Fostering Latinx/e Students’ Familial Capital in the Spanish Heritage Language Program at the University of Washington

Abstract

In this En Acción paper, I show how we (director, coordinator, and instructors)
have fostered Latinx/e students’ familial capital in the Spanish Heritage Language
Program at the University of Washington. Familial capital recognizes the
nurtured relationship students have with their immediate and extended family
members and communities. This capital also includes the lessons students
learned on caring, coping, emotional, moral, and educational consciousness
from their family members. Additionally, this capital pulls from the research
of Vélez-Ibáñez and Greenber (1992) on Funds of Knowledge that points out that
Mexican Americans learn valuable lessons from their family and community
that have been passed down across generations. In the SHL classroom context,
familial capital focuses on creating relationships of care among students and
educators. This includes building a sense of community in and outside the
classroom and developing a mentorship relationship between the students
and educator. This is possible by explicitly implementing Latinx/e community
cultural wealth in the SHL curricula