Exploring identity negotiations, multiple literacies, and imagined communities of Somali American high school students

• In Event: Negotiating Belonging and Identities

Proposal

Abstract:
This study attempts to understand the unique transnational literacies of two Somali Muslim girls of refugee background attending high school in a US meatpacking community. Through narrative inquiry and undergirded by transnational imagined community theoretical perspectives, we illuminate Somali Muslim girls' transnational journeys, experiences, and agency. With the girls as coauthors paired with two academics, we center the Somali girls’ experiences in the school and community, illustrating the strategic deployment of literacies and various identities to construct a sense of belonging/acceptance in school and community. We chronicle resistance to different forms of discrimination arising from linguistic, cultural, and religious differences and advocacy for themselves, peers, and their communities. Ultimately this study broadens research on education in meatpacking communities, which has long concentrated on Latinx/White interaction, has implications for educators working with newcomer students, and reminds us of the wisdom of listening to students’ own voices.
Relevance:
Research has documented that Somali immigrants' experiences in American school systems include racism and discrimination, language barriers, religious and cultural differences, and Islamophobia, among others (Bigelow, 2008; 2010). In this study, two Somali youth tell and retell their stories of lived experiences. Their accounts illuminate ways that Somali youth utilize their multiple literacies to navigate school, community and other spaces in their daily lives. As coauthors we jointly assert that understanding contemporary realities of Somali children and youth in the US is an important step towards promoting their well-being, integration, and success in American society. In this study we ask the following research questions:
1. How do Somali youth develop/use multiple literacies (cultural, religious, linguistic) and identities in their imagined communities in the United States schools and out of school?
2. How do Somali youth's imagined communities in the United States evolve over time, particularly in response to experiences of acculturation and integration?
Theory/Context:
The imagined communities theory (Anderson, 1991), suggests that nations and national identities are socially constructed, imagined, and not necessarily based on any inherent, objective reality. Anderson argued that nations are imagined communities formed by a community of people who share a common language, cultural practices, symbols, myths, memories, history, and narratives. Nations do not require direct face-to-face interaction between all members of the community rather coherence and membership come from a sense of solidarity and familiarity with those ‘like us’. Anderson argued that the rise of print capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries contributed to the creation of modern imagined communities, such as nation-states, through the spread of vernacular languages, which created new forms of shared cultural identity and made possible the dissemination of national narratives and myths and by creating a shared language and culture that could transcend regional and local political boundaries. In this study, we use imagined communities as an explanatory frame of stories of two Somali Muslim high school students. We demonstrate how communities are constructed and maintained through shared transnational experiences, literacy practices, cultural and religious practices and narratives locally and internationally. We also demonstrate the transnational identities and imagined communities of the youth that transcend national boundaries and reflect a global or cosmopolitan identity (Nussbaum, 2010).
Narrative Inquiry:
According to Clandinin and Connelly (2000), narrative inquiry is a method of comprehending human experience through an ongoing collaborative process between researchers and participants. This process unfolds over time, in specific locations or settings, and within the social contexts in which people interact. Clandinin et al. (2016) explicate that narrative inquiry involves examining human experience by closely examining the language used to uncover the numerous layers of complexity embedded within. Narrative inquiry goes beyond the mere act of telling or living stories, as it encompasses a much broader understanding of experience that is inherently narratively constructed.
Setting and Participants:
This study was conducted with two high school students who live in a town near one of biggest beef processing plants in the world. The two university professors spent one academic year working with a larger group of high school students on different YPAR projects.
Data Collection:
During the YPAR projects, we had countless discussions with Ubah and Aisha, in which we gained insights into their transnational experiences. These dialogues and topics influenced the development of our research partnership, as well as the subsequent interview inquiries that ground this piece.
Data Analysis and Interpretation:
We emphasized an interactive and participatory approach to create a shared understanding of the participant's storied experiences. Our aim in conducting the narrative analysis was to produce accurate accounts that reflected the lived and told stories of the participants in relation to the two research questions guiding the study. With Aisha and Ubah as both subject and coauthors, together we made revisions to the drafts based on their suggestions until they were satisfied with the final narrative accounts (Clandinin, et al., 2013).
Findings:
The narratives disclose issues around language(s), cultures, hijab and dressing, religion, becoming Black/racialization, belonging and imagined communities and imagined future communities. The narratives have been redacted due to length requirements.
Contribution:
This study highlights the complex and multifaceted transnational experiences, identity development and imagined community formation among two Somali youth in the US. By recognizing and supporting the cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity of Somali youth, and creating opportunities for them to connect with their cultural heritage and form positive relationships with peers and adults, schools and communities play an important role in promoting their positive development and sense of belonging. Schools can also provide opportunities for youth to explore and express their identities in positive ways. This study joins voices with other studies that have reported the importance of valuing students' linguistic, cultural, religious resources at school (Bigelow, 2010; Kiramba et al., 2021; Kiramba et al., 2022). This study suggests that the transnational literacies of Somali immigrant youth in US schools can have a significant impact on their identity development and belonging and that schools and communities can play an important role in supporting the agency of Somali youth.

Authors

• Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Edmund T Hamann, University of Nebraska - Lincoln