Amplifying Voices and Experiences: Representations of Languages, Literacies, and Identities Among Refugee-Background Children and Families

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Four presenters, who identify as transnational and multilingual people from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, draw on four ethnographic case studies involving recently resettled refugee-background children and families in the U.S. Our studies amplify their voices and center their experiences with languages, literacies, and identities across culturally and linguistically diverse urban communities. We draw upon sociospatial, sociocultural, and transnational theories as lenses, as well as postcolonial and humanizing approaches centering storytelling, to better understand the spatial, linguistic, and literacy repertoires influencing the ways in which people recently settled as refugees navigate the world and draw on their lived experiences. Our work provides opportunities to advance theoretical knowledge and understandings related to instructional practice and education policy in K-12 classrooms and community contexts.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 3: Languages, Literacies, and Representations

Chair

• Fares Karam, University of Nevada - Reno

Participants

• Xia Chao, Duquesne University

• Aijuan Cun, University of New Mexico

Papers

• Representing Language and Literacy Practices in Refugee-Background Nepali-Speaking Bhutanese Households: A Critical Social Semiotic Approach - Xia Chao, Duquesne University

• Play as Literacy and Humanizing Multilingual Children, Youth, and Families From Refugee Backgrounds: Our Stories and Ways of Knowing - Nermin Vehabovic, Elon University

• "I Rely on Allah": The Role of Religion in the Resettlement Experiences of a Syrian Muslim Refugee-Background Family in the United States - Fares Karam, University of Nevada - Reno

• Social Literacy Practices in a Refugee-Background Family From Burma - Aijuan Cun, University of New Mexico

Discussant

• Nermin Vehabovic, Elon University