Resistance as Investment in Heritage Language Learning: Reimagining Investment by Centering Community Cultural Wealth

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Narrating Language Resistance and Agency

Abstract

Using investment theory (Darvin & Norton, 2023) and Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005), the current study examined the heritage-language investment of four Korean immigrant adolescents who showed determination, persistence, and pride in learning Korean. These adolescents leveraged resistant capital, which was interwoven with aspirational, familial, social, linguistic, and navigational assets, in order to sustain their investment and negotiate positions of dignity in both mainstream and heritage settings. Heritage-language investment emerged as a multidimensional project of cultural survival and social justice that goes beyond individual success. Recognizing and nurturing such capital is therefore essential for educators committed to fostering equitable, identity-affirming learning environments in an increasingly multilingual world.

Author

• Jung-In Kim, University of Colorado - Denver