Date Approved

4-16-2020

Embargo Period

4-16-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Education

Department

Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Isik-Ercan, Zeynep

Committee Member 1

Abraham, Stephanie

Committee Member 2

Wassell, Beth

Keywords

discourse, immigrant, Latinx, raciolinguistics, resistance, transcultural/translinguistic

Subject(s)

Middle school students; Multilingualism in children; Sociolinguistics

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Language and Literacy Education | Secondary Education

Abstract

This qualitative case study grounded in ethnographic methods examined how transcultural and translinguistic students responded to ideological discourses in their school community. I explored the discourses of social power and hierarchical structures and ideological discourses present in the students' experiences, and investigated how they accepted or rejected the ideologies exhibited in these discourses. This research was motivated by three questions: (1) What are the discourses of social power and hierarchical structures present in the experiences of middle-school Latinx transcultural and translinguistic students in their school community? (2) What ideological discourses are enacted in these experiences? (3) How do these students respond to the ideologies exhibited in oppressive discourses? Raciolinguistics and New Literacy Studies were used as theoretical frameworks; and data collection methods consisted of critical focus-group discussions, semi-structured and image-elicited interviews, and emplaced and active observations. The findings facilitated the development of transresistance, a frame that explains how translingual and translinguistic students respond to oppressive ideological discourses in a more systematic, intentional, and sophisticated manner than previously determined. The implications of these findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.

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