by 2025-2027 Associate Member Rosa Alvarez
Somewhere along the way, it has become too comfortable to discuss multilingual learners through the lens of what they don’t know yet. Too often, those conversations fall short in recognizing the incredible strengths multilinguals already bring into our schools; the focus stagnates in deficit statements like-
“They’re low.”
“They don’t have enough English.”
“The parents are not involved.”
“They are never at school on Mondays and Fridays.”
“They’re behind.”
I’ve sat in those conversations. Maybe you have too. As educators, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to reframe that narrative, and doing so with joy is the greatest act of advocacy.
Advocacy doesn’t have to sound defensive because our students are not deficits to manage. They are multilingual humans with stories, brilliance, resilience, and assets that deserve to be the starting point, not the footnote. Whether you’re a language specialist or a classroom teacher, joyful advocacy is literacy work. When students feel seen, valued, and capable, they are far more likely to take the risks that literacy demands. When we change the way we talk about multilingual learners, we begin to change what they believe is possible for themselves. Here’s how we can start championing multilingual learners in our communities, our classrooms, and our conversations with colleagues.
Advocate Joyfully Within the Community
Families shouldn’t have to decode school. Imagine moving to a new country, navigating an unfamiliar education system, and receiving important information in a language you can’t fully understand. That’s not a family problem; that’s a system’s problem.
One of the greatest gifts we can give families is clarity. When families clearly understand what is happening at school, understand how literacy is taught, and feel comfortable reaching out, they become our partners. That’s where the magic happens! Joyful advocacy doesn’t begin at a committee meeting; it begins by asking, How can we make families feel like they belong here from the very beginning? This might look like:
- Providing any written communication, including important school information, in families’ home languages as often and consistently as possible.
- Hosting literacy nights, cultural celebrations, or family-themed events where languages and cultures are celebrated rather than simply acknowledged.
- Creating multiple ways for families to ask questions, share concerns, and communicate comfortably in the language they know best.
When families feel informed, they feel empowered. When they feel empowered, students feel it too. The goal isn’t simply translation. It’s belonging.
Advocate Joyfully Within the Classroom
Begin on Day One.
- Lower the affective filter so learning can happen. Before multilingual students are willing to read, write, speak, or take risks, they have to believe they’re safe enough to try. That’s why lowering the affective filter isn’t an “extra.” It’s foundational literacy instruction.
- Intentionally create opportunities for conversation. Not conversations that check off multiple standards, or test language, but conversations that build relationships. Purposeful chats communicate, You matter here.
- Honor students by bringing their worlds into the classroom. Invite students to share photographs of their families, favorite places, celebrations, pets, hobbies, or daily lives. These images become invitations to tell stories. Those stories become language. Those stories become vocabulary. Those stories become writing. Those stories become opportunities for classmates to make connections that no worksheet could ever create.
Instead of asking multilingual students to leave their identities at the classroom door, we can invite these identities into every literacy experience; we’re telling them, “Bring your whole self. There’s room for your story here.” That’s an important part of joyful literacy.
Advocate Joyfully With Colleagues
Some of our most important advocacy happens when students are not even in the room. When discussing multilingual learners with colleagues;
When we’re sitting in PLCs…
During intervention meetings…
During data chats…
Those conversations matter. Let’s arrive prepared with strengths, before challenges. Bring evidence of what students CAN do. Multilingual learners’ strengths are not side notes; they are the foundation of our instruction.
When gaps appear, we must remember that many are not caused by students or their families. They are often the result of interrupted opportunities, inconsistent access, unfamiliar systems, or educational circumstances beyond a child’s control. Our language matters. Instead of attributing challenges to families or reducing them to language barriers, we can recognize the resilience students demonstrate every single day by navigating multiple languages, cultures, and expectations. Strengths-based conversations don’t ignore challenges. They simply refuse to allow those challenges to become a student’s identity.
Joy Changes the Narrative
Deficit thinking is sneaky. It can show up in data meetings, casual hallway conversations, and if we’re not careful, it can even show up in our own thinking. That’s why joyful advocacy matters. Joy is not ignoring reality. Joy is choosing to notice brilliance before barriers.
Multilingual learners don’t need us to rescue them. They are not waiting to be fixed. They need us to make sure every conversation about them begins with possibility instead of limitation. When we intentionally inform families, create classrooms where students feel safe to tell their stories, and advocate from a strengths-based perspective with colleagues, we don’t just change the experiences of our multilingual learners. We change the culture of our schools.
AI Usage Disclosure:
This post was developed using an iterative, collaborative process with OpenAI. AI was used to outline sections and refine drafts in response to the author’s prompts and feedback. All final content was reviewed and edited by the author.
References:
McClure, B., & Reed, K. (2022). Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 reframes that will change the way you think about Strength-Based Practices and equity in schools. Times 10 Publications.
Williams, K. (2022). Ruthless equity: Disrupt the Status Quo and Ensure Learning for All Students. Wish In One Hand Press.
