Abstract
This special issue of the Journal of Literacy Research (JLR) features global, international, and transnational scholarship. In this volume, readers will find articles written by international scholars, transnational scholars, and scholars working with transnational populations. Together these pieces speak to the contributions of scholars around the world and the significance of global movements for literacy educators.
Our focus is both broad and fraught—historically, methodologically, and in terms of representation. As Tierney, Smith, and Wei write in the extended Insights piece, “the downsides of . . . Western self-indulgence include a failure to be exposed to and informed by non-Western values, interests, and perspectives, and the habitual and overshadowing characterizations of non-Westerners by Westerners.” They warn, “Perhaps the greatest danger . . . is epistemicide—the extinction of non-Western ways of knowing and scholarship focused upon local interest.” We believe that this volume begins to speak to these erasures and reminds readers of the vast range of valuable scholarship beyond the boundaries of Western thought.
With Tierney et al., we recognize that “literacy education research journals are not exceptions to these circumstances. In the preeminent literacy research journals, the authors, reviewers, and forms of research presented are Western, with citations dominated by Western scholars’ publications.” As the authors explain, this statement is true for the JLR. While one issue could never right the ills of generations of scholars, this issue—created with unsolicited articles—reminds us of the importance of recognizing and supporting global contributions to literacy. It is our hope that scholars engaged in global literacy will continue to contribute to JLR.
Across this volume, readers will encounter case studies of Indigenous Taiwanese children; explore the nuances of motivation from the perspectives of Chinese, Japanese, and American students; and examine how immigrant and refugee students bring their ideas and experiences to texts.
Hsin and Yu examined literacy and identity development for Indigenous Rukai children living in Taiwanese cities and villages. They found that all children learned literacies in culturally meaningful contexts that involved stories and hybrid literacy practices, religious activities, Indigenous language, and traditional life skills. However, their study also revealed significant differences. Specifically, the two city children developed Rukai knowledge and literacies through performance-based contexts, whereas the village children learned through engagement with authentic activities (e.g., farming, weaving, hunting). The authors’ analysis suggests that Indigenous literacy practices and identity construction for the two city children may have been undermined by limited access to Rukai resources, stemming from racism, classism, and linguicism.
Two of the articles in this volume focus on reading motivation in international contexts. Wang and Jin undertook a cross-cultural validation study of the Chinese Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (CMRQ). After implementing the CMRQ with a sample of 522 seventh through ninth graders at two public schools in eastern China, they used confirmatory factor analyses, item-total correlation analyses, and reliability analyses to assess the psychometric quality of the CMRQ. The results indicated that the three-factor model for the competence beliefs scale, the six-factor model for the goals for reading scale, and the two-factor model for the social motivation scale fit the data properly. The authors’ research demonstrated that students scored highest on intrinsic motivation, followed by social motivation, competence beliefs, and then extrinsic motivation. The findings confirm the existence of several distinguishable dimensions of reading motivation.
In another study of reading motivation, Kambara and Lin examined motivation for American and Japanese students. This cross-cultural investigation considered differences that correlated with nationality and gender differences. Drawing on reading motivation questionnaires completed by fourth-grade students in the United States (n = 94) and Japan (n = 102), results indicated that American students demonstrated higher reading motivation than Japanese students on most dimensions, including Self-Efficacy, Challenges, Curiosity, Importance, Involvement, Recognition, Grades, Competition, and Social. The authors identified culture as impacting student reading motivation and explored specifically how individualistic and collectivistic cultures influence students’ reading motivation. Significant gender differences in reading motivation were not apparent across the two countries.
The final two articles present the experiences of students who have relocated to the United States. Vehabovic draws on a multiple case study to explore how picture books can be used to engage refugee students in critical conversations. The article reports on an after-school program that provides learning support to children from refugee backgrounds. This analysis illuminates the experiences and perspectives of four refugee children as they interacted with and engaged in dialogic reading of picture books. Findings revealed that children from refugee backgrounds identified problematic assumptions operating in stories, reflected on the different and contradictory perspectives presented, articulated the power relationships among characters, and offered alternative interpretations that highlighted social justice. This research highlights the potential of critical literacy for revealing the strengths and abilities of young translingual students.
Finally, Omogun and Skerrett report on a textual analysis of an autobiographically informed novel, American Street, to explore identity formation for a Black Haitian immigrant youth living in the United States. The goal of their study was to provide insight into the role of languages and literacies for Black immigrant youth as they (re)construct their identities in new spaces. Their analysis revealed the significance of youth resistance to raciolinguistic ideologies, reliance on Haitian faith literacies, and the deployment of multiliteracy practices as tools for (re)constructing identity. The authors call for more research that illuminates the complexity of the language and literacy processes as Black immigrant youth negotiate identity in new homelands.
We believe that the articles in this volume highlight the power of global, international, and transnational literacy scholarship. We hope that this special issue reminds readers of the important research that is being conducted in global and transnational spaces. As the world becomes increasingly connected—through technology, trade, and immigration—we must intentionally and respectfully recognize and honor global literacy research.