This WIDA Snapshot offers an introduction to advocacy, one of the six ABCs of Family and Community Engagement. The ABCs of Family and Community Engagement are six key considerations for educators who support multilingual learners and their families and communities.
Advocacy in action: Engaging with multilingual learners, families and communities
Educators play a critical role not only in building inclusive family partnerships but also in developing and supporting a culture where families of multilingual learners feel empowered to advocate for themselves and their children. This WIDA Snapshot on advocacy offers considerations and resources to support all educators, whether you’re new to advocacy or wish to strengthen advocacy practices in your setting. We invite you to explore the following videos, tools and resources and consider how you might take action around advocacy in your context.
Take a moment to engage with this brief introductory video, and use the guiding questions below to reflect and deepen your knowledge about advocacy.
Advocacy Introductory Video Transcript
Guiding Questions
- How do we make sure that our multilingual families feel welcome to connect with and partner with school staff to advocate for their children?
- How do we make sure that multilingual families are included when decisions are being made and provided opportunities to advocate for responsive systems and community connections?
- How do we equip our staff with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to support multilingual family advocacy?
Families and Educators as Advocates
Explore this video that models a supportive conversation between a teacher and a Spanish-speaking parent to show how educators and families can advocate for inclusive practices that center family perspectives. This video features people speaking in Spanish. To access subtitles in English or Spanish, use the CC/Subtitles button or download the transcript.
A Sample Teacher-Parent Conversation Video Transcript
Engage with these two companion resources:
- Families as Advocates: Advocating for My Multilingual Learner
- Educators as Advocates: Advocating for and with Multilingual Families
These resources offer topic areas and sample questions that families can ask educators, and educators can ask families to strengthen their collaborative advocacy efforts and engage in two-way, meaningful conversations.
Families Advocating for Their Multilingual Children
In a brief video, the mother of a multilingual learner discusses how she collaborated with her child’s teacher and other school staff to advocate for her child. What did you connect with while learning about the mothers’ story? How to Advocate for Your Child and Yourself in School (Cómo abogar por su hijo/a y por usted en la escuela) is intended to support families of multilingual learners. How might you share the tool with the families of the multilingual learners you serve to support them as they advocate for their children? The tool is available in 17 languages, including English.
We invited our collaborators to speak in their preferred language. This video features a parent speaking in Spanish. To access subtitles in English or the speaker’s spoken language, use the CC/Subtitles button or download the transcript.
Abogando for Your Child Video Transcript
Educators Advocating With Families of Multilingual Learners
Maggie Karr, a family advocate, shares how she collaborates with families and her colleagues to promote a culture that welcomes and supports family advocacy. Engage with Maggie’s video and explore the resource Avenues for Advocacy: Individual, Local, State/National to consider other ways to advocate. Then, take action and try out a few ideas in your local setting.
Families and Educators Advocating at School Video Transcript
This illustration represents advocacy. Family members are at a school-community resource fair learning about a variety of opportunities for advocacy including promoting the Seal of Biliteracy, joining a bilingual parent action committee, and signing up for advocacy training.