"Don't We Deserve Our Energy?" Nurturing Complexity and Contradictions in Linguistically and Culturally Sustaining Environments

• In Event: Shifting the Gaze in Multilingualism: Meeting at the Intersections of Language, Race, and Immigration

Abstract

This paper considers how a Hmong-centric linguistically and culturally sustaining pedagogical space (a Hmong Heritage Language high school program, utilizing a race and ethnic studies approach) reflects complex dynamics and possibilities for Hmong youth to move past consumption with responding to external power dynamics and shift their energies to grappling with power dynamics within their own communities. We begin by outlining culturally sustaining (and revitalizing) pedagogies as a theoretical framework to guide our analysis and describe two student writing projects that grew out of a Hmong-centric CSP environment. Through an analysis of student-authored poetry, essays, and letters, we suggest how these youth-authored texts provide insights to not only positive ethno-linguistic identity, but also space for recognition of complex personhood (Gordon, 1997).

Authors

• Jenna Cushing-Leubner, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Thong Vang, University of Minnesota