Marginal Voices: Creating Poetry From the Voices of Iranian American Mothers Raising Children With Dis/abilites

• In Event: 34.064 - Soundscapes, Poetry, Mothering, and Marginalization: Arts-Based Educational Research Methodological Possibilities and Praxis

Abstract

Begun as the phenomenological study of the experiences of Iranian-American women raising individuals with dis/abilities, this multimodal study took three perspectives on the interview data before combing the participants’ voices for language pertaining to their identities. Data reflected their immigration experiences, perspectives on dis/ability, navigation of the U.S. educational system, and shared wisdom as mothers. Assembled into a series of poems, each poem offers insight into the mother’s perspectives, concerns, and dreams. This study offered multimodal narratives that questioned the practices and approaches in our educational system, and instead offered the voices of immigrant women who have too often remained absent from the educational discourse and research.

Author

• Kimiya Sohrab Maghzi, University of Redlands