Caring and Connecting with Multilingual Families through the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study uses "authentic cariño" to explore a "care and connect" model in a case study of a single district in Teachers Educating All Multilingual Students (TEAMS), funded by a National Professional Development (NPD) grant. Along with ESOL/dual language licensure coursework, teachers in five districts engage in family-school-community partnerships to develop multilingual family engagement. COVID-19 required urgent shifts in how teachers and districts reached families and offered services. Accordingly, the research question is as follows: How did TEAMS teachers' conceptions of "caring" and "connecting" to support multilingual family engagement shift in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Data included three teacher focus groups per district, interviews with facilitators and administrators, and individual teacher interviews. Case study was used across districts, but focusing particularly on one district with high percentages of teachers of color and low-income multilingual families, the population hardest hit and dehumanized during COVID-19. Analysis employed critical "authentic cariño" to explore teachers' authentic and aesthetic care that shifted over time--from focus on technologies and translators, pity, depersonalized objectives, and academic goals to warmer relationships, "personalismo," relaxing together, reaching out, persistence, and advocacy. Results suggest ways to transform structures to better meet the needs of multilingual families by organizing around authentic care with families.