Families and Teachers Creating Cross-Cultural Third Space: Negotiating Heritage, Identity, and Schooling

• In Event: 66.033 - Partnerships for Justice: Centering Family and Community Perspectives

Abstract

The objective of this cross-case analysis is to explore how three Japanese immigrant teachers and 18 Turkish immigrant parents (a) supported immigrant children navigate across various sociocultural contexts and (b) facilitated children’s identity negotiation in two different U.S. Midwestern social and school contexts. Drawing from the theories of hybridity and transnationalism, we utilized data from two qualitative case studies and cross-analyzed the data to describe how, using their agency as parents and teachers, these individuals drew from their heritage and culture to create third spaces for children’s identity negotiation. This study contributes to the literature on culturally relevant teaching by highlighting complex realities and educational needs of Asian immigrant children through insider accounts from two smaller communities.

Authors

• Zeynep Isik-Ercan, Rowan University

• Gumiko Monobe, Kent State University - Kent

• Barbara Seidl, University of Colorado - Denver