289
Views
4
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Transnational literacy practices of two Burmese families: an ethnographic study

ORCID Icon
Pages 286-306 | Received 12 Sep 2019, Accepted 14 Jan 2020, Published online: 12 May 2020
 

ABSTRACT

Abundant research has examined the literacy practices of immigrant students, but little is known about the transnational literacies of Burmese refugee children and parents. Drawing upon literacy as a social practice and transnationalism, this study investigated the transnational literacies of two Burmese refugee mothers and their children. The data sources included field notes, interviews, artifacts, and conversations with the participants. The findings present that participants engaged in transnational literacies for four major purposes: to maintain relationships across borders, to sustain religious beliefs, to mobilize resources in multiple contexts, and to learn about the target language. The findings suggest that educators should value the transnational literacies of refugee families in order to foster learning in diverse classrooms.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aijuan Cun

Aijuan Cun is a PhD candidate in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo, Graduate School of Education. Her research interests focus on immigrant and refugee family literacy, digital literacies, multimodality, and Makerspaces. In addition to pursuing her doctoral research, she is an adjunct instructor at the University at Buffalo.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 232.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.