Karen Refugee-Background Students' Exploration of Linguistic and Cultural Identities Through Multimodal Creative Artwork

• In Event: Multimodality and Translanguaging: Critical Perspectives

Abstract

For refugee-background students, education plays a vital role in helping them “return towards normalcy” (Bird, 2003, p. 15) and become part of mainstream society in their country of resettlement. However, refugee-background students face challenges in adjusting to their new environment, including marginalization and lack of support from schools. Having a strong sense of these identities at an early age is important given the high dropout rate and students leaving school at their adolescence. This qualitative case study investigated Karen refugee-background students’ linguistic and cultural identity exploration in a Korean-immersion elementary classroom. Through its findings, it is hoped that more equitable and socially just instructional practices are implemented that provide marginalized and refugee-background students the opportunity to explore their identities.

Author

• Saem Heo, University of Minnesota