Abstract
In the past, physical barriers such as geography and distance limited global communication. In this paper, we explore how young children in immigrant families engage in transnational literacy practices. Specifically, we explore the transnational funds of knowledge that result from those experiences. This three-year longitudinal collective case study involves ten children from immigrant families who have come to the United States from around the world. The students entered the study in four-year-old kindergarten, grade 1 or grade 2. Each year, we collected observations, spoken data and student-created artefacts (e.g. writing samples, maps, photographs). Data sources were designed to highlight the various spaces that the immigrant families occupy or have occupied over time (i.e. home/neighbourhood/ school; native country/country of residence). Our reading and rereading of coded data across the sample led us to focus on families’ digital transnational practices and children’s transnational awareness. We argue that these funds of knowledge should be recognized in classrooms and schools and that they have the potential to contribute to the nurturing of cosmopolitan perspectives for all children.
Keywords
The children, whose families are from different parts of the world, bring rich transnational funds of knowledge to North American classrooms. Specifically, literacy practices across transnational spaces have the potential to contribute to significant learning in classrooms for both immigrant children and their classmates. As Lam and Warriner (2012) describe, immigrant students and their families draw on transnational literacy practices to fulfil multiple purposes. However, the effects of those practices on children have not been fully recognized or explored (Orellana et al., 2001). We argue that transnational funds of knowledge can contribute to children’s learning about the world. Even more significantly, we argue that transnational funds of knowledge have the potential to support the emergence of cosmopolitan ways of viewing the world, which contemporary scholars have defined as developing respect and mutual regard for people around the globe (Appiah, 2006; De Costa, 2014; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull and Stornaiuolo, 2014). Cosmopolitanism references the self as a global citizen and is an essential goal for education in the 21st century.
In this longitudinal study, we examined how ten children (aged 4–9) in immigrant families engaged with reading, writing and viewing across transnational spaces. Specifically, we asked how language and literacy practices are uniquely taken up as children transverse transnational spaces (Blommaert et al., 2005). We close the paper by exploring children’s emerging transnational awareness. In short, we argue that these funds of knowledge challenge deficit discourses that are often imposed on children in immigrant families (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Moll et al., 1992). Moll et al. (1992) define funds of knowledge as “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (p. 133). We argue that transnational literacy practices—both receptive and interactive—are significant funds of knowledge that should be recognized, honoured and developed in schools. While we recognize children’s transnational knowledge as being sometimes flawed and susceptible to biases and assumptions that circulate in American society, we highlight the potential of these bodies of knowledge for classroom learning.
Transnationalism and immigrant families
Transnationalism has been defined by Jiménez et al. (2009) as the “movement of people, media, language, and goods between distinct nation states, particularly that which flows in both directions and is sustained over time” (p. 17). Jiménez et al. (2009) limit transnational literacies to the “written language practices of people who are involved in activities that span national boundaries” (p. 17). While we are attracted to the idea that literacies move across or span national boundaries, we reject the premise that transnational literacies must involve written texts. Rather, we propose that transnational literacies involve multimodal communicative practices. These practices can be receptive and/or interactive—involving written or spoken words, film, art, images and/or music.
Lam and Warriner (2012) use the term transnational in conjunction with active verbs (“negotiate”, “take up”, “mobilize” and “mediate”). These verbs are accompanied by adjectives that highlight movement (“migratory”, “intersecting”, “competing” and “intertwined”) and “flow”, “cross-border relationships”, “mobility” and “intergenerational process” (Lam and Warriner, 2012: 191–193). Thus, unlike “global” and “international”, transnational suggests movement and negotiation across spaces and over time. As Cruickshank (2004) described in his research with youth, literacy practices are much more dynamic and complex than generally recognized and global developments in technology have contributed to the extension and diversification of local literacy and language practices.
Stornaiuolo et al. (2009) maintain that the new literacy age “requires the ability to coordinate meaning across modes” (p. 386). They describe the need for students to engage with and manage multiple semiotic systems. Honeyford (2014) highlights the significance of “symbolic convergence” as “students bring together the multiple sights/sites of their diasporic identities” (p. 196), as they engage with multimodal and transnational literacy practices. Honeyford grounds her claims in the work of scholars who have described negotiations of images and texts (Hull and Nelson, 2005) within meaning-making processes that involve the orchestration of multiple sources of information (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001). Honeyford (2014) describes youth as engaging in transcultural repositioning that recognizes how “immigrant youth experience their transcultural identities as having ‘something of both’ cultures” (p. 202). As she explains, youths reposition themselves by selecting language and cultural practices to engage with in and across contexts alongside awareness of institutional expectations and power-laden contexts.
Hull and Stornaiuolo (2010) draw on Appiah’s discussion (2006) of cosmopolitanism to explore how youths draw upon transnational resources as they reconcile “the tensions inherent in a vastly interconnected yet deeply divided world” (p. 87). Specifically, Hull and Stornaiuolo (2010) note the existence of cultural flows of ideas, people, beliefs, fashion, crime, music and images that people draw on to make meaning and construct identities. As they explain, children are immersed in and surrounded by transnational and culturally infused flows that entail communication across a range of media, platforms and modalities (Hull and Stornaiuolo, 2010). Thus engaging in transnational literacy practices within transnational contexts is increasingly ubiquitous; Guerra (2008) argues that educators must learn to recognize and make use of students’ transnational experiences and knowledge as they plan and implement instruction that supports the development of global citizenship.
In the current analysis, we draw on conceptualizations of cosmopolitanism (Appiah, 2006; De Costa, 2014; Hansen, 2010; Hawkins, 2014; Hull and Stornaiuolo, 2014) that share an interest in how people come to view themselves as global citizens. De Costa (2014) describes cosmopolitanism as “keeping an open mind and holding others in mutual regard in an increasingly globalized world” (p. 10). He explicitly draws on Hansen’s (2010) conception of cosmopolitanism as entailing global open-mindedness, citizenship and awareness of differences related to ideas, values, perspectives and practices.
Similarly, Lam and Warriner (2012) described transnational habitus, referencing “people’s dispositions or propensities for certain kinds of social action that develop from their social positioning and experiences across countries” (p. 195). Entailing dispositions that are established during early childhood and carried forward (Bourdieu, 1980), transnational habitus establishes a sedimented foundation for transnational awareness and cosmopolitan sensibilities.
Together, these ideas highlight not only the potential for developing cosmopolitan stances with children, but also suggest the importance of doing so. Quite simply, transnational habitus and cosmopolitanism highlight abilities that educators want for all their students—a propensity to see the world from more than one perspective and respect for the diversity that characterizes life on earth.
In this paper, we explore transnational literacy practices in immigrant families as unique and important spaces for the development of cosmopolitanism. While often invisible to schools, we argue that transnational literacy practices create powerful opportunities for learning that are generally not available to children raised in mono-national spaces. Our argument challenges generally accepted assumptions about immigrant children as being in language deficit, lacking background knowledge and culturally mismatched in American classrooms. While some scholars (Costa et al., 2009; Martin-Rhee and Bialystok, 2008) have focused on the cognitive benefits of being bi/multilingual (Canagarajah, 2013; Machado-Casas, 2009; Orellana, 2009) or bi/multiliterate (Moll, 2013), we highlight the significance of bicultural transnational funds of knowledge that children acquire through transnational practices. In doing so, we contribute to a growing body of work that highlights the abilities and knowledge that children in bilingual, bicultural and transnational families bring to classrooms. However, as described below, the ways in which children understand transnationalism are not immune to flawed and deficit accounts (See Auerbach, 1989, Compton-Lilly, 2003; Nieto, 1996).
Transnational literacies as funds of knowledge
As geographical distances continue to diminish, the use of transnational literacies continues to expand. Newcomer families are no longer forced to delay or sever daily ties with their country of origin—creating new opportunities for the development of transnational social networks, literacy practices and identities (Lam and Warriner, 2012; Reese and Goldenberg, 2008). Children’s transnational practices have neither been fully documented nor analyzed (Lam and Warriner, 2012) and scholars have yet to examine how children learn, negotiate and enact transnational practices (Orellana et al., 2001). Children in immigrant households develop transnational funds of knowledge as they regularly hear and use their home languages within transnational flows of “people, money, labor, goods, information, advice, stories, [and] languages” (Sánchez, 2007: 260).
Immigrant families have always engaged in oral and written transnational literacy practices. For example, Guerra (1989) describes letters being carried by friends and family members across international borders. Sánchez (2007) documented adolescent girls drawing on transnational travel to craft narratives depicting their experiences of family and migration and their conceptions of home.
Much of the work surrounding transnationalism has focused on adolescents and their use of the Internet and social media (Honeyford, 2014; Hull and Stornaiuolo, 2010). This research has documented the significant role technology plays in adolescent identity construction, language and literacy practices, literacy learning and general transnational awareness (Hornberger, 2008; Lam, 2009a, 2009b; McGinnis et al., 2007; Yi, 2009). The internet and social media have created numerous opportunities for youths to engage in transnational spaces. For example, in two case studies documenting the experiences of migrant teens from China, Lam (2009a, 2009b) found that teens utilized the Internet to play online games and keep abreast of current events and cultural practices in their native country—communicating in both English and Chinese.
Internet and social media provide what Guarnizo and Vertovec, respectively, term “dual frame of reference” (Guarnizo, 1997: 311) or “bifocality” (Vertovec, 2004: 974). Specifically, they reference the transnational comparisons made by members of immigrant groups between “experiences, events and situations from dual points of view” (Lam, 2009a: 305). Highlighting the complex and multi-dimensional work of children in transnational families, Medina (2010) documented fifth grade students, drawing on transnational knowledge and experiences as they participated in literature study groups in classrooms. She argued for curricula in which “flows of knowledge, accepting multiple forms of knowledge, and participation in cultural practices are at the center of students’ engagement with texts” (p. 58).
Like Orellana and her colleagues (2001), we argue that little is known about the transnational funds of knowledge that children bring and the possibilities that these funds may offer to North American students. As the world becomes an increasingly globalized space where issues related to international humanitarianism, business and climate increasingly affect local conditions and experiences, cosmopolitanism, compassion, solidarity and ethics are essential understandings for children that must be nurtured.
Methodology
This collective case study involving ten children from immigrant families who have come to the United States from various parts of the world is ongoing. The current paper is based on the first three years of data collection. The students entered the study when they were in four-year-old kindergarten, kindergarten, grade 1 or grade 2 and had been followed for three years at the time this paper was written. We located these children and their families through various social networks related to our work in local educational spaces—schools and community centres—as well as our connections with international communities. The mid-sized Mid-West city in which the research was conducted has recently experienced a significant increase in the numbers of immigrant families, particularly those from Mexico and South America. In addition, the local university attracts a significant international community.
During the first year of the project, we visited each child at home and school five times. In subsequent years, we visited three times. Each year, we collected observations, spoken data and artefacts. Data sources were carefully identified to highlight the various spaces that the immigrant families occupy or have occupied (i.e. home/neighbourhood/ school, native country/country of residence). Every year, we invited children to complete the same or similar tasks. For example, we asked children to draw a picture of their family’s native country. This allowed us to explore change and continuity across time as regards how the children depict themselves and their native countries. Specifically, data included parent, student and family member interviews, student-created artefacts (e.g. writing samples, maps, photographs), and conversations about these artefacts. Semi-structured interviews focused on children’s school experiences, interests, literacy achievement and literacy practices. We asked questions that invited parents and other family members to share their thoughts about the focal child—his/her preferences, interests and literacy practices.
As we began our analysis of the data, we coded interviews and field notes using a combination of a priori and grounded codes to explore children’s experiences relative to literacy, identity and schooling. Knowing that identity and literacy would be our focus, a priori codes (e.g., child identity, home literacy practices, school literacy practices) were created based on the interview questions we asked participants. Interviews and field notes were then subjected to a grounded analysis resulting in additional codes (e.g., pop culture, language practices, native country). This analysis led to the identification of transnational spaces, as well as insights related to children’s emerging and transnational awareness as significant findings.
Some transnational practices, especially those related to technology, were easily identifiable in the interview transcripts. Others were less visible and we were hesitant to identify these spaces of transnational awareness until we noted that they were reflected in children’s multimodal artefacts including their drawings and photographs. These artefacts provided clues about children’s emerging transnational awareness and cosmopolitan thinking.
An introduction to the families
Data collection: phases 1–3.
Six families are from Mexico. Carlos’ family migrated to the US from Mexico, including his younger brother and younger sister. Carlos’ father works long hours and thus his mother, Ms Gomez, participated in the parent interviews. Ms Gomez has emerging English abilities; thus Spanish-speaking members of the research team have worked with this family. Maya is the third child born to Mexican-born parents. Like her older sister and younger brother, Maya was born in the United States after her parents, Mr and Ms Valencia, immigrated to pursue more promising and financially lucrative jobs. Felipe was born in Veracruz, Mexico and brought to the US at age two. He is the eldest of three siblings. Mr and Ms Hernandez moved to the United States hoping to give their children a better life. Mr Hernandez speaks English fairly well, while Ms Hernandez has struggled to learn English. Lili’s mother, Ms Garcia, moved to the United States shortly after Lili was born; Liz’s brother was born a couple of years later. Lili’s father is an accomplished cook who has worked in several local restaurants. Lupita’s parents were married in Mexico and lived for a year in New York before moving to the mid-West. Both continue to refine their abilities in English. Gabby’s mother is not sure when the family first came to the United States from Mexico. Although Gabby does not speak Spanish, her family was recommended for this study by her first grade teacher who assumed their immigrant status. Following grade 1, Gabby’s family moved to a smaller city about an hour away from Lakeshore. The family struggles economically.
Three families have immigrated from Asian countries. Mr and Ms Li, along with their eldest son, moved from China several years ago and lived in Toronto before moving to the mid-West United States where James was born. The family maintains a strong connection with family and friends in China and Canada, visiting these places every other year. The family speaks Mandarin at home, but English at school, work and in the community. Liz’s mother immigrated from Korea to Alaska where she met Liz’s white American father, Mr Roland. Following their marriage, they moved to Korea and lived for one year while Mr Roland worked as an English teacher at an English Hagwon (private cram school). Elina’s family is from Nepal. Mr Limbu moved to the United States to attend graduate school in Kansas and received his master’s degree. He brought his wife and children to the United States once he secured permanent employment.
Ali’s family immigrated to the United States from Morocco. Following a visit to a sick relative in Morocco, Mr Barami, Ali’s father, was denied re-entry into the United States. The family has stayed in the US with the support of Ali’s uncle. The family speaks Moroccan Arabic and the children are learning to read and write Arabic. Maintaining their Muslim faith is important to this family.
The research team
Our research team has changed as graduate students have joined and later graduated. Across time, the team has included graduate students from Chile, China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States. Several students on the team speak fluent Spanish and/or have resided in Central or South America. Interviews are generally conducted in English, although native languages are sometimes used when requested by participants. Compton-Lilly is white and currently middle-class. She grew up in a low-income family and attended preschool in Taiwan. She is committed to improving the educational experiences of children who bring diverse ways of learning and knowing to American classrooms.
Transnational literacy practices and young children
Our reading and rereading of coded data led us to identify and explore the transnational literacy practices of adults and children in immigrant families. Specifically, we noted how these transnational experiences translated into children’s transnational funds of knowledge. We describe the transnational literacy practices we witnessed across the ten families. These transnational sites of activity are presented as illustrations of the types of practices that contribute to children’s transnational funds of knowledge. For the purposes of our analysis, we define literacy practices as communicative acts—receptive and/or interactive—that involve written texts, video, image, music, movement and/or talk. At first glance, some of these practices may appear frivolous or insignificant (i.e. watching Korean videos, playing video games with international partners, watching cartoons in languages other than English). However, we argue that these practices engage children with other languages, cultural messages and perspectives that contribute to expanded ways of thinking.
Prompts used to elicit student-created artefacts.
Technological challenges
Perhaps reflecting the varied economic resources of families, inequities were evident in the uneven technological access available to the immigrant families. In some families, Internet use was complicated by intermittent Internet connections and unreliable computers. Felipe’s father explained that they have been using an iPod to watch movies because the Internet no longer worked. Ali reported rarely using the computer in his new apartment because he was repeatedly logged off their Internet. When Lupita was in grades one and two the family computer rarely worked and they relied on the library for Internet access.
Several families relied on mobile phones as their primary technological device. Even some families that owned computers continued to rely on mobile phones for international communication because their relatives back home did not have Internet access. After getting a new smartphone, access for Lupita and her family increased substantially and they began to regularly access Facebook, Pandora, Youtube and Skype. Prior to acquiring a used computer, Sara used her second hand iPhone. While the phone did not make or receive calls, Sara accessed her Yahoo account to send email and exchange photographs with family members in Mexico.
Some parents valiantly attempted to use outdated technology. When Lili was in third grade, her mother registered for an early childhood education certification programme. The 15-month course was offered in a hybrid format, which meant that she could do most of the work online and was only required to attend a few face-to-face class sessions. Sara anticipated that this would enable her to work from home while taking care of Lili and her little brother. However, Sara’s “new” used computer was not compatible with the course Blackboard site. Fortunately, Sara was able to attend the class at the centre.
While technology provided opportunities, it also presented challenges that accompanied the novelty of having an Internet connection and antiquated hardware. Some families had their first experiences with technology after they came to the United States. Although Lili’s mother had been studying to be a solicitor, she never used the Internet when she lived in Mexico. Lili’s father noted that in Mexico, “[Widespread computer use] started like 5 years ago [in] those places, like coffee shops … When I was in the school, I never used the Internet or things like that. I learn [to use the computer] on my own down here.”
As Maya’s father reported, in the United States everybody is “try[ing] to learn more of new technologies.”
Attesting to the significance parents placed on digital practices, families persevered despite the challenges that they faced in relation to Internet connections and antiquated devices. In the following sections, we highlight the resourcefulness of families and the funds of knowledge that they developed and shared with their children as they engaged in transnational digital practices. Ultimately, we argue that these digital practices contribute to children’s emerging transnational awareness.
Transnational family literacy practices
In this section we highlight receptive and interactive transnational literacy practices. We differentiate transnational literacies that are primarily receptive and those that involve direct interaction between international participants. Receptive transnational practices include viewing written texts, images, videos and television programmes or listening to music that has been created in other parts of the world. Interactive transnational practices involve direct communication between international participants. These practices might entail social networking platforms, the exchange of texts and photos across international borders, and playing video games across international borders. We recognize that this is a slippery distinction. Many receptive practices drift into becoming interactive ones, such as when a reader posts a comment on a news story she has read in an international newspaper. We make this distinction not because it clearly delimits categories of practice; rather, we believe that receptive and interactive transnational practices contribute to children’s transnational practices in unique and important ways.
Receptive transnational literacy practices
Receptive transnational literacy practices involve texts that people view and read; they are windows on the world allowing parents and children to see and hear texts that often contain diverse perspectives, voices and ideological stances. We observed various means of streaming movies, watching television shows, reading texts and engaging with popular culture from around the world. While many of these practices involved technology, some involved conventional texts, including books.
When asked about reading, several parents claimed that they did not read much while simultaneously describing a vast range of digital literacy practices. For example, Ms Li reported reading Chinese newspapers on her Kindle as well as “electronic magazines” including Time, explaining that they no longer get “the physical paper [copies].” She mentored her son’s use of electronic texts through an online subscription to National Geographic. Ms Hernandez, Felipe’s mother, kept up to date with events in Mexico by reading online Yucatan newspapers. She listened to Mexican music and watched Mexican movies and telenovelas (soap operas) online.
Natesh, Elina’s Nepali father, also read magazines and newspapers online, saying, “Yeah, I do that almost every day.” He read local papers from Nepal and accessed the BBC. Natesh reported that while they did not own books in the Nepali language, he readily found texts online. He reported, “I tend to use the articles on the Internet about money and personal finance.” Liz’s mother used their large-screen television to access the Internet, display family photos and locate books in Korean. As she explained, “I search Internet. And I read the reviews and I check [the] contents of books … then I choose what I need.”
For families far away from extended families, the immediacy of the Internet was important. Rather than seeking out international newspapers, families logged on and immediately accessed current events from around the world. This was particularly important when family members suspected that mainstream American news sources were incomplete or biased. Mr Li reported, “Fox news is pretty biased, so I don’t really trust them.”
Through these technological literacy practices, parents in immigrant families access information, tracked current events and engaged with popular culture from their native countries. In these ways, children were alerted to the existence of a world beyond the American Mid-West. Not only could they see, hear and view texts from around the globe, but they were also privy to multiple perspectives and exposed to multiple ways of making sense of the world. As noted above, receptive practices often overlapped with social and interactive transnational practices, as described in the following section.
Interactive transnational literacy practices
Digital technologies including the Internet, mobile phones, computers, tablets and smart devices, have made transnational interaction and communication widely available. Lam and Rosario-Ramos (2009) note the reduced costs, convenience and increased speed associated with digital communication when compared with traditional telephones and the postal service. We argue that interactive transnational practices contribute an additional layer of significance to the transnational funds of knowledge that develop in immigrant families. While receptive practices entail exposure to places, people and ideas, interactive transnational practices involve friends and family members who generally shared intimate relationships with our participants. This proximity has two effects. First, it means that the transnational perspectives and ideas being shared are less likely to be easily dismissed. Second, the transnational other, who is also a family member or friend, is undeniably real and thus recognized as a person who faces particular joys, challenges, concerns and perspectives, diminishing the propensity for participants to dismiss or deny their experiences and perspectives.
For the Roland family, digital technology provided links to family and friends in Korea. Ms Roland routinely displayed family photos on her Korean blog. Her web page featured texts written in both English and Korean where she wrote about her “life in America” reporting that her friends loved to read her posts. She also used Facebook and Kakaotalk (a Korean instant messenger system) to communicate with relatives and friends in South Korea and across the United States.
Ms Li used QQ International, an international instant messaging site, which she described as being “like a Facebook,” to stay in touch with friends and family in China. She explained that she posted regularly, “I like to write. [The] other day I checked [and] I already wrote like about 40 or more [posts].” She wrote about her family’s experiences in the United States, her children and the Chinese college students whom they regularly hosted at their home. While her online writing is in Chinese, at work she writes in English. As she explained, “I don’t think I can write very good English, especially [to] express myself, the feelings.”
Lili’s mother, Sara, explained that she used digital photographs to talk with her children about Mexico and the relatives they left behind. She explained, “My family send me pictures always I [say to the children], ‘Look, look, this is this’ or ‘Here is where I sleep’ or ‘This my room’ or ‘This is my garden.’” She also reported that family members in Mexico regularly posted videos from her small town on YouTube. As she explained, “I can see my school, my church … or home videos. My brother sends me [videos of] my streets and everything.” Sara speaks longingly of her hometown saying, “all my memories are in Oaxaca.”
At times, members of the research team were recruited by participants to access new technological practices. When we learned that Lili and her family had not visited their relatives in Mexico for more than seven years, a research team member arranged a Skype conversation. After some initial difficulty with Skype, an image of Sara’s three brothers and two sisters-in-law appeared on the screen. The family waved, smiled, and call out “Hola!” For much of the hour of video conferencing, focused on Sara’s three-year-old nephew. His parents displayed the nephew’s plastic table and chair featuring images of “Nemo”, the cartoon fish. Various family members held framed photographs up to the camera for Sara and her family to see. Interactive transnational practices often reflect deep emotions. It is not uncommon for members of the research team to note the sadness with which family members spoke about the people they had left behind. Tears were common as we spoke with parents about the places and the people they left behind.
In some cases, technology provided a vital connection to immediate family members who had been separated by immigration policies and practices. While we purposely did not ask families about their legal status, we learned that Ali’s father had been denied re-entry into the United States after visiting a sick relative in Morocco. Thus, Skype provided a vital link. While Ms. Barami first used Skype to communicate with her husband, as her English improved, she increasingly used technology, including Facebook and email, to communicate with friends around the world and Craigslist to find things she needed. Although not explored in our study, we suspect that other children could also tell stories of separated families.
Clearly parents demonstrated a rich array of interactive literacy practices that involved social networking sites, exchanging photographs and videos, and real-time online conversations. Through these transnational digital practices, children witnessed the lives of people living in their native countries, heard their parents talk about international news reports from other countries and were exposed to issues related to immigration. Significantly, these lessons generally involved friends and family members. They were not news reports of nameless people in faraway places; they were first-hand accounts from people with deep connections to the children and their families. While receptive practices invite children to hear, read and see what happens in other spaces, interactive practices involve trusted others (i.e. friends, relatives, peers) who bring real experiences and lived perspectives that we argue act as the basis for the development of cosmopolitan ways of knowing. Significantly, a synergy exists between receptive and interactive practices; these practices as receptive practices lead to interactions in transnational spaces and interactive practices often inspire people to view international texts, films, images and new reports.
Children’s transnational practices
Moll and his colleagues (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) describe funds of knowledge as bodies of knowledge and ability that are essential for household and individual functioning. We view transnational practices as historically rooted. While often involving new technologies, transnational funds of knowledge reflect the importance of family, the significance of communication, the maintenance of family commitments across long distances—values that are culturally rooted in families we served. Significantly, the speed, availability and low cost of technology have allowed children to participate in both receptive and interactive transnational practices. Across the sample, children observed parents engaging in transnational literacy practices. For example, Liz regularly observed her Korean American mother using the Internet. Together, they watched Korean television programmes and listened to Korean music. Liz demonstrated how she logged herself onto the website, saying, “Mommy sometimes goes here and then she watches her movies.” Unlike her mother, Liz’s favourite shows were Korean cartoons that featured entertaining characters such as Pororo an adventurous penguin, Ggo-ma-bus Tayo a playful but mischievous blue bus and Robocar Poli a vehicle rescue team.
As with their parents, transnational digital practices for children involved long distance relationships. Felipe played Sonic the Hedgehog, Spiderman and zombie video games with his cousins in Mexico. Felipe enthusiastically described battles in Plants vs Zombies video games: “You plant some plants and then, and if any zombie eats your plant[s], you put more plants and sometimes when you almost destroy the zombie [and] his hand falls off and then you destroy his head.” While Sonic the Hedgehog refers to a video game and comic franchise that has roots in both the United States and Japan, Spiderman and Plants vs Zombies are both American creations that have crossed international borders. Translation websites allowed Felipe to play these games with his cousin in Mexico.
Other forms of childhood popular culture have also permeated national borders. For example, Lili regularly visited Spanish websites to access colouring sheets of the Japanese icon “Hello Kitty”. Dora has crossed and recrossed international borders as Hello Kitty drifted from Japan to a Spanish language website and was eventually accessed by Lili in the American Mid-West. Sara bought Lili notebooks that she filled with pictures of her favorite media stars. Lili’s early notebooks featured Disney princesses, Peter Pan, fairies and Dora the Explorer, while later notebooks included pictures of the Cheetah Girls, Selena Gomez and Hannah Montana, as well as scenes from Harry Potter movies. Popular culture was also prominent in Lili’s early reading practices. As Lili explained, “there’s Dora, there’s Diego, and then Blue Clues.” Lili explained that her mother helped her to translate the texts into Spanish, “She does it in English first and then Spanish and then we’re done.”
While Lili loved Dora the Explorer and Disney princesses, Ali and Carlos proudly wore T-shirts adorned with logos from video games and international soccer teams they followed via the Internet. Carlos and his younger brother were observed watching a movie that was originally filmed in English and later dubbed into Spanish. As they watched, Carlos spontaneously translated words and phrases back into English. On another occasion, we observed Carlos and his brother accessing online websites used by their father to follow his favourite Central and South American soccer teams. Like his father, Carlos broadcast these games in Spanish. Finally, both brothers identified their favourite movie as “Rio”—an animated story about the adventures of a macaw from Brazil who is smuggled to Minnesota. Carlos was observed setting the television controls so that the characters spoke Spanish and his mother and father could watch. In these examples, we witnessed children expertly negotiating language through the use of technology.
Parents believed that these transnational literacy practices helped children to maintain their heritage languages. For example, Ms Hernandez reported that she purposely read to Felipe in Spanish and accessed Spanish television saying, “I don’t want him to forget his Spanish.” Ms Roland encouraged Liz to watch movies and television shows in Korean and use the Internet to access Korean storybooks. As she explained, Liz “understands pretty well—Korean television programmes. So we can watch through Internet right now … She knows Korean music too.” Mr and Ms Roland expected Liz to communicate with friends and family in Korean by reading emails and chatting online.
Intersections between receptive and interactive literacy practices are particularly apparent for the children in this study. While the children watch, view, read and listen to texts from around the world, these practices are closely tied to relationships with people both at home and abroad and are deeply connected to language and cultural practices. For example, popular culture associated with childhood readily crossed international borders and the children in our sample shared these pop culture interests with friends and family members as they shared and discussed cartoons, movies, rock stars, books and video games across international borders.
In the following section, we explore the accumulation of these transnational practices in terms of children’s transnational funds of knowledge. In short, we identified a notable emerging awareness on the part of children about differences between their family’s native countries and the American Mid-West. As discussed below, this knowledge is not complete and is sometimes inaccurate; however, we argue that its existence not only highlights a significant and generally overlooked fund of knowledge that children bring to classrooms, but also raises important possibilities for the development of cosmopolitan ways of viewing the world that are increasingly important in a globalized world.
Children’s transnational awareness
In this section we explore a notable and emergent fund of knowledge displayed by children from immigrant families. We define transnational awareness as understandings that transcend the local, involving awareness that people do things differently in other parts of the world and that these differences are reasonable and valid.
The children’s transnational awareness went unnoticed when we initially collected our data. Over time, multimodal texts created by the students (i.e. drawings, photographs, writing samples) revealed rich transnational understandings.
When asked in second grade to draw a picture of her native country of Mexico, Maya drew the picture presented in Figure 1. In addition to the quintessential tree, flowers, sun and clouds, Maya has inserted a thermometer which she described as registering a whopping 100 degrees. Maya uses this thermometer to convey her understanding of Mexico explaining, “it’s really hot.”
Maya’s second grade picture of Mexico.
Elina, from Nepal also commented on climate differences, noting that Nepal is “small and it has a lot of stores and it never, it only snowed once.” During the first year of the project, Elina highlighted language saying, “[In Nepal] they would read the paper … in a different language.” Her brother added that they use different letters to write. He noted that children in Nepal used “the metric unit instead of the US customary [system]” and that the “base unit of money there is rubi … I also know that one dollar from here is 70 rubis in Nepal.”
Orellana et al. (2001) used student created maps to capture students’ insights about their immigration experiences. In our study, children’s map-making conveyed awareness of global spaces. At age 7, Carlos accurately drew the shape of his Mid-Western state and placed a star to indicate the location of “Shoreline”. When asked if he wanted to add anything to his picture, Carlos added a soccer ball at the top of his map and labelled it “America.” He then drew a line from the soccer ball to the bottom of the page and wrote “Mexico team”. On another occasion, Carlos drew maps of the United States and Mexico on two separate sheets of paper; on each map he drew and labelled each country’s flag. When asked where Mexico would be located in relation to America, Carlos correctly responded, “On the bottom.”
Carlos’ awareness of the world was echoed by other children. At age 7, Liz navigated her map of the world. She pointed as she described her picture: This is New York. That’s France. This is airplane. This is lots of suitcase. That’s orange in Korea. And right here’s Texas, Here’s Mexico. Here’s French. Here’s New York. There’s water … I thought this could be Mexico. Maybe, this could maybe Texas. May this could be Korea. Or that can be Korea. And this can be Hawaii. And this can be water. So I need a blue colour. (See Figure 2)
Maya’s second grade picture of Mexico. Maya’s second grade picture of Mexico.
There’s something kind of shaped like a triangle, but it looks like this [James draws a triangular shape]. It’s North America. [James then pointed saying] Here’s land between North America and South America. And then South America. This is Brazil [James draws a circle within a triangle] … And then here, this is Europe, and then here is Asia with a tiny point down there, which is India. [James draws a shape that resembles Africa saying] long ago it was connected to North America and South America.
James was particularly interested in plate tectonics and provided a detailed explanation: There were plates. The plates were like moving apart … Here is the Indian plate which is around India and it includes the Indian ocean [James points]. Here’s part of North America and then the rest of the land connects to each other. [James then referenced his family’s home country saying] Wait, remember that land we were talking about? It’s right here, China. Here’s the land there. It’s right here—Russia.
While transnational awareness on the part of children is notable, misconceptions and stereotypes were evident. As might be expected, children’s transnational knowledge was imperfect and sometimes inaccurate. For example, Lupita described the image of an eagle killing a snake found on the Mexican flag. She correctly inferred that there were snakes in Mexico and then added that “sometimes I watch it in a movie.” She then identified Dora the Explorer as her informational source. Here we witness the merging of multiple sources of information coming together as Lupita connected the snakes on the Mexican flag to an episode of Dora the Explorer.
When asked in grade 1 what she thought about living in America, Maya replied that there were a lot of animals. When asked to clarify, Maya identified “dangerous animals like lions.” Maya’s mother quickly discerned that she was confusing America with Africa. In another confusing incident, James told his mother that people in China did not work. His mother soon realized that James’ misperception stemmed from a visit to her home village during the farming off-season.
Liz’s drawing of the world.
When asked about visiting Korea, Liz expressed concern. Based on news reports on the Korean Internet, Liz was worried about recent bombings by North Korea, earthquakes and “killer mites” that had been discovered in Korea. Liz did not want to visit Korea. There is a bad thing happening. You don’t not look at KBS [Korean Broadcasting System]? North Korea got angry about bombing them. Plus the mites, it was too bouncy. Kids [in the bouncy house] jumped out of the trampoline and fell off [in order to avoid the mites] … And there happened a bad weather, earthquakes and then a little bug on the picnics. Even in China and Japan there are the bugs!!
The data presented in this section make a case for emergence. The transnational awareness of children is neither complete nor consistently accurate. We are not suggesting that five- to eight-year-olds bring complete and accurate representations of the world. However, we do maintain that young children in immigrant families are often developing a notable awareness of transnational issues related to climate, language, geography and time. In short, the children recognize that there is more than one way of living and being and we maintain that this awareness is significant and essential as we prepare children for an increasingly globalized world.
James’ map.
The challenge for educators will be to build on children’s transnational funds of knowledge while also challenging stereotypes and misinformation. This can result in important learning, not only for the immigrant children who occupy our classrooms, but also for their American peers who may bring few international experiences and/or only receptive transnational practices to classrooms.
Conclusions
If cosmopolitanism is viewed as a “fundamental orientation to the stranger, a welcoming of difference” (Ong, 2009: 450), then it is among the goals of social justice educators. Alongside accounts that ask how we as educators can promote and foster cosmopolitanism stances (Hawkins, 2014; Hull et al., 2010), consistent with funds of knowledge perspectives (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Moll et al., 1992), we suggest that, to a marked degree, cosmopolitan perspectives are being fostered in immigrant families and that this development should be viewed as an important fund of knowledge that children from immigrant families bring to schools and classrooms. As Orellana (2016) notes, “immigrant children are treated like baggage, to be brought along or left behind. They are not for the most part viewed and valued as actors and agents in their own rights, whose actions influence the course of events now, as well as in the future” (p. 5). We challenge this view by highlighting the contribution that children in immigrant children can make to classrooms and communities.
Our research echoes the work of scholars (Blommaert et al., 2005; Hull & Stornaiuolo, 2010; Jimenez et al., 2009; Lam and Warriner, 2012) who have noted how digital practices have enabled children to participate both receptively and interactively with people around the world. We agree with Orellana (2016) that “schools have historically played an important role in shoring up borders: between languages, contexts (e.g., home and school), generations (adults and kids), subject matter/disciplines, and kinds of kids (distinguished by age, gender, ethnicity, language, presumed abilities, and more)” (p. xii). With this in mind, we argue that attending to the transnational funds of knowledge that children bring to school is critical to creating schools that invite global awareness and a cosmopolitan perspective. Our research highlights movement, fluidity and the flow of ideas. As Hull and Stornaiuolo (2014) maintain, “cultural flows of ideas, artifacts, texts and images become our resources for making meaning and self-imagining across national, cultural, textual, and linguistic borders” (p. 16). We witnessed this as children drew on their participation in transnational communication—both receptive and interactive. They displayed understandings related to climate, money, measurement and time and gained an awareness of the spaces that comprise the world. Perhaps most significantly, interactive practices provided opportunities for children to learn about life in other parts of the world through the eyes of people who share trusted relationships with children and their families.
The transnational awareness of the children in our sample provides evidence of emerging funds of knowledge that may provide the basis for how children’s “identities as cosmopolitan citizens may be realized in practice, and how dialogue can be fostered and sustained across differences in culture, language, ideology, and geography” (Hull & Stornaiuolo, 2014: 37). Hull and Stornaiuolo ask how educators might foster cosmopolitan thinking. Based on our analysis, we argue that cosmopolitan ways of thinking are already being developed in many immigrant families as family members communicate across international borders using both conventional and digital modalities. Recognition of children’s transnational awareness is particularly significant for educators. First, educators must be willing to create spaces in their classrooms for the investigation of transnational issues and the honouring of children’s transnational experiences. This is not easy work and will entail a significant set of considerations and caveats:
What bodies of transnational knowledge should be shared in classrooms? Careful consideration must be given to issues related to immigration, citizenship and Green Cards. There will be times when children’s direct experiences with these issues should not be shared in the public spaces of classrooms. What is the role of transnational popular culture in classrooms? How can it be leveraged to support students’ literacy learning? How might the transnational nature of popular culture texts be recognized and explored? How might power differentials that operate across transnational spaces be revealed and explored? How can children’s transnational funds of knowledge be recognized to present alternative perspectives on global issues and international events? How might we recognize and honour the transnational funds of knowledge that children bring without sensationalizing the experiences and perspectives of children and their families?
In short, transnationalism invites conversations across social and political boundaries and raises issues related to the uneven power dynamics that accompany transnational, translingual and transliterate practices (Blommaert et al., 2005). Hawkins (2014) calls for a “critical cosmopolitanism” that takes into consideration “ideologies, positionings, and power relations among people that are integral to and inherent in place and represented, distributed and reified through the movements and flows of specific resources among specific people in specific places” (p. 91). We argue that American classrooms are increasingly becoming possible sites for important conversations that draw on children’s transnational awareness, while asking questions about power, access and possibility.
Finally, teachers must give careful consideration to the materials and resources that might be used to raise and explore transnational issues. Books, digital texts and videos must be selected carefully with the awareness that all texts present some perspectives and not others. Thus a critical stance is essential as teachers invite students to engage with transnational funds of knowledge in schools and classrooms.
This analysis raises two significant implications for research and education. First, we must recognize that children not only know things about people and places around the world, but also that they are developing cosmopolitan sensibilities that highlight different ways of being, acting and understanding the world. Second, we must understand that children, like all people, are susceptible to mainstream accounts of others and the assumptions and biases that are often embedded in those accounts. As Orellana (2016) maintains, “Our planet is facing tremendous ecological, cultural, economic, and social crises … to find global solutions to global problems, we need to cultivate new ways of thinking, doing, being, and acting” (p. 134). As educators, we must ourselves aspire to richer cosmopolitan understandings of the world, so that we have the knowledge we need to help all children to recognize themselves as global citizens.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: Portions of this project were supported by a small grant from the University of Wisconsin Madison.