Abstract

This study examines how Melody, a Korean transnational girl in the US, participates in high school AP (Advanced Placement) biology class, engages in identity work, and learns science. Melody was a daughter of a gireogi family (a transnational family separated for educational purposes), living with her mother and brother in the US. The recent increase of transnational educational migration among Asian students and the importance of identity in understanding students’ learning and participation motivated this study. I define identity as a type of personhood and view that it is always performed and negotiated by individuals in their social lives. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Melody’s AP Biology class, I will show Melody constructed identities as a non-participant, limited English-proficient student and incompetent biology learner. Her identity construction was influenced by the meso level contexts (e.g., school, classroom) and personal contexts (e.g., gireogi family contexts). Yet, Melody constantly negotiated with these contexts to re-figure her identities to be more conducive to her biology learning and to enhance her classroom participation. This study demonstrates how individual students in the US, while coming from a stereotypically successful ethnic group, experience their life contexts and explore possibilities for learning and being in different ways. Implications include how researchers and teachers should pay attention to individual differences and contexts in order to better facilitate their science learning and classroom participation. I will also provide implications for education in countries that send gireogi families and transnational students.

Highlights

  • In recent years, Asian immigrants have comprised one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the US (Pew Research Center 2012)

  • While other dimensions of contexts are important, by focusing on these two dimensions of contexts, I aim to provide a new understanding of Asian transnational students’ lived experiences that are often obscured when researchers focus on macro-level contexts and/or micro-level moment-to-moment analysis of classroom interactions

  • The divide was evident in the Advanced Placement (AP) Biology class

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Summary

Introduction

Asian immigrants have comprised one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the US (Pew Research Center 2012). Despite the heterogeneity and diversity in Asians’ educational attainment (Covarrubias and Liou 2014; Paik et al 2014), Asian students are often lumped together and are believed to be successful high achievers, especially in the field of science and mathematics (Lee 2009; Trytten et al 2012). While several studies have examined diverse characteristics of Asian students and challenges that they face in US contexts, little is known about these students’ lived experiences in science classrooms. I aim to fill this gap in the literature by investigating the lived experiences of Melody, a Korean high school girl from a transnational family (gireogi family), in her Advanced Placement (AP) biology class. I will examine her identities in the contexts of school, her AP Biology classroom, and in her family

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