Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodologies aim to integrate stakeholders into the research agenda and distribute power with the end goal of creating social change and building sustainable programs within underrepresented communities (Rodriguez & Brown, 2009). Scholars within ethnic studies (e.g., Johnston & Marwood, 2017), sociology (e.g., Peltier, 2018; Zuber-Skerritt, 2018), education (e.g., Forbes & Colella, 2019; O'Neill, 2018), and Indigenous studies (e.g., Junker, 2018; Peltier, 2018) highlight the value of effective collaboration between researchers and stakeholders and, in particular, the implications of PAR for social development (e.g., Anyon et al., 2018; Penuel & Gallagher, 2017). Still, the field of heritage language education (HLE), and applied linguistics more generally, has largely failed to implement this research design. Within HLE, little research is guided by the heritage speaker community itself, and few studies explore the experiences of heritage language (HL) educators who also identify as members of a heritage speaker community (e.g., Cho, 2014). Work produced in HLE is almost exclusively influenced and guided by non-heritage speaker individuals, leaving HLE activities filtered through out-group scholars. Traditionally, this has resulted in teaching approaches and language programs that are often lacking in relevance and sometimes detrimental to heritage speaker communities.
The current project acts as a model for PAR methods in language research and fosters the development of sustainable resources for linguistically diverse language teacher and student populations. In this presentation, we will outline the events of a three-day online colloquium centered around HLE topics, in order to investigate current issues in HLE from an in-group perspective. Participants were 47 current and pre-service K-16 heritage language educators from 15 heritage language backgrounds. Specifically, the research questions we explore are: 1) How can an in-group HLE colloquium generate knowledge and understanding of HLE strengths and challenges?, and 2) How might an in-group HLE colloquium act to promote meaningful discussion and sustainable support networks for heritage speaker educators and scholars?
Centrally, this PAR project aimed at developing tools, resources, and support for current and pre-service heritage educators. Colloquium events included three heritage educator-led workshops, three information sessions, and four panel discussions for heritage speakers who currently teach or are in a teacher training program to teach their HL, as well as opportunities to network with and mentor other in-group educators. Central challenges in HLE highlighted through colloquium events include a lack of 1) professional development in the area of HL pedagogy, 2) access to minority language resources and materials, 3) a strong support network of HL instructors, and 4) in-group representation in the field. Together, study methods support greater accessibility to language teacher training for HL speakers, as well as better representation in the field, through collaborations that were developed, led, and sustained by HL communities. We conclude with efforts to maintain sustainable connections and collaborations with colloquium stakeholders, initiatives and methods for enacting post-colloquium changes by and for minoritized language educators, and suggestions for future PAR work within HLE.
