Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Transnational students and educational change

  • Published:
Journal of Educational Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article discusses some educational issues introduced by the uprise of transnational students in global educational systems. It demonstrates the relevance of these issues for the field of educational change, in particular, topics of diversity and globalization that are in need of greater attention in the Journal of Educational Change. The article presents a recent conceptual and empirically-based framework—a transnationally-inclusive approach to literacy education. This framework provides a model through which educational systems and those who inhabit them can equitably and innovatively respond to the opportunities and challenges that transnational students present to education. The article concludes with some considerations of how the field of educational change is uniquely poised to generate research, theory, and practice that can promote productive change pertaining to transnational students and education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ball, A. F. (2009). Toward a theory of generative change in culturally and linguistically complex classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 46(1), 45–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, R. W. (2009). English-language learners, fan communities, and 21st century skills. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(8), 688–697.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coe, C., Reynolds, R. R., Boehm, D. A., Hess, J. M., & Rae-Espinoza, J. (Eds.). (2011). Everyday ruptures: Children, youth, and migration in global perspective. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Lima, J. A. (2001). Forgetting about friendship: Using conflict in teacher communities as a catalyst for school change. Journal of Educational Change, 2(2), 97–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeJaeghere, J., & Vu, L. (2015). Transnationalism and its analytic possibilities for CIDE. In J. C. Weidman & W. J. Jacob (Eds.), Beyond the comparative: Advancing theory and its application to practice (pp. 269–291). Rotterdam: Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fullan, M. (2000). The return of large-scale reform. Journal of Educational Change, 1(1), 5–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Huidobro, J. C., Nannemann, A., Bacon, C. K., & Thompson, K. (2017). Evolution in educational change: A literature review of the historical core of the “Journal of Educational Change”. Journal of Educational Change, 18(3), 263–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, J., & Lewis, T. (2011). Exploring the local/global boundary in developing countries: The case of the Caribbean. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 41(6), 721–734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodson, I. (2001). Social histories of educational change. Journal of Educational Change, 2(1), 45–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamann, E. T., & Zúñiga, V. A. (2011). Schooling and the everyday ruptures transnational children encounter in the United States and Mexico. In C. Coe, R. R. Reynolds, D. A. Boehm, J. M. Hess, & H. Rae-Espinoza (Eds.), Everyday ruptures: Children, youth, and migration in global perspective (pp. 141–160). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2014). The global fourth way: The quest for educational excellence. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam, W. S. E., & Rosario-Ramos, E. (2009). Multilingual literacies in transnational digitally mediated contexts: An exploratory study of immigrant teens in the United States. Language and Education, 23(2), 171–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lam, W. S. E., & Warriner, D. S. (2012). Transnationalism and literacy: Investigating the mobility of people, languages, texts, and practices in contexts of migration. Reading Research Quarterly, 47(2), 191–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesko, N. (2012). Act your age! A cultural construction of adolescence (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. (2001). The transnational villagers. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McLean, C. (2010). A space called home: An immigrant adolescent’s digital literacy practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(1), 13–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moutsios, S. (2009). International organisations and transnational education policy making. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 39(4), 467–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oakes, J., & Lipton, M. (2002). Struggling for educational equity in diverse communities: School reform as social movement. Journal of Educational Change, 3(3–4), 383–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, J. (1965). The vertical mosaic: An analysis of social class and power in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, J. (2000). The activist professional. Journal of Educational Change, 1(1), 77–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skerrett, A. (2008). Racializing educational change: Melting pot and mosaic influences on educational policy and practice. Journal of Educational Change, 9(3), 261–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skerrett, A. (2012). Languages and literacies in translocation: Experiences and perspectives of a transnational youth. Journal of Literacy Research, 44(4), 364–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skerrett, A. (2015). Teaching transnational youth: Literacy and education in a changing world. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skerrett, A. (2016). Refiguring a Caribbean school within and across local and global communities. Journal of Professional and Community Capital, 1(4), 254–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skerrett, A. (2018). Advancing theoretical perspectives on transnationalism in literacy research and practice. In D. A. Alvermann, N. J. Unrau, M. Sailors, & R. Ruddell (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of literacy (7th ed., pp. 497–513). New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. P. (1994). “Can you imagine?” Transnational migration and globalization of grassroots politics. Social Text, 39, 15–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. P., & Guarnizo, L. E. (Eds.). (1998). Transnationalism from below. New Brunswick: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soong, H. (2016). Transnational students and mobility: Lived experiences of migration. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoll, L. (2009). Capacity building for school improvement or creating capacity for learning? A changing landscape. Journal of Educational Change, 10(2–3), 115–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timperley, H. S., & Robinson, V. M. J. (2001). Achieving school improvement through challenging and changing teachers’ schema. Journal of Educational Change, 2(4), 281–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torres, A. (1995). Between melting pot and mosaic: African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York’s political economy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyack, D., & Tobin, W. (1994). The “grammar” of schooling: Why has it been so hard to change? American Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 453–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF. (2017). Child migration and displacement. Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-migration-and-displacement/migration/.

  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2016). Youth issue briefs 2016: Youth and migration. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-migration.pdf.

  • Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weidman, J. C., & Jacob, W. J. (Eds.). (2011). Beyond the comparative: Advancing theory and its application to practice (pp. 269–291). Rotterdam: Sense.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zúñiga, V., & Hamann, E. T. (2009). Sojourners in Mexico with US school experience: A new taxonomy for transnational students. Comparative Education Review, 53(3), 329–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, D5700, 1912 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Allison Skerrett

Authors
  1. Allison Skerrett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Allison Skerrett.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Skerrett, A. Transnational students and educational change. J Educ Change 21, 499–509 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09369-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-020-09369-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation