Investigating out-of-classroom language and literacy practices of secondary Karen background refugee students

This post forms part of our series in showcasing abstracts of presentations featured at the 2019 Migration, Refugees and Statelessness conference, hosted in November 2019 at The University of Melbourne.

Vincent Jian Liang – Melbourne Graduate School of Education

This research project aims to explore the out-of-classroom language and literacy practices of secondary refugee students from the Karen-speaking ethnic minority group originally from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (also known as Burma). From the exploration, this research intends to investigate the existing language and literacy knowledge of Karen refugee students. The intended investigation is contextually situated in the analysis of the language practices employed in the social context outside the classroom, as well as the literacy practices represented in the forms of gestures, graphics, and text messages from local communities. Additionally, this research attempts to incorporate the language and literacy resources that Karen refugee students have accumulated throughout the migration journey into the required and expected language and literacy education in Australian schooling.

To achieve the research aim, this research project will employ the multimodal ethnographic method (Kalaja & Melo-Pfeifer, 2019) and the walking interview biographical method (O’Neill & Roberts, 2020) to elicit the language and literacy knowledge of Karen refugee students. Specifically, Bendigo will be the research site for recruiting students from local secondary schools and conducting interviews with Karen related workers and stakeholders. The cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 2001) will be adopted to analyse symbolic artefacts such as traditional costumes and woven goods which are considered as the primary means of transmitting knowledge in the Karen community. This study will provide an exciting opportunity to advance our knowledge of Karen refugee students cross-disciplinarily in the field of Applied Linguistics, Language and Literacy Development and Refugee Studies.

Vincent Liang is a recent Master of Teaching (Secondary) graduate who has been recently awarded the Suzanne and Geoffrey Dawson scholarship from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. His research aims to enhance social justice advancement in educational settings and to provide equality of access to learning in identified communities.