Leveraging Navigational Capital: Strengthening Family-School-Community Connections in Chinese and Spanish Heritage Language Programs

In demographically shifting areas, many schools and communities are struggling to understand, integrate, and accommodate newcomers (Wortham, Murillo & Hamann, 2002). Cultural differences in school engagement practices are often misinterpreted as disinterest, and are used to bolster false claims about parental involvement (Andrews, 2013; Lee & Oxelson, 2006; Zarate, 2007). This two-case case study, explores how two community-based heritage language (Chinese and Spanish) programs in the shifting Southeast view their roles in fostering program-school-community connections. Moreover, we explore how these programs support ethnically/linguistically minoritized families in leveraging their community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) to navigate and engage with local schools and the broader community. While individual approaches differed, both HL programs recognized the importance of family-school-community connections for participating families.