As an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University, my research focuses on classroom literacy practices and literacy teacher education. Because I draw on my experiences as a former elementary school teacher, it is important to me to continually highlight and build on what teachers and students are doing right in classrooms. In particular I focus on language in use, identity development, racialization, and ability profiling. Address: https://u.osu.edu/hikida.3/
This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade stude... more This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade students learning Spanish as a third language in a Spanish-English dual language classroom. Drawing on ethnographic and interactional data, the article focuses on a single interaction between these two “Spanish learners” and two of their Spanish-speaking classmates that took place within the context of a classroom literacy event. Analysis involved examining the sequen- tial organization of talk, as well as identifying the particular linguistic resources that speakers recruited in their conversational turns. Findings showcase the interactional mechanisms by which students’ identities were variously asserted, contested, and negotiated in everyday classroom talk. The article ends by offering implications and raising further questions with respect to the imple- mentation of dual language education for multilingual students.
This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classr... more This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classrooms to explore how teachers in these classrooms made sense of the everyday practice of bilingualism. Methodologically, this study relied on participant observation, video recording, and semi-structured interviews. Conceptually, this article draws on the notion of translanguaging to describe how these teachers and their students moved fluidly across multiple languages and dialects in their everyday interactions. Drawing on language ideological inquiry, this article illustrates that these teachers’ perspectives on translanguaging sometimes echoed ideologies of linguistic purism that emphasize language separation, while also reflecting counterhegemonic ideologies that privilege Spanish and promote bilingualism. Teachers’ everyday language use and instructional practices both reflected and contrasted with their stated ideologies. It is argued that a more nuanced understanding of teachers’ complex language ideologies can inform efforts to help them embrace translanguaging pedagogies that recognize and build on students’ everyday bilingualism.
This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade stude... more This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade students learning Spanish as a third language in a Spanish-English dual language classroom. Drawing on ethnographic and interactional data, the article focuses on a single interaction between these two “Spanish learners” and two of their Spanish-speaking classmates that took place within the context of a classroom literacy event. Analysis involved examining the sequen- tial organization of talk, as well as identifying the particular linguistic resources that speakers recruited in their conversational turns. Findings showcase the interactional mechanisms by which students’ identities were variously asserted, contested, and negotiated in everyday classroom talk. The article ends by offering implications and raising further questions with respect to the imple- mentation of dual language education for multilingual students.
Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools : Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups, 2019
In K-12 schools throughout the United States, bilingual Latina/o/x students often communicate by ... more In K-12 schools throughout the United States, bilingual Latina/o/x students often communicate by moving flexibly between English and Spanish in conversation— an everyday language practice that has been variously referred to as Spanish–Eng- lish codeswitching or codemixing, Spanglish, and, more recently, translanguaging. In this chapter, we explore potentially fruitful connections between this everyday form of bilingualism and the kinds of writing valued in academic settings. Drawing on ethnographic data from our research in urban elementary and middle schools, we examine the everyday translanguaging in which bilingual Latina/o/x children and youth engage as they skillfully and creatively blur the linguistic boundaries between English and Spanish in their everyday talk. We highlight the bilingual skills that these students deploy in their everyday interactions, and we examine how these linguistic competencies overlap with specific skills highlighted in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, including the compos- ition of writing that is “appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.” We argue that the skills already evident in the everyday translanguaging of bilingual Latina/ o/x students constitute an untapped pedagogical resource that could potentially serve to support the teaching and learning of academic writing.
Today’s world requires attention to all aspects of initial literacy teacher preparation, includin... more Today’s world requires attention to all aspects of initial literacy teacher preparation, including how and what preservice teachers learn about the component processes of reading. To address this imperative, a review was conducted of articles published from 2000 to 2018 identified through the CITE-ITEL database (https://cite.edb. utexas.edu) that reported findings related to reading processes and initial teacher preparation. After an inductive analytic process, the authors organize findings into five focus areas: (a) definitions and delimitations of reading processes, (b) studies of preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching reading processes, (c) research identifying preservice teachers’ knowledge gaps and misconceptions, (d) intervention studies aimed at increasing preservice teachers’ knowledge, and (e) studies detailing the application of knowledge about reading processes into contexts of pedagogical practice. The discussion considers the current gaps in how reading processes and literacy are conceptualized and possible areas of inquiry related to preservice teacher education and reading processes.
Many students of color who are also identified as " struggling " readers are likely to have negat... more Many students of color who are also identified as " struggling " readers are likely to have negative experiences in school. In this article, I discuss the findings of a case study examining how reader identities emerged in and through language for such students. The discourse data analyzed here concern an interactional pattern in which the focal students and their teacher collaborated in disrupting identities of deficiency, and instead constructed literate identities within whole-group discussions of text. These findings highlight moments of agency from students marginalized in schools and point toward ways that teachers and students can collaboratively create space for students' literate voices to be heard.
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 2020
This article explores how critical pedagogy unfolds in the everyday interactions between teachers... more This article explores how critical pedagogy unfolds in the everyday interactions between teachers and students. Specifically, Freirean constructs of critique and dialogue were explored in two key literacy events drawn from an ethnographically informed case study of one fourth-grade classroom. The events were first examined from an ethnographic perspective to understand how sociopolitical issue(s) were being critiqued (or avoided). These events were then analyzed again through micro-analytic discourse analysis to explore how teachers and students jointly accomplished dialogue and critique through proposing and taking up of particular stances toward text(s). By juxtaposing these two analytic lenses, the researchers argue for an understanding of critical pedagogy, particularly the tenets of critique and dialogue, as interactionally co-constructed in the continually evolving, everyday talk between teachers and students. This article closes by considering the implications of this work for classroom-based literacy research that examines critical pedagogy.
Although there is much research detailing the pedagogical constraints of high-stakes testing (HST... more Although there is much research detailing the pedagogical constraints of high-stakes testing (HST), there is less that examines teachers’ practices within and beyond its control. This multiple case study analyzes ethnographic data to explore two teachers’ practices in an urban context where HST was relevant. Drawing on Foucault’s conceptualization of a plague-stricken town, we explore the mobilization of disciplinary power associated with HST. We then examine teachers’ agency as they taught beyond the administrative gaze. We found that teachers sometimes complied with administrative mandates while also articulating tensions of providing access and actively resisting/critiquing the test.
This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade stude... more This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade students learning Spanish as a third language in a Spanish-English dual language classroom. Drawing on ethnographic and interactional data, the article focuses on a single interaction between these two “Spanish learners” and two of their Spanish-speaking classmates that took place within the context of a classroom literacy event. Analysis involved examining the sequen- tial organization of talk, as well as identifying the particular linguistic resources that speakers recruited in their conversational turns. Findings showcase the interactional mechanisms by which students’ identities were variously asserted, contested, and negotiated in everyday classroom talk. The article ends by offering implications and raising further questions with respect to the imple- mentation of dual language education for multilingual students.
This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classr... more This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classrooms to explore how teachers in these classrooms made sense of the everyday practice of bilingualism. Methodologically, this study relied on participant observation, video recording, and semi-structured interviews. Conceptually, this article draws on the notion of translanguaging to describe how these teachers and their students moved fluidly across multiple languages and dialects in their everyday interactions. Drawing on language ideological inquiry, this article illustrates that these teachers’ perspectives on translanguaging sometimes echoed ideologies of linguistic purism that emphasize language separation, while also reflecting counterhegemonic ideologies that privilege Spanish and promote bilingualism. Teachers’ everyday language use and instructional practices both reflected and contrasted with their stated ideologies. It is argued that a more nuanced understanding of teachers’ complex language ideologies can inform efforts to help them embrace translanguaging pedagogies that recognize and build on students’ everyday bilingualism.
This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade stude... more This article explores the interactional co-construction of identities among two first-grade students learning Spanish as a third language in a Spanish-English dual language classroom. Drawing on ethnographic and interactional data, the article focuses on a single interaction between these two “Spanish learners” and two of their Spanish-speaking classmates that took place within the context of a classroom literacy event. Analysis involved examining the sequen- tial organization of talk, as well as identifying the particular linguistic resources that speakers recruited in their conversational turns. Findings showcase the interactional mechanisms by which students’ identities were variously asserted, contested, and negotiated in everyday classroom talk. The article ends by offering implications and raising further questions with respect to the imple- mentation of dual language education for multilingual students.
Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools : Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups, 2019
In K-12 schools throughout the United States, bilingual Latina/o/x students often communicate by ... more In K-12 schools throughout the United States, bilingual Latina/o/x students often communicate by moving flexibly between English and Spanish in conversation— an everyday language practice that has been variously referred to as Spanish–Eng- lish codeswitching or codemixing, Spanglish, and, more recently, translanguaging. In this chapter, we explore potentially fruitful connections between this everyday form of bilingualism and the kinds of writing valued in academic settings. Drawing on ethnographic data from our research in urban elementary and middle schools, we examine the everyday translanguaging in which bilingual Latina/o/x children and youth engage as they skillfully and creatively blur the linguistic boundaries between English and Spanish in their everyday talk. We highlight the bilingual skills that these students deploy in their everyday interactions, and we examine how these linguistic competencies overlap with specific skills highlighted in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, including the compos- ition of writing that is “appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.” We argue that the skills already evident in the everyday translanguaging of bilingual Latina/ o/x students constitute an untapped pedagogical resource that could potentially serve to support the teaching and learning of academic writing.
Today’s world requires attention to all aspects of initial literacy teacher preparation, includin... more Today’s world requires attention to all aspects of initial literacy teacher preparation, including how and what preservice teachers learn about the component processes of reading. To address this imperative, a review was conducted of articles published from 2000 to 2018 identified through the CITE-ITEL database (https://cite.edb. utexas.edu) that reported findings related to reading processes and initial teacher preparation. After an inductive analytic process, the authors organize findings into five focus areas: (a) definitions and delimitations of reading processes, (b) studies of preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching reading processes, (c) research identifying preservice teachers’ knowledge gaps and misconceptions, (d) intervention studies aimed at increasing preservice teachers’ knowledge, and (e) studies detailing the application of knowledge about reading processes into contexts of pedagogical practice. The discussion considers the current gaps in how reading processes and literacy are conceptualized and possible areas of inquiry related to preservice teacher education and reading processes.
Many students of color who are also identified as " struggling " readers are likely to have negat... more Many students of color who are also identified as " struggling " readers are likely to have negative experiences in school. In this article, I discuss the findings of a case study examining how reader identities emerged in and through language for such students. The discourse data analyzed here concern an interactional pattern in which the focal students and their teacher collaborated in disrupting identities of deficiency, and instead constructed literate identities within whole-group discussions of text. These findings highlight moments of agency from students marginalized in schools and point toward ways that teachers and students can collaboratively create space for students' literate voices to be heard.
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 2020
This article explores how critical pedagogy unfolds in the everyday interactions between teachers... more This article explores how critical pedagogy unfolds in the everyday interactions between teachers and students. Specifically, Freirean constructs of critique and dialogue were explored in two key literacy events drawn from an ethnographically informed case study of one fourth-grade classroom. The events were first examined from an ethnographic perspective to understand how sociopolitical issue(s) were being critiqued (or avoided). These events were then analyzed again through micro-analytic discourse analysis to explore how teachers and students jointly accomplished dialogue and critique through proposing and taking up of particular stances toward text(s). By juxtaposing these two analytic lenses, the researchers argue for an understanding of critical pedagogy, particularly the tenets of critique and dialogue, as interactionally co-constructed in the continually evolving, everyday talk between teachers and students. This article closes by considering the implications of this work for classroom-based literacy research that examines critical pedagogy.
Although there is much research detailing the pedagogical constraints of high-stakes testing (HST... more Although there is much research detailing the pedagogical constraints of high-stakes testing (HST), there is less that examines teachers’ practices within and beyond its control. This multiple case study analyzes ethnographic data to explore two teachers’ practices in an urban context where HST was relevant. Drawing on Foucault’s conceptualization of a plague-stricken town, we explore the mobilization of disciplinary power associated with HST. We then examine teachers’ agency as they taught beyond the administrative gaze. We found that teachers sometimes complied with administrative mandates while also articulating tensions of providing access and actively resisting/critiquing the test.
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Refereed Journal Articles by Michiko Hikida