‘Flatbread and lollipops:’ social funds of identity in the trilingual journey of a refugee-background student

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper was to examine the role of social Funds of Identity (FoI), as expressed in significant others, in the promotion of language learning for a young refugee-background child. It is based on an ethnographic study that spanned across two years, shortly after the relocation of the child and her family in the U.S. The findings are structured in three themes: (a) activities that promoted language learning; (b) artifacts that symbolized achievement in language learning; and (c) discourses that promoted a multilingual learner identity. The significance of this study lies on its aim to expand the FoI with attention to specific ways in which FoIs are negotiated in the dialectic space of interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Social funds of identity
• significant others
• figured worlds
• language learning
• multilingual identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eleni Oikonomidoy

Eleni Oikonomidoy is Professor of Multicultural Education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno, U.S.A. Her research focuses on the academic and social integration experiences of recently arrived immigrant and refugee students, while she also conducts research with underrepresented students in higher education. She is the author of the book Critical Cosmopolitanism in Diverse Students' lives (2018), which was published by Routledge. She has authored numerous journal articles in academic journals, including Cambridge Journal of Education; Pedagogy, Culture, and Society; Journal of Language, Identity and Education; Multicultural Perspectives.

Fares Karam

Fares J. Karam is an Associate Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno. His scholarship focuses on the language and literacy development of multilingual learners from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. His research has appeared in such journals as TESOL Quarterly, International Journal of Multilingualism, and Research in the Teaching of English, among others. He is currently working on two co-edited volumes (under contract): Critical Dialogic TESOL Teacher Education: Preparing Future Advocates and Supporters of Multilingual Learners (Bloomsbury) and Innovative Qualitative Methodologies in Multilingual Literacy Development Research: Amplifying Voices from Immigrant, Transnational, and Refugee Communities (John Benjamins).