Multimodal analysis: Meaning-making of refugee-background children from Afghanistan while reading picturebooks about mental health

• In Event: Toward Just Educational Renewal Through Educational Semiotics

Abstract

The United States has a long history of welcoming refugee families (Author, year; Dettlaff & Fong, 2016; Ryan, 2008). Refugee families had to leave their countries of origin due to war, violence, or political persecution (USA for UNHCR, 2024). While the United States has been welcoming refugee families for decades, it has recently resettled more families from Afghanistan who have experienced crises since 2021. Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide health issues, including mental health issues, such as increased levels of anxiety, depression, and stress (Falicov et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020). Without sufficient support, these challenges can lead to long-term negative consequences on the children’s mental health and well-being over time, such as experiencing additional risks related to depression and anxiety later in their adulthood (Williams, 2018). To help address the literature gap and explore more effective ways to support the children’s mental health and well-being, the present study aims to explore how children and their families from Afghanistan participated in a family reading and health program, which aims to enhance their mental health and well-being. Specifically, the presentation focuses on the research question: How do the children select, read, and discuss children’s picturebooks related to mental health topics in the family reading program?
While there are different frameworks to explore children’s reading practices, the study particularly draws upon the theoretical perspectives on multimodality (Kress, 2009) to gain insights into the multiple interactions (e.g., children-researchers, children-siblings, children-picturebooks), and the children’s meaning-making. The approach of multimodality has been utilized to understand representation and interaction through interplays of various modes, such as images, words, gestures, speech, and postures (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1995; Kress, 2009).
The data for this presentation were collected from two families who were originally from Afghanistan and currently lived in a city in the Southwestern United States. The case study design (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2009) was used to support the inquiry. Each family member took about one hour to participate in each weekly reading session. All the reading sessions took place in six months in total. The data sources collected during each reading session included video recordings of the reading processes, interviews with parents, artifacts (e.g., drawings made by the children), and texts (e.g., picturebooks). The multimodal interaction methodological framework (Norris, 2004) was used to engage in a micro-analysis of the video recordings of the reading processes. Additionally, interviews, artifacts, and texts were also triangulated and analyzed to address the research question. The data analysis generated three major themes: making predictions, understanding mental health issues, and gaining more strategies to deal with the issues. The patterns of multimodal interactions were involved in all three themes. More examples of these themes will be illustrated at the conference. The study invites researchers, scholars, and educators to have a better understanding of multimodal literacy and the mental health of children and families from Afghanistan, reconsider “research, remedy, and repair,” and brainstorm more effective ways to “just educational renewal.”

Author

• Aijuan Cun, University of New Mexico