The Multilingual Belonging Movement

Anne Truran

Language access, belonging, cultural wisdom, and systemic change so you can create schools where multilingual students and families experience community because they belong to everyone. The Multilingual Belonging Movement isn’t just a show. It’s an invitation to join a movement, where we go beyond multilingual learner instruction to ask a bigger question: What is the multilingual experience in our schools, and more broadly, in our world? And what can we do, as educators, to learn from and improve those experiences?  As educators, we focus on schools, of course, but we don’t stay there, because our multilingual students and their monolingual peers will leave our institutions one day, and what model and make possible for them now shapes what they will model and make possible for others later.  Through solo episodes and conversations with educators, researchers, multilingual students, families, and professionals, we explore what it takes to make multilingualism a whole-school responsibility rather than the work of one department.We learn from multilingual students, families, and their cultures, not simply about them. Their cultures hold knowledge and wisdom that could make our schools more effective and make all of us more whole. Instruction matters on this podcast, but it just isn't the boundary of the conversation. We dig into multilingual family communication and language access, relationships and belonging, cultural wisdom, organizational change, educator mindset and identity, bilingualism, culturally sustaining practice, and more. The schools we're building aren't the end goal. We're raising the people who will build the communities we live in next. When our students spend 13+ years watching us demonstrate that multilingual students and families belong to all of us, we're not just creating belonging. We are teaching every child how to live in community across language and culture. Subscribe to The Multilingual Belonging Movement and join us in building schools, and ultimately, communities, where we know that we belong to each other.

Episodes

  1. 4d ago

    Student Interview - How the Little Things Are Not Little At All with Suguey Carmona

    What can schools learn from a bilingual former first grader who built an Alexa skill about immigrants' rights at 14? In Episode 2, I talk with Suguey Carmona.I had the privilege of being Suguey's first and second grade Spanish immersion teacher. Now she is a bilingual college student, a Political Science major, and a future immigration attorney, and I got to ask her the questions that helped me understand her more deeply than ever before.In this conversation, Suguey looks back on her school experience, what her family and her Mexican heritage gave her, and what she is most proud of. We talk about what her bilingual education has meant for her, what projects excite her, and the challenges of being the "first" and the "only" in multiple environments. And we talk about how the little things are not little at all.If you work with multilingual students and families in any role, Suguey has something for you. Her story and her perspective is worth staying to the end for.Hear more from Suguey: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigration-question-alexa-teen-latina-coder-created-skill-it-n1101766What did this conversation leave you thinking about? Email us at podcast@togetherlanguage.comAnd if this episode moved you, please subscribe and leave an honest review. It helps other educators find the show. Review by November 30, email a screenshot to podcast@togetherlanguage.com, and you're entered to win one of ten original listener T-shirts (winners drawn December 1).Student voices belong at the center of this work.

    Student Interview - How the Little Things Are Not Little At All with Suguey Carmona
  2. Oct 23

    Join the Multilingual Belonging Movement

    Does multilingual PD ever feel like its ceiling is too low? In Episode 1, I share my greatest wish for you, for multilingual students and families, and for our world.Welcome to The Multilingual Belonging Podcast, powered by Together, Language. This show is for anyone in the school ecosystem, in any role: EL and ML specialists, classroom teachers, administrators, secretaries, registrars, central office leaders, bus drivers, TAs. If you have ever watched a multilingual student or family get overlooked, or seen the longing in a parent's eyes when they want something for their child but aren't being understood, and you want that gap to close, you're in the right place.Fair warning: this is not an ML instructional podcast. Instruction matters here. It just isn't the boundary of the conversation.In this episode, I share why I made this show, from turning down the English class in my first teaching job to what I learned about belonging after 18 years in and alongside schools. I also walk through the five themes you'll hear (language access, cultural wisdom, belonging, systemic change, and weekly Spanish micro-lessons), who I'm excited to have as guests, and my biggest wish of all. I'll ask you to bring your own greatest wish back with you next time.Want to learn or sharpen your Spanish? Our first Spanish micro-lesson is out today, too.A favor: this podcast is new, and subscribes, listens, and reviews in the first weeks help other educators find it. Please subscribe, and if you leave an honest review by November 30, email a screenshot to podcast@togetherlanguage.com. I'll enter you in a drawing for one of ten original listener T-shirts and draw the winners on December 1. Be sure to tell me where to mail your shirt!My greatest wish is that we build schools that model dignity, safety, and love for all people. And the only way to do that is together.

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Language access, belonging, cultural wisdom, and systemic change so you can create schools where multilingual students and families experience community because they belong to everyone. The Multilingual Belonging Movement isn’t just a show. It’s an invitation to join a movement, where we go beyond multilingual learner instruction to ask a bigger question: What is the multilingual experience in our schools, and more broadly, in our world? And what can we do, as educators, to learn from and improve those experiences?  As educators, we focus on schools, of course, but we don’t stay there, because our multilingual students and their monolingual peers will leave our institutions one day, and what model and make possible for them now shapes what they will model and make possible for others later.  Through solo episodes and conversations with educators, researchers, multilingual students, families, and professionals, we explore what it takes to make multilingualism a whole-school responsibility rather than the work of one department.We learn from multilingual students, families, and their cultures, not simply about them. Their cultures hold knowledge and wisdom that could make our schools more effective and make all of us more whole. Instruction matters on this podcast, but it just isn't the boundary of the conversation. We dig into multilingual family communication and language access, relationships and belonging, cultural wisdom, organizational change, educator mindset and identity, bilingualism, culturally sustaining practice, and more. The schools we're building aren't the end goal. We're raising the people who will build the communities we live in next. When our students spend 13+ years watching us demonstrate that multilingual students and families belong to all of us, we're not just creating belonging. We are teaching every child how to live in community across language and culture. Subscribe to The Multilingual Belonging Movement and join us in building schools, and ultimately, communities, where we know that we belong to each other.

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