Multiplied Assets and Doubled Burden: A Collaborative Self-Study of Asian Immigrant Mother Scholars

• In Event: Understanding Immigrant Students and Educators' Transnational Experiences

Abstract

In this collaborative self-study, the three authors, Asian immigrant mother scholars, engaged in exploring their experiences of raising bilingual children in the context of transnational migration. Utilizing transnational feminist perspectives and AsianCrit theories, we examined our own border-crossing and mothering experiences by sharing and analyzing our artifacts, stories, and narratives. The three key themes that we highlight in this article include: (a) our efforts in promoting bilingualism/biculturalism at home, (b) our struggles in navigating school and society as first-generation immigrant mothers, and (c) the ways in which we navigate mothering through transnational collaborative partnerships and fostering critical consciousness. We hope that our narratives contribute to challenging monolingual ideologies and deficit perspectives on emergent bilinguals and immigrant mothers.

Authors

• Minhye Son, California State University - Dominguez Hills

• Wenyang Sun, University of Utah

• Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University