Beyond “dangers” and “hardships”: an asset-based exploration of a resettled refugee student’s interest and experience in science

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to use an asset-based approach to explore a resettled refugee student’s interests and experiences at home after her family had resettled in a U.S. city. The qualitative data collected from the focal participant included field notes from home visits, video recordings of family conversations, drawings and texts created by the participant, and informal conversations. Although the focal participant’s family members had experienced hardships during their refugee journey and before their resettlement, the findings focused on how the participant’s present experiences related to her interests and how different forms of Yosso’s community cultural wealth capital were represented in her narratives. Recommendations for children’s literature and the education of resettled refugee children are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Resettled refugee children
• meaning-making
• sociocultural theory
• qualitative research
• community cultural wealth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aijuan Cun

Aijuan Cun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico. She holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her primary research interests focus on immigrant and refugee family literacy. Her other research interests include digital literacies, multimodality, and Makerspaces. Her research can be found in journals, such as Urban Education, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Early Childhood Education Journal.