Sanctioning a space for literacy practices to promote transnational students’ identity development in a HL classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT Employing transnationalism and transnational literacies as theoretical perspectives, this study explores how two focal students from Asian immigrant families construct their transnational and transcultural identities by reflecting on their dynamic border-crossing experiences. The students’ creation of artifacts (illustrating self-portraits and composing “I Am” poems) and collection of their oral narratives are analyzed to seek how they construct and negotiate their hybrid, sophisticated, and multifaceted identities by moving across both geographical and metaphorical borders. The findings show that Asian American students shape their collective identities when engaging in authentic and meaningful literacy practices that support them to reflect on and make connections to their transnational experiences and (hi)stories. Since the literature on transnationalism has focused on Latinx immigrants, this study narrows the gap in the literature by examining how students from Asian immigrant families build, negotiate, and embody their transnational identities when participating in literacy practices that reflect their unique transnational experiences. The findings provide implications for educators that including literacy practices in transnational contexts can be powerful pedagogy as it offers ample opportunities for transnational students to reflect on their richly diverse life experiences and to connect each facet of their collective identities to make meanings of their transnational lifeworld.