serve to enhance their learning abilities, and will also let

them explore other cultures on a deep level. Learning about other cultures will begin to
HD-371 4! Ruiz

create an exchange of ideas and thoughts, children will be able to find common ground

with other children from other races and learn about them. Creating a humanistic

connection always helps drive the sense of learning, by incorporating families from their

respective ethnic backgrounds, a child lesson will be all the more real and relevant.

Conclusion

In observing Allie I cannot help but see a little part of me when I was 3/4 years

old, being bicultural and bilingual created a somewhat of a barrier as I grew up, but

having the connections with the teacher and peers in my classroom made all the

difference. I was lucky to have multicultural preschool teachers one of them was of

Japanese/Hawaiian decent and she was able to teach me how to use chop sticks at a

young age, now each time I pick up a set of chop sticks I can help but to remember my

teacher and how I retained the skills she taught me many years ago. I hope Allie

continues to learn from her set of bilingual and bicultural teacher so she too has the

necessary tools to continue her education and learn about more about her culture and

exchange knowledge with peers from other cultures.

HD-371 5! Ruiz

Bibliography

Cronin, S. Ph. D & Chin, W. Ph.D, (1998) Future Vision Present Work: Learning from the
Culturally Relevant Anti-Bias Leadership Project. New York, NY: Redleaf Press.

Erickson, J. (1988) Wisdom and the Senses: The way of creativity. New York, NY.:
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

McLeod, S. (2009) Jean Piaget. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org

piaget.html

Smokowski, P. R., & Bacallao, M. (2011). From Melting Pot to Simmering Stew.
Becoming Bicultural, 1-28. NYU Press.