Bogocitizens: Boosting second graders’ sense of belonging towards their home context through a translanguaging-based project.

Abstract

This study explores how a translanguaging-based project can enhance second graders’ sense of belonging to their home context at a bilingual private school in Bogotá, Colombia. Grounded in a qualitative, action research design, the project integrates translanguaging pedagogy within a Project-Based Learning (PBL) framework to promote students’ linguistic engagement, cultural awareness, and emotional connection to their city. Twenty second-grade students participated in the Bogocitizens project, which included three pedagogical artifacts: the Bogocitizens Passport, the TikToker Video Project, and the Bogocitizens Times Newspaper. These instruments collected evidence of how learners used their full linguistic repertoires to express identity and reflect on their local context. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis, revealing two central themes: Sense of Belonging and Translanguaging, each with interconnected subthemes. The findings show that translanguaging enabled students to communicate meaningfully, integrate their languages strategically, and engage creatively with Bogotá’s cultural and social life. Furthermore, the project fostered civic awareness, collaboration, and family participation, strengthening students’ affective ties to their community. Overall, this study demonstrates that translanguaging, when embedded within project-based and contextually relevant learning, enhances both bilingual development and students’ sense of belonging, offering valuable implications for inclusive and culturally responsive bilingual education. Keywords: translanguaging, sense of belonging, bilingual education, project-based learning, action research.