"I Guess They Couldn't Spell Eid": An Arab Muslim Child's Multicultural Involvement in a U.S. School

• In Event: Reading Multiculturalism: Examining Literacy for Multicultural Students

Abstract

Drawing on the critical lenses of culture, language, and transnationalism from below, this one-year ethnographic case study explores the lived experiences of an Arab-Muslim mother and her 1st grade child in navigating multicultural and multilingual practices outside the school walls in an era of transnational migration. This study illustrates the frustrations and struggles that the Arab-Muslim mother and her child experienced with multicultural and multilingual issues in a U.S. public elementary school. This study also foregrounds the transformative roles of parents and teachers for engaging children as active participants in school-based multicultural practices. This study provides implications for multicultural and multilingual inclusion in our school by strengthening an understanding of the transnational mobility of people.

Authors

• Ibtisam Aloraifi, Duquesne University
  Presenting Author

• Xia Chao, Duquesne University
  Presenting Author