Code-meshing Projects in K-12 Classrooms for Social and Linguistic Equity

Abstract

To contest monolingualism, which oppresses language diversity in U.S. classrooms, Horner et al. (2011) called for a translingual approach to language differences. As much of the literature on translingualism has remained at a theoretical level, writing teachers have been seeking to enact this disposition in their classrooms pedagogically. As a response to this, code-meshing (Young, 2004, 2013; Canagarajah, 2006, 2011) can be used as a pedagogical application of the translingual approach. This paper conceptualizes code-meshing as translingual pedagogy and explores how it can be used in K-12 contexts by examining documented K-12 classroom examples of code-meshing projects in the studies of Zapata and Laman (2016) and Pacheco et al. (2017). Despite the concerns that critics have voiced, the examples show that code-meshing can be used as an effective pedagogical tool for developing the translingual disposition, supporting students’ multilingual identity, and discussing social and linguistic equity in K-12 settings. While the structural limitations for translingual pedagogy are not unforeseen, teachers and researchers should be encouraged to collaborate and keep developing translingual pedagogy for linguistic and social equity.