Empowering Multilingual Families through Effective Communication

BY KRISTINA ROBERTSON, EL ADVOCACY NETWORK

As I watched the pandemic unfold in the spring of 2020, I quickly realized that equity gaps were magnified. The system of multilingual communication most districts had in place barely covered the basic communication regarding school calendar changes and how to get and use technology for learning. Multilingual families were being left behind and it was a frustrating experience occurring across the nation. We need to do better. Our families need to be empowered if we are going to slow the growing achievement gap during the pandemic. Whenever I make a point about the importance of multilingual communication I ask colleagues to imagine they just moved to Saudi Arabia for a dream job. They want to enroll their child in school but all the forms are in Arabic, the class schedules are in Arabic, and newsletters sent home are in Arabic. How long would it take before an American parent demanded information be shared in English? It is within our power to provide multilingual resources to our families and if we truly believe a partnership is important to the child’s well-being and academic success then we need to find new ways of using language to increase connections.

Here are some ways I empower parents through communication.

Multilingual families - working mom holding hands with her son - EL Advocacy Network

1. // Collaborating with multilingual cultural liaisons.

Cultural liaisons are the most important touchpoint in our system for giving and receiving feedback. I have been fortunate to work with multiple cultural liaisons who can communicate in five different languages and address family concerns.

Pros:

Trusting relationships are developed between school staff and families
Multilingual cultural liaisons often know the community members and can get ahold of the families because their cell number is recognized and the family member feels comfortable answering.
Multilingual cultural liaisons are dedicated to achieving equity for families and communities and often work long hours to make sure families have the support they need. They don’t stop until they get the job done.

Cons:

District and building administrators often forget to loop in cultural liaisons on communications that go out in English (and online). This is frustrating for cultural liaisons who aren’t sure what a family is calling about.
The responsibility to keep families informed falls on one or two cultural liaisons thereby creating an hour-glass type glut of information that slows down in the middle because the cultural liaisons can only handle so much information at one time.
Multilingual cultural liaisons get burned out and can be devalued as “interpreters” when their role really needs to be better defined since they bring advanced multicultural skills to complex situations.

2. // Having a dissemination system of robocalls and translations is helpful and required by law.

Pros:

Families can get information in a language they understand -whether in writing or through phone call/text systems.
Large numbers of people can be reached through these methods.

Cons:

The federal law actually says that districts should communicate in a language and method the families understand. For many multilingual families, this means the communication should be by phone call, text, or translated letter. Too often district systems rely on e-newsletters or posting items on the website with translations. This can be confusing and daunting for families to maneuver to find information.
Many districts default to translations to meet federal parent communication guidelines, but it’s important to find out if the families have reading ability in their native language. If they don’t then costly translations are not useful to the families even if they do meet the letter of the law.
Just because something is translated doesn’t mean a family will understand what it means. Many multilingual families are new to U.S. education systems and they may not understand certain references such as “math talks” or “Student Assistance Teams.” Whatever is written and shared must be written with the context in mind so families get more of an explanation if they need it.

3. // Using social media as a promising platform for family news sharing.

Many families use Facebook or What’s App to communicate with family and friends around the world. This is a system they are comfortable interacting with.

Pros:

Having culturally specific Facebook pages and Facebook live townhall events ensures that families have easy access to information and can share it with others.
Families can communicate directly with district staff by asking questions in text boxes or calling cultural liaisons during the Facebook live meeting.
Messages can be shared in the families’ native languages through written text or mini-video screencasts at any time.

Cons:

Not all families have Facebook accounts (although you don’t need a Facebook account to watch a live stream event) and there will be some families who are intimidated by the platform.
It takes a few months of steady content development on a Facebook page before parents begin to see it as a “go-to” platform. They will need to receive the information in multiple ways.

I remember a quote from a long-ago undergraduate class that said a consumer needs to see a product five times before it’s even registered in their brain as something new. I don’t know how much that has changed in 20 years, but it seems about right. When parents are unfamiliar with the U.S. school system they are missing a lot of background knowledge that other more privileged families have for accessing school information and choice systems. Multilingual families need to see and experience things multiple times before they begin to understand options within our school systems. Making a choice without adequate information is not a choice at all. Our multilingual families want their children to succeed and they are willing partners in this work. Families need educators to meet them half-way and ensure that they understand the context of the communication and that they have opportunities to voice questions and concerns.

Here are some things you should reflect on as a leadership team before determining how to communicate with multilingual families:

Which language groups are literate in their native language?
How many multilingual families visit building e-newsletters or websites?
Where do the multilingual community members usually get their news? Word-of-mouth, cultural newspaper, religious location, etc…
If a community group has low-level literacy in native language what options do you have for verbally contacting them to share information? (Robo-calls, cultural liaisons, Facebook)
Are there leaders in the community you can work with to develop stronger network connections to support the multilingual families during the pandemic?
Do you have instant, virtual interpreter services available to all staff so basic communication can be done at the classroom level?
Are staff familiar with how to work with an interpreter?
Do staff understand the roles of the cultural liaisons? They are not interpreters, they are valuable multicultural staff members who can assist in challenging situations using their cultural knowledge and family relationships.
Does the district have guidelines for what communication is translated and what isn’t? For example - a health checklist for families to use every day should be available in English and multiple languages even if the families mostly can’t read them. They may have others who can help them.
This is not necessarily the final question, but what does success look like? How will you know when you’ve effectively reached multilingual families and built partnerships for academic success? You can design metrics or “look fors” such as, “When 10% of families contact school teachers or leaders to ask questions using the interpreter line then we know they are getting comfortable with the service.”