Is it in your ໃຈ / Jai?: Embodied Knowledge and Participatory Arts-Based Co-Learning and Co-Creation

• In Event: Imagining Liberatory Futures: Pedagogical Resistance in the Past, Present, and Future through Abolitionist Place-Based Methods

Abstract

This work examines how Lao refugee diaspora women cultivate knowledge through personal narratives and translanguaging practices, centering the Lao concept of ໃຈ / jai (heart/spirit/essence) as both theoretical framework and methodology. As we mark the 50th anniversary of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in the U.S., this study addresses the marginalization of Lao diasporic experiences within Asian-American discourse and challenges the "model minority" myth through critical examination of women's intergenerational language practices. The research employs "Translanguaging ໃຈ / Jai Methodology," a decolonial approach integrating three pillars: actionable translanguaging love, critical and extraordinary literacies, and critical refugee studies. This framework rejects Western rationality as the dominant epistemological lens, instead centering the embodied knowledge of Lao refugee diaspora women navigating linguistic and cultural borderlands (Anzaldúa, 1987). Building on a pilot study during a virtual festival called "Our Mothers' Souans" (inspired by Alice Walker's work), the research involves Lao refugee diaspora women engaged in collaborative learning and knowledge production. The methodology combines participatory arts-based methods with Translanguaging theory (Vogel & García, 2017) to examine how participants create meaning through multimodal expressions transcending traditional language boundaries. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews, collaborative workshops exploring ໃຈ / jai compound words, co-creation of cultural artifacts, and family narrative interviews. Analysis employs participatory artifact and narrative analysis, positioning participants as knowledge producers rather than research subjects. This honors what decolonial scholars call "sentipensar" (Fals Borda, 1984)—intuitions led by feelings and emotions—while examining how ໃຈ / jai reveals cultural dimensions of understanding, gratitude, trust, and decision-making. This research directly connects to the workshop's "Imagining Liberatory Futures" focus by demonstrating how testimonio, community mapping, and art/ifacts resist refugee experience erasure and spark educational transformation. The Translanguaging ໃຈ / Jai Methodology offers a concrete framework workshop participants can adapt for their pedagogical and organizing work, validating informal learning spaces and embodied cultural practices while fostering collective reflection across differences. Ultimately, this research contributes to liberatory education by offering frameworks for understanding how marginalized communities cultivate knowledge, resist linguistic colonization, and heal intergenerational trauma through translanguaging practices that embody radical imagination and community-centered praxis.

Author

• Sunisa Nuonsy, Graduate Center - CUNY