Burmese Refugee Youth Enacting Critical Agency and Self-Authoring in an After-School STEM Program

• In Event: 34.088 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session: Equitable Education

Abstract

We examine the identity work of three resettled Burmese refugee youth over the course of an afterschool STEM program. Our research makes use of social practice theory (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain, 2001) to examine youths’ positional identities and authoring in the moment in light of social, historical, and cultural figurings of those identities. We used a micro-ethnographic approach which incorporated field notes, event maps, stimulated recall interviews, and audiovisual recordings of the afterschool setting. Our analysis connects their identity work in pivotal moments over the program with interview data to investigate the dialectical relationship between structural and local figurings of identity. Through this analysis, we show how youth use critical agency to author identities that resist oppressive positionings.

Authors

• Casey E. Wright, Purdue University

• Mavreen Rose Sta Ana Tuvilla, Purdue University

• Shannon Mary Daniel, Vanderbilt University

• Minjung Ryu, University of Illinois at Chicago