Abstract

There is limited research concerning literacy practices of Syrian and Burmese refugee students and their families in the U.S. To help address this gap, drawing upon New Literacy Studies, this qualitative study explores the social literacy practices of Syrian and Burmese refugee families and how these practices are situated in wider cultural contexts. Primary data include ethnographic interviews, and secondary data include observations, artifacts provided by the participants, and informal conversations. Based on data analysis, a significant common theme across data corpus– religious literacy practices – is generated. Findings illustrate that religious literacy practices play a significant role and contribute to participants reading and writing development. Findings further illustrated how families engaged with domain specific practices in multiple ways in the local community to meet the needs of culturally relevant literacy practices in their everyday lives. This study contributes to existing literature with refugee students and literacy education. It also calls attention to empower the students’ culturally relevant access and agency in both home and adopted land contexts.

摘要

关于在美国的叙利亚和缅甸难民学生及其家庭的扫盲实践的研究有限 为了帮助解决这一差距，利用新扫盲研究，这项定性研究探讨了叙利亚和缅甸难民家庭的社会扫盲实践以及这些实践如何位于更广泛的文化背景中。主要数据包括人种学访谈，次要数据包括观察、参与者提供的人工制品和非正式对话。基于数据分析，生成了跨数据语料库的一个重要的共同主题——宗教素养实践。调查结果表明，宗教扫盲实践发挥着重要作用，并有助于参与者的阅读和写作发展。调查结果进一步说明了家庭如何在当地社区以多种方式参与特定领域的实践，以满足他们日常生活中与文化相关的扫盲实践的需求。这项研究有助于现有的关于难民学生的文献和扫盲教育。它还呼吁注意赋予学生在家庭和领地环境中与文化相关的访问和代理权。