Abstract
This qualitative study focused on the perceptions and experiences of Spanish-speaking mamás and their high school-aged student around the role of languages concerning the implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy. The Seal of Biliteracy is a growing grassroots policy that recognizes high school students’ biliteracy in English and another language, and research has shown that the policy framing and implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy maintains the status quo of advancing privileges of native English speakers in California and across states (Heineke et al., 2018; Schwedhelm & King, 2020; Subirelu et al., 2019), or what CRT scholar Derek Bell (1980) described as “interest convergence.” In other words, if the emergent bi/multilingual advances in society, in this case, language recognition, the English monolingual student must advance too; and should be advancing first. Using Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas, this study captured the unexplored narratives of Spanish-speaking mamás and their students on the value of languages and the Seal of Biliteracy. I conducted a total of four pláticas with six Spanish-speaking mamás and their high school-aged student. All six mamás were born and raised in México and immigrated to the United States. Four out of six students were born in the United States, and two were born in México. Additionally, I kept a research journal that was also part of the data collection after each plática. In this study, the data analysis consisted of making sense of each plática individually and all of them as a whole to present Spanish-speaking parents’ and students’ perceptions, attitudes, and potential value of the Seal of Biliteracy. The findings show that las mamás’ and students’ perceptions of their value for language learning and the value they see in the formal recognition of the Seal of Biliteracy mirror each other. However, the findings also determine an institutional, systemic barrier toward las mamás and their students at the researched district. An institutional, systemic barrier revealed the lack of awareness and adequate resources provided to Spanish-speaking mamás and their students regarding the Seal of Biliteracy. Therefore, implications for this study point to the importance of including and creating culturally relevant spaces for linguistically diverse families to (re)shape the implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy at the school, district and policy level.