Understanding Heritage Language Education and Jamaican Creole in Toronto with Shawna-Kaye Tucker

In this episode, Professor Shawna-Kaye Tucker joins us in discussing her paper “Beyond “Sea, Sun, and Fun”: Exploring the Viability of Jamaican Creole Heritage Language Education in Toronto,” talking about the experiences in including Jamaican creole in heritage language education. She highlights the difficulties in counting JamC as a heritage language and interviews conducted with Jamaican natives about their views of including JamC in formal heritage language education.

Shawna is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto. As a Caribbean native, she has a keen interest in language and literacy development of children in creole-speaking contexts as well as in the role of home and community literacy practices in learner outcomes.