Debbie Zacarian and Becki Cohn-Vargas
Yorleni is a fourth grader who moved to New York from Nicaragua. At enrollment, her parents express concern about Yorleni feeling comfortable in school. They share that her brother’s recent death from cancer has affected Yorleni deeply, and that she has become much quieter. They say that while Yorleni speaks primarily in Spanish at home and in school, she has been taking an English class for the past two years. With this information, Yorleni is assessed to determine if she is a multilingual learner. During the assessment, she does not volunteer any responses. With her parents’ help, the staff at her new school placed her in its dual language program.
As educators, we know the importance of supporting students like Yorleni in feeling a sense of safety, belonging, value, and competence. We also want to boost their confidence in speaking up for themselves and on behalf of others. These actions are especially essential for the epic number of school-age children subjected to identity-related adverse childhood experiences. All too often, our perceptions of students who have experienced adverse childhood experiences may be so sympathetic that we might not see, or, more importantly, help students see their strengths. It is not that we should avoid being empathetic and compassionate. Still, we should also pay as much, if not more, attention to the strengths that students possess inherently and as a result of experiencing identity-related adversity. Viewing our practice through an empowerment lens can help us support students to be autonomous learners (Steele and Cohn-Vargas, 2013; Zacarian and Silverstone, 2020).
What is an Autonomous Learner?
The following figure includes attributes of an empowered student. While it is not a complete list, it provides some traits we expect students to demonstrate—particularly when we reduce our authority to amplify their voices and choices in our classrooms. Take a moment to consider the attributes of empowered students you know and add three characteristics to the list.
Figure 1: Descriptors of an Empowered Student (adapted from Zacarian and Silverstone, 2020, p. 11).
| adaptable | nonjudgemental | responsible |
| collaborative | observant | self-controlled |
| creative | respectful | validating |
| compassionate | reflective | wise |
| determined | resilient | witty |
Let’s look at Yorleni’s first weeks of school as we consider the descriptors of an empowered student.
During the first weeks of school, Yorleni rarely volunteered to speak. During a phone call with her parents, her fourth-grade teacher acknowledged Yorleni’s lack of participation in class discussions and solicited her parents’ help in encouraging Yorleni to speak. “What is a subject that Yorleni enjoys in school?” he asked. They responded that math was her favorite subject. “What are some special qualities that Yorleni possesses?” he inquired. Yorleni’s parents shared that Yorleni was imaginative and artistic and loved to draw. They added that Yorleni had many friends in Nicaragua and was very social before her brother died. They also said that she treasured receiving encouragement from her teachers and proudly shared these experiences with her parents. They added that Yorleni often volunteered to help others. They described how Yorleni had volunteered to help an elderly neighbor.
With information about Yorleni’s many assets and strengths, her teacher and parents brainstormed ideas to motivate her to participate in class. Here are some of the activities that Yorleni’s teacher did:
After modeling math word problems, Yorleni’s teacher separated the class into small groups and asked each to create some word problems. He encouraged them to use their artistic skills to write these and provided them with colored pencils and paper. Yorleni crafted a word problem on a piece of drawing paper and moved it to the center of her small group’s table. As peers read Yorleni’s creation, they added some suggestions. Her teacher observed Yorleni smiling with her peers, drawing more suggestions, and nodding in agreement with the final word problems they created for the whole class. As this occurred, her teacher commented positively on students’ interactions, including Yorleni’s. After class, he also told Yorleni privately how happy he was to see her ideas. He said, “Yorleni, it’s great to see your suggestions. You have so much to share!” Her teacher’s reward was Yorleni’s response: “Thank you, I am trying hard.” He responded, “Trying hard is an important quality; it shows your determination.” During the week, her teacher saw Yorleni helping a classmate in math class. “Yorleni,” he said to her, “you are a great collaborator.”
Within a few short weeks, Yorleni’s teacher contacted her parents. He shared that Yorleni was speaking in class independently and noted how much he appreciated their help in supporting Yo+++++rleni in doing so. He also promised to stay in touch to let them know how Yorleni was doing and ensure she was feeling comfortable at school.
Take a moment to think about Yorleni, her parents, and her teacher.
- Draw from some of the attributes that you believe Yorleni demonstrated.
- Write two sentences that detail what Yorleni did to be an empowered learner.
- Refer to the list and add three new attributes to it.
When we did the first task, we noted that Yorleni was creative in designing a word problem, collaborative with her peers, and observant of her peers. You may have discovered additional attributes, as there are many. Empowered students exhibit many characteristics. These include knowing and attending to the rules and regulations of their classrooms and schools, attending to the diversity found within and beyond their classroom contexts, being socially responsible, adapting to change, and being collaborative (Zacarian and Silverstone, 2020, p. 20).
The Role of Assertiveness and Receptiveness in Being an Empowered Learner
Being an empowered learner involves a back-and-forth flow of communication where participants are assertive with and receptive toward others. Consider a student who bosses everyone around and refuses to listen. The student needs to learn to pay attention to others’ ideas, thoughts, and more. The opposite is true for a student who listens but never volunteers a response. Each requires our support to balance the scales of the student’s assertiveness and receptiveness toward others.
Figure 2: Skills of Receptiveness and Assertiveness
| Receptiveness | Assertiveness |
| Listens carefully to a speaker using context specific communication and body language that indicates a high level of receptiveness to others. Observes what a speaker says, models, or references. Pays attention to the needs, ideas, and feelings of others in addition to oneself. Finds the right time to speak. Looks for common ground to make contributions that are positively additive rather than negatively subtractive. | Counters ideas, needs, and desires respectfully. Formulates ideas, desires, and feelings independently. Articulates an idea, need, or desire. Defends and modifies an idea. Anticipates obstacles or barriers and addresses them with others in a respectful way. |
(adapted from Zacarian and Silverstone, 2020)
An important feature of resilience is the development of assertiveness and receptiveness skills. Consider Yorleni. Her teacher established the conditions for Yorleni to support her peers in creating math word problems. For Yorleni to do this successfully, she had to adapt to a new learning environment and demonstrate a balance of assertiveness and receptiveness.
Let’s look at an example of an interaction that Yorleni had with a classmate, Sarah.
In this exchange, Yorleni demonstrated that she heard what Sarah said by affirming her peer. She also extended the interaction by asserting a suggestion. All students need to develop empowerment skills by feeling identity safe. Figures 1 and 2 provide some of the language we need to support empowerment. Additionally, resilience requires being adaptive and flexible. Consider the adaptations and flexibility that all multilingual learners must make to move from one place to another, learn a new language and grade-level subject matters, make new friends, and much more.
Supporting Resilience and Even Courageous Resilience When Facing Barriers to Inclusion
Resilience also involves one’s capacity to experience such powerful and seemingly intractable challenges as being stereotyped, oppressed, bullied, and more while simultaneously drawing from an internal reservoir of strengths to cope. Possessing the internal reservoir that’s needed is so important. It is built from the qualities one possesses inherently or has developed in response to stressful experiences.
Supporting multilingual learners to feel and be identity safe requires understanding the many barriers that far too many experience. Here is an example of an exchange that Yorleni’s parents had with her teacher:
Yorleni’s parents informed their teacher that during recess, a boy called their daughter a beaner and laughed any time she made a mistake speaking English. Yorleni’s teacher listened attentively. He assured her parents that racial name-calling was unacceptable. He also promised her parents that he would find out about the bullying and take action to ensure it ended.
This example (and many more) calls for us to acknowledge the barriers multilingual learners and their families are experiencing. It requires we address these in ways that help them feel respected and included and that allow everyone to see their capacity to cope (Zacarian and Silverstone, 2020). It also calls for the unwavering commitment of educators to create a caring and safe classroom and to help students see and expand their internal strengths.
We cannot expect our students to be resilient in the face of bullying and harassment. We must intentionally create an environment where they trust their teachers to care for them and ensure their safety in the classroom and at school. We also must engender this type of caring environment among and between all students. Students can learn to be upstanders who speak up and stand up for themselves and others in safe ways (Steele and Cohn-Vargas, 2013).
Here are some steps that Yorleni’s teacher took to support Yorleni (and her classmates) to feel safe; to have a sense of belonging, value, and competence; and to speak up on behalf of self and others.
Yorleni’s teacher built a positive relationship with her, her peers, and her parents. He did this by conferring with Yorleni’s parents to support their child’s identity safety. He developed norms for classroom interactions to ensure that students treated one another respectfully and did not tease or bully each other. His instruction focused on learning about each other’s backgrounds, being empathetic, and building intercultural understanding. He explained why calling people names that insult their race or ethnicity or other things about them is hurtful and not permissible. He taught students to speak up when they were or a classmate was being bullied. He provided models of responses, such as “Your teasing and comments are mean and untrue. Please stop,” and supported students in creating their own responses. He also supported students in seeking help from a trusted adult when they needed assistance. Additionally, he met privately with the student who was teasing Yorleni. ,He explained that calling someone a beaner is hurtful and unacceptable, and could not continue.
Consider the steps that Yorleni’s teacher took. What steps did the teacher take to:
- Support Yorleni in feeling identity safe?
- Support all students’ identity safety?
- Support the classmate who called Yorleni a derogatory name?
- What two or three steps would you take to support identity safety?
When educators create positive relationships with students, they can strengthen a child’s resilience and empower them to speak up for themselves or inform an adult when they are excluded or bullied. Educators can also do this while creating learning opportunities for all students and avoiding labeling any student a bully.
Strategies for Building Empowerment, Agency, and Resilience Through Parent–School Partnerships
Families and educators can provide invaluable opportunities for students to develop and strengthen their empowerment efforts. There are many activities that we can do together. Three examples include the following:
- Routinely share what students are doing well in school with parents and guardians. Just as Yorleni’s teacher took the time to meet with her parents to learn about her strengths and brainstorm ideas that would bolster these, he also contacted them to share what was going well.
- Observe and learn how the student is feeling at school and find out what is happening inside and outside the classroom. When a student is experiencing exclusion or bullying or feeling unsafe, meet with the student to build trust and take action to resolve the situation in a way that does not make the child feel singled out or embarrassed. Also, help parents and guardians support their children to treat one another respectfully and learn to be upstanders.
- Hold student-led conferences to empower students to share their learning. These can bolster students as empowered learners in K–12. They can occur in person and online synchronically and using computer-mediated formats, where parents and guardians might view a video recording. Strategies for holding these include: (1) Scheduling conferences with students and their parents/guardians. (2) Preparing students by supporting them to: create a portfolio of their work, plan what they would like to share during the meeting, and brainstorm responses to the questions parents and guardians are most likely to ask including: identify what is going well by asking students to complete sentence prompts such as: A sample of my classwork is… It is an excellent example of…; Things that are doing well in [name of subject] are…
This article explored principles and practices for helping multilingual learners to be empowered and resilient. It provided a description of empowerment and some of its attributes. It provided strategies for supporting students’ receptiveness and assertiveness development, addressing barriers to empowerment, supporting resilience, and boosting student empowerment. Educators, students, and their families have tremendous capacities to work together on behalf of students’ success in school and their lives. There is no better time to launch the ideas presented here than right now.
References
Cohn-Vargas, B., and Zacarian, D. (2024). Identity-Safe Spaces at Home and School: Partnering to Overcome Inequity. Corwin Press.
Steele, D. M., and Cohn-Vargas, B. (2013). Identity-Safe Classrooms Grades K–5: Places to Belong and Learn. Corwin.
Zacarian, D., and Silverstone, M. A. (2020). Teaching to Empower: Taking Action to Foster Student Agency, Self-Confidence, and Collaboration. Corwin Press.
Dr. Debbie Zacarian is a leading expert in supporting MLs and students facing adversity. With over 30 years of experience, she provides research-based keynotes and consulting. She has authored numerous professional books on creating inclusive, strengths-based environments where students feel valued, connected, and empowered to flourish in school and in their lives.
Dr. Becki Cohn-Vargas, a scholar in identity safety, has a rich and varied career with over 35 years of experience as a Spanish bilingual teacher, principal, and superintendent in diverse pre-K–12 settings. She’s co-authored four books, written extensively on identity-safe teaching, produced films, and consulted with schools nationwide. beckicohnvargas.com
This article originally appeared in Language Magazine (August 2025). It is drawn from Cohn-Vargas and Zacarian (2024), Identity-Safe Spaces at Home and School: Partnering to Overcome Inequity.
