Asian American Youth and Families Co-Designing Workshops for Bilingual Families: A Community-based Participatory Research Study

• In Event: Co-Constructing Counternarratives with Asian and Asian American Youth and Communities

Proposal

Fostering heritage language and literacy among immigrant families within Asian American communities is a critical endeavor, given the pervasive influence of monolingual ideologies/English hegemony in preK-12 schools and broader society in the United States. Children from Asian immigrant families are often expected, or are pushed, to prioritize English proficiency, social adaptation, and assimilation into American culture (Wong Fillmore, 2000). Unfortunately, this often leads to heritage language (HL) loss and a rapid shift toward English ( Li & Wen, 2015). Studies indicate that HL usage begins to decline as children of immigrants enter regular school (Garcia & Diaz, 1992) and continues to decline with age (Merino, 1983, Zhou, 2001).
In this long-term, community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, we-five teacher educators working at higher education institutions in Michigan–collaborated with four Asian American high school students to conduct research and take action for fostering heritage language learning among Asian and Asian American families. Our methodology is deeply influenced by the principles outlined in community-based participatory research (CBPR), which has emerged as a transformative research approach to research, rooted in the collaboration between academic researchers, community members, and organizational representatives. We worked alongside the youth in designing, leading, and facilitating workshops for immigrant children and families, particularly those of Korean and Chinese heritage. The central idea of this work was to position the Asian American children, families, and communities, who grew up learning and maintaining their heritage languages and cultures, as transnational and multilingual experts (Author 1, 2022) and create a space for and with them where they could leverage their knowledge, experiences, and skills to supporting the HL learning of immigrant children and families in our community. Our study, which bridges theory, research, and practice through CBPR, is informed by concepts such as transnational funds of knowledge (Author 1, 2019) and family HL and literacy practices. We believe that the home is a unique and important space with abundant possibilities for children and families from Asian immigrant backgrounds to expand their understanding of their heritage languages and cultures (Song, 2016), and build and further extend transnational and intergenerational connections (Author 1, 2022).
In this presentation, we will share qualitative data that we have collected from Year 1 including recordings and transcripts of virtual meetings, reflections from youth participants, and various artifacts (e.g., self-portraits) and documents (e.g., handouts) that participants generated throughout the research. We will also discuss the lessons we have learned from our ongoing data collection in Year 2. Our presentation will underscore the deeply personal and communal journey of heritage language (HL) maintenance among Asian American youth and families. We will discuss how the HL workshops we co-created with Asian American youth and families showcased their ability and commitment to design effective, engaging HL learning activities based on their experiences. Our presentation will call for educational researchers to conduct research that centers the voices and experiences of Asian and Asian American communities and explores how such endeavors can contribute to providing counternarratives and interrogating deficit perspectives on these communities.

Authors

• Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University

• Chenlu Jin, Michigan State University

• Min Yu, Wayne State University

• Seungwoo Hwang, Michigan State University

• Pyeongeun Kim, Michigan State University