Poetry as Experience: A Narrative Inquiry of Undergraduate Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Student Experiences in Texas

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Arts based educational research and poetry

Abstract

U.S.-born Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) college students are often made invisible in the workings of higher education (Khanmalek et al., 2022). Even less is known about the U.S.-born SWANA college students' experience in higher education systems in Texas, home to many of the largest communities of the SWANA diaspora in the U.S. (Yalla Count MENA In!, 2024). To better understand U.S.-born SWANA students' experiences, this exploratory study uses a narrative inquiry methodology grounded in a critical paradigm to examine the experiences of U.S.-born SWANA undergraduate students in U.S. higher education – oral storytelling and poetry.

Author

• Zianab Bayanzay, University of Houston