Turning to Transnational Literacies in Teacher Education and Practice

Research has examined the literacy practices of immigrant students, but little is known about the transnational literacies of Burmese refugee families. Utilizing literacy as a social practice, this study investigated the transnational literacies of two Burmese refugee mothers and their children. Data sources included field notes, interviews, and artifacts. 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 acquire the target language. The findings suggest that educators should value the transnational literacies of refugee families.

This conceptual paper draws on ethnographic work with recently immigrated youth considered "at-risk" of dropping out of a school specifically designed for newcomer students to argue for new forms of teacher education. Building on Hartman's (2019) experiments with "wayward lives" and Halberstam's (2018) notions of the wild, the paper provokes strategies for teachers to resist educational practices that rely on essentialist categories and, in turn, welcome and embrace the ungovernable practices of their students.