Translanguaging Pedagogies for Positive Identities in Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Education

Research suggests that identity matters for school success and that language and identity are powerfully intertwined. A monolingual solitudes understanding of bilingualism undermines children’s bilingual identities, yet in most bilingual education classrooms, academic instruction is segregated by language and children are encouraged to engage in only one language at a time. Few studies have explored how a translanguaging pedagogy supports the development of positive identities when learning through two languages. This article explores the co-construction of identities of emergent bilingual children whose teacher embraced dynamic bilingualism. We carried out a close discourse analysis, drawing on the sociocultural linguistic framework of Bucholtz and Hall of children’s interactions in a two-way bilingual education classroom. Our data revealed that translanguaging offered equitable, empowering educational and language learning opportunities to minoritized, bilingual students. A translanguaging pedagogy resulted in greater metalinguistic awareness, while developing bilingual identities.