“Aman Tanto a Mi Hija que Hasta Vienen a Visitarla en Mi Casa”

Teaching and Learning from Home Visits with Emergent Bilingual Families

Abstract

This paper describes a collaborative project of home visits with bilingual families in a public elementary school in central Texas. By highlighting the importance of knowledge held by immigrant families, we seek to create a counter-narrative to persistent deficit ideologies about Spanish-speaking children and immigrant families commonly heard in schools and universities in Texas and across the United States. These ideologies are all-too familiar to bilingual educators.