Place-Making Practices in a Transnational Community: Social Context of Citizenship Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Race(ing) Space: Critical Spatial Analyses and Counter-Cartographies in Communities of Color

Abstract

Previous research has shown that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth of color, and that students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minoritized groups have weak identifications with their nation-states because they feel structurally excluded and marginalized. The current study was conducted at a Vietnamese American Buddhist temple to explore how the place-making practices employed by members of the temple constructed the place they live, cultivated their connections to the community and (re)created their identity as American citizens. The findings provided insights into the culturally diverse context of education in the current sociopolitical atmosphere.

Author

• Chau Bao Vu, Louisiana State University