Empowerment in Complexity: A child’s Agency and A Mother’s Pluralistic Ideologies Amidst Hegemonic Ideologies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Agency and Ideologies

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores the transnational living trajectories of a Korean immigrant family, focusing on language use, literacy practices, and identities of a Korean immigrant child. Utilizing a transnationalism framework and sociocultural perspectives on literacy, it documents the child’s border-crossing experiences and examines how parental language ideologies and discourse shape the child’s perceptions about language use and identities. Data were collected through interviews with the family, implementing child-centered activities such as mapping, self-portraits, and photographs within digitally mediated contexts. Discourse analysis reveals that the child’s dynamic bilingualism is embedded within the mother’s pluralistic ideologies, allowing him to exercise his agency while navigating tensions arising his mother’s contradictory discourse about language and race, influenced by hegemonic ideologies.

Author

• Eunjin Cho, University of Massachusetts - Amherst