Unexamined Life: Teachers' Perceptions of Chinese Satellite Children's Transnational Experiences in an Urban School

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives on Linguistic Diversity

Abstract

Increasingly immigrant families living in big cities in North America are sending their young children to their country of origin to be raised by relatives until they reach school age, when they return to North America to live with their parents. Media coverage and current research on these “satellite children” have reported that they have difficulty with emotional, linguistic and social adjustment upon returning. This study seeks to understand how elementary students who were sent back to China during their early years navigate their new lives in the U.S. and how their teachers understand their bicultural, bilingual, and transnational experiences. Studying teachers’ perceptions provides the basis for more informed discussions about how to better serve these students.

Authors

• Ming-Hsuan Wu, Adelphi University

• Sonna Opstad, Touro College

• Seongshin Kim, Touro College