Narrative Competence and Cognitive Mapping: A Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in the Education of Emergent Bilinguals

• In Event: Division K Section 2 Paper Session

Abstract

Considering the issues of deficits perspectives, context and pragmatics in Second Language Acquisition, mechanical approaches to writing, and narrative and agency, this qualitative study intends to reframe narrative writing around students’ lived experiences. In doing so, it moves away from deficit-oriented and hegemonic pedagogies and contributes to culturally sustaining research in the field of second language acquisition, which explores the efficacy of narrative inquiry as a vehicle of contextualizing language use and developing a sense of agency and autonomy in emergent bilinguals. To traverse the epistemological complexity of such multiple contexts, the methodological core of this study is guided by practitioner inquiry (action-research).

Author

• Sepideh Yasrebi, University of New Mexico