Cultural Capital Within Syrian and Burmese Refugee Family Literacies

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Section 1a, Poster Session 1. Literacy: Literacy Processes and Practices (San Diego)

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Yosso (2005), this study examined community cultural wealth of nine Syrian and Burmese refugee families’ family literacy practices as they relate to language and education in the transglobal shift into the United States. This study utilized a multiple case study design to examine the cultural capital of these nine refugee families: (1) how the consonance and the dissonance of family literacy practices shaped in the U.S. context among Burmese and Syrian refugee families? and (2) How cultural capital is related to these literacy events when they are carried out in the U.S. construct? Findings illustrated how participants pursued and resisted dominant cultural norms to carryout literacy practices significant to their own culture, beliefs, and values.

Authors

• christiana kathryn kfouri, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Aijuan Cun, The University of New Mexico