Heritage Roots is a 3-day online colloquium designed with, by, and for current and pre-service K-16 heritage language educators who come from heritage, bilingual, Indigenous, and transnational backgrounds.
Colloquium Purpose
The colloquium events brought awareness to more critical aspects of language and pedagogy and shifted traditional methods in heritage language education (HLE) into more inclusive practices that adhere to heritage speakers’ historical, linguistic, educational, affective, and cultural dimensions.
Project activities supported academic and professional development, guidance, and long-lasting mentorships for graduate student partners and pre-service educators from representative backgrounds.
Furthermore, the colloquium provided heritage speaker educators with the knowledge, resources, and connections required to support HLE in their own schools and communities beyond the dates of the project. Ultimately, the project resulted in 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.
Donation to Non-Profit Organizations
These speaker sessions were $10/session, and all funds collected through the series went to two non-profit organizations.
We were able to raise and donate $260 from our speaker sessions this year!
Half of the money was donated to Voices of Children, a non-profit that offers psychological support to children of war.
The other half was donated to a non-profit chosen by the colloquium participants!
This year’s participants chose Migrant Justice, a non-profit that provides support to the farmworker community and engages community partners to organize for economic justice and human rights.
