Latina teacher reflections on critical linguistic cariño: Disrupting the raciolinguistic realities of Latinx multilingual students

In this paper, we look at pedagogies of care articulated by Latina high school teachers who teach Latinx multilingual students in a variety of content areas, including Latinx studies. We draw on raciolinguistics to understand how the teachers in this study practice “critical linguistic cariño,” a radical form of care that considers how linguistic practices of Latinx students are racialized within the U.S. and beyond. The findings demonstrate how critical linguistic cariño is a pedagogical orientation that moves beyond simply caring for multilingual students. Instead, it is praxis that recognizes the sociopolitical contexts of language as central to care. As the teachers in this study have highlighted, to care for Latinx students is to love and actively create spaces for their full cultural and linguistic identities as they exist within these contexts.