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ERI Scholar of the Month
DR. NADXIELI TOLEDO BUSTAMANTE
Dr. Nadxieli Toledo Bustamante is an assistant professor in the Child and Adolescent Development program. Dr. Toledo Bustamante has an M.A in Hispanic Linguistics from UNAM (Mexico) and a PhD in Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago.
WHAT'S THE TOPIC OF YOUR PRESENTATION?
I will discuss findings from a recent publication about caregivers' everyday language choices and interactions with children in an urban Zapotec community in Mexico, where Diidxazá is being displaced by Spanish in everyday use.
WHY IS THIS TOPIC IMPORTANT?
An increasingly large number of children in the world are growing up in families and communities affected by the displacement and erasure of their heritage languages and pedagogical models and, because of this, many of these children become speakers of a language that is different from their caregivers’ preferred language of communication. While language displacement is always the result of systemic and violent factors at the macro and micro levels, the responsibility for the maintenance or revitalization of heritage languages is frequently placed on families and communities.
HOW DOES THIS WORK FIT WITHIN YOUR BROADER RESEARCH PROGRAM AND/OR WORK AS FACULTY MEMBER?
As an interdisciplinary scholar, I am interested in the interrelationship between language, culture, and the intergenerational (re)production and transformation of knowledge with a focus on bilingual and multilingual families and communities. I am overall motivated by the goal of contributing to dismantling prevalent deficit views that directly affect racialized and marginalized families and communities globally.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE AUDIENCE WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR PRESENTATION?
Interventions that seek to maintain or revitalize heritage languages by asking families and communities to modify their language practices and/or their pedagogical knowledge are not only harmful but bound to fail. Caregivers’ language choices are entangled in complex ways with the socio-cultural organization of everyday life and the pedagogical models around them, which in turn, affects children’s long-term developmental trajectories as learners and speakers.
LINK TO A RECENT ARTICLE, PROJECT, OR OTHER SCHOLARLY-RELATED WORK:
