The Nexus of Migration Narratives, Transnational Imagination, and Child Agency Explored Through Child-Generated Multimodal Artifacts

• In Event: Methodologies for Exploring and Creating Narratives of Migration and Transnationalism in Various Contexts

Abstract

Purpose: Young children from immigrant families are agents and mediators in transnational contexts who can actively build and extend connections across countries and circulate care and knowledge across borders and generations (Author, 2022; Ghiso, 2016). Despite this, their roles are often treated as “baggage to be brought along or left behind” (Orellana, 2016, p. 5) in adults’ transnational lives, and they have limited opportunities to share their transnational stories and experiences in K-12 schools. This study examines child-generated multimodal artifacts collected in an online class offered by a community-based Korean heritage language (HL) school during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is guided by the following question: What can educators and researchers learn about the transnational lives and literacies of young immigrant children by examining multimodal artifacts that they create and listening to their stories?

Theoretical Framework: This study is informed by literature emphasizing the importance of immigrant children and youth sustaining their heritage language and culture (Paris & Alim, 2017) and considering their existing knowledge, such as transnational literacies and hybrid language practices, as assets. In the focal classroom, the children engaged in collecting, analyzing, and sharing family members’ oral histories by making full use of their linguistic repertoire. These approaches were guided by the notion of translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014; García et al., 2017), funds of knowledge (González et al., 2005), and child-centered research approaches (Author, 2022).

Methods and Sources: Part of a larger ethnographic study, this paper analyzes data from an online class at a Korean HL school during the pandemic. Children participated in an array of storytelling activities, including conducting oral histories and making their own books and stories. The class, designed and facilitated by the researcher and a Korean American youth, used different methods (e.g., modeling, reading aloud) to support children’s writing and storytelling. Data included 173 child-generated multimodal artifacts that the children created (including drawings and child-written books) and class recordings. The class involved 8 children (ages 5-9) from Korean immigrant families, all born in the United States.

Findings and Significance: The findings illuminated the children’s migration narratives, transnational imagination, and agency. Their books, featuring personal and fictional narratives, depicted various migration stories within the United States, transnational border-crossing experiences, family separation, and intergenerational connections and longing. Children actively utilized their linguistic repertoire and multimodal resources in their stories. In these fictional narratives, children created imaginary characters and events connected to their parental homelands or based on their imaginative travels across countries. For example, a 5-year-old child created a book entitled Elsa Seoul featuring Elsa from the movie Frozen visiting her parents’ home country—a place the child had never been. Over time, children became more vocal about various methods, tools, and resources that could enhance the sharing of their own and their families’ stories. This study underscores the importance of creating spaces for immigrant children to explore and share their migration stories meaningfully. It also provides insights into how child-generated multimodal artifacts can help understand the complexities of children’s transnational lives and literacies.

Author

• Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University