A parent-researcher examines two adolescent immigrants’ educational journey to success through the analysis of positioning theory and negotiated identities. Through the boys’ direct voices about their schooling experiences with a particular focus on the middle and high school years in the United States, this article reports on the complexities of their identity negotiation and the process of their self-positioning and interactive positioning. This longitudinal study suggests that, rather than a single focus on language or culture, the immigrant students’ critical awareness of identity, negotiated identities, and external confirmation of unique abilities enable them to construct and reconstruct the context that contributes to their success. This study aims to help educators reframe the dialogue on immigrant students to include a new voice, from their own perspectives, of how they have been able to be successful in the U.S. social and educational systems.
AdamsJ. L.HarréR. (2001). Gender positioning: A sixteenth/seventeenth century example. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31(3), 331–338.
2.
AlfaroE. C.Umaña-TaylorA. J.Gonzales-BackenM. A.BámacaM. Y.ZeidersK. H. (2009). Latino adolescents’ academic success: The role of discrimination, academic motivation, and gender. Journal of Adolescence, 32(4), 941–962.
3.
AuK. H. (1993). Literacy instruction in multicultural settings. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.
4.
BissexG. L. (1980). Gnys at wrk: A child learns to write and read. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
BlackledgeA.PavlenkoA. (2001). Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(3), 243–257.
6.
BogdanR. (1973). Participant observation. Peabody Journal of Education, 50(4), 302–308.
7.
BorreroN. E.YehC. J. (2010). Ecological English language learning among ethnic minority youth. Educational Researcher, 39(8), 571–581.
8.
CanabalM. E. (1998). College student degree of participation in the labor force: Determinants and relationship to school performance. College Student Journal, 32(4), 597–606.
9.
CarpenterB. (1997). Empowering parents: The use of the parent as researcher paradigm in early intervention. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 6(4), 391–398.
10.
ChapmanT. K. (2007). Interrogating classroom relationships and events: Using portraiture and critical race theory in education research. Educational Researcher, 36(3), 156–162.
11.
ClandininD. J.ConnellyF. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
12.
ConnellyF. M.ClandininD. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry. In GreenJ. L.CamilliG.ElmoreP. (Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (3rd ed., pp. 477–487). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
13.
CreswellJ. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
14.
CumminsJ. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
15.
DavidsonA. L. (1996). Making and molding identity in schools: Student narratives on race, gender, and academic engagement. Albany: State University of New York Press.
16.
DaviesB.HarréR. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20, 43–63.
FadermanL. (1998). “I begin my life over”: The Hmong and the American experience. Boston, MA: Beacon.
19.
FuD. (1995). My trouble is my English: Asian students and their American dreams. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
20.
GeeJ. P. (2001). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. In SecadaW. (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 25, pp. 99–125). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
21.
GibsonM. (1988). Accommodation without assimilation: Sikh immigrants in an American high school. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
22.
GonzálezN.MollL. C.AmantiC. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practice in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
GoodwinA. L. (2010). Curriculum as colonizer: (Asian) American education in the current U.S. context. Teachers College Record, 112(12), 3102–3138.
24.
GutiérrezK. D.OrellanaM. F. (2006). At last: The “problem” of English learners: Constructing genres of difference. Research in the Teaching of English, 40(4), 502–507.
25.
HallS. (1996). Introduction: Who needs identity? In HallS.du GayP. (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London, UK: Sage.
26.
HarréR.MoghaddamF. (2003). The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political, and cultural contexts. Westport, CT: Praeger.
HernandezD. J.DentonN. A.MaCartneyS. (2009). School-age children in immigrant families: Challenges and opportunities for America’s schools. Teachers College Record, 111(3), 616–658.
29.
HoldawayJ.AlbaR. (2009). Introduction: Educating immigrant youth: The role of institutions and agency. Teachers College Record, 111(3), 597–615.
30.
HollwayW. (1984). Gender difference and the production of subjectivity. In HenriquesJ.HollwayW.UrwinC.VennC.WalkerdineV. (Eds.), Changing the subject: Psychology, social regulation and subjectivity (pp. 227–263). London, UK: Methuen.
31.
HowieD. (1999). Preparing for positive positioning. In HarréR.van LangenhoveL. (Eds.), Positioning theory (pp. 53–59). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
32.
HsiehM. (2006). Identity development of East Asian female international students with implications for second language higher education. Education, 127(1), 3–15.
33.
KimJ. (2010). Walking in the “swampy lowlands” what it means to be a middle level narrative inquirer. In MaluK. F. (Ed.), Voices from the middle: Narratives for, by and about the middle level community (pp. 1–17). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
34.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 465–491.
35.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2000). Racialized discourses and ethnic epistemologies. In DenzinN.LincolnY. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 257–277). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
LeeG. (2003). Understanding immigrated Korean children’s educational needs. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 39(4), 168–172.
37.
LeeS. J. (1994). Behind the model-minority stereotype: Voices of high- and low-achieving Asian American students. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 25(4), 413–429.
38.
LeeS. J. (2001). More than “model minorities” or “delinquents”: A look at Hmong American high school students. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 505–528.
39.
LewisC.del ValleA. (2009). Literacy and identity: Implications for research and practice. In ChristenburyL.BomerR.SmagorinskyP. (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent literacy research (pp. 307–322). New York, NY: Guilford.
40.
LiG.WangL. (Eds.). (2008). Model minority myths revisited: An interdisciplinary approach to demystifying Asian American education experiences. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
41.
LongS. (1998). Learning to get along: Language acquisition and literacy development in a new cultural setting. Research in the Teaching of English, 33, 8–47.
42.
LongS. (2004). Passionless text and phonics first: Through a child’s eyes. Language Arts, 81(5), 417–426.
43.
MillerJ. M. (2000). Language use, identity, and social interaction: Migrant students in Australia. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 33(1), 69–100.
44.
MishlerE. G. (2004). Historians of the self: Restorying lives, revising identities. Research in Human Development, 1(1), 101–121.
45.
MojeE.LukeA. (2009). Literacy and identity: Examining the metaphors in history and contemporary research. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 415–437.
46.
NgoB. (2010). Unresolved identities: Discourse, ambivalence, and urban immigrant students. Albany: State University of New York Press.
47.
NortonB. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. New York, NY: Longman.
48.
OgbuJ. (1978). Minority education and caste: The American system in cross cultural perspective. New York, NY: Academic Press.
49.
OgbuJ. (1987). Variability in minority school performance: A problem in search of an explanation. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 18(4), 312–334.
50.
OrellanaM. F. (2001). The work kids do: Mexican and central American immigrant children’s contributions to households and schools in California. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 366–389.
51.
PerryK. H.Purcell-GatesV. (2005). Resistance and appropriation: Literacy practices as agency within hegemonic contexts. Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, 54, 272–285.
52.
PhinneyJ. S.HorenczykG.LiebkindK.VedderP. (2001). Ethnic identity, immigration, and well-being: An interactional perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3), 493–510.
53.
RongX. L.PreissleJ. (1998). Educating immigrant students: What we need to know to meet the challenges. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
54.
RongX. L.PreissleJ. (2009). Educating immigrant students in the 21st century: What educators need to know (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
55.
SchlesingerA. (2002). The return to the melting pot. In TakakiR. (Ed.), Debating diversity (pp. 257–259). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
56.
SobelA.KuglerE. G. (2007). Building partnerships with immigrant parents. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 62–66.
57.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
58.
Suárez-OrozcoM. (2001). Globalization, immigration, and education: The research agenda. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 345–365.
59.
TanS. L.MoghaddamF. M. (1995). Reflexive positioning and culture. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 25(4), 388–400.
60.
TanS. L.MoghaddamF. M. (1999). Positioning in intergroup relations. In HarréR.van LangenhoveL. (Eds.), Positioning theory (pp. 178–194). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
61.
TaylorD. M.BougieE.CaouetteJ. (2003). Applying positioning principles to a theory of collective identity. In HarréR.MoghaddamF. (Eds.), The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political, and cultural contexts (pp. 197–215). Westport, CT: Praeger.
62.
ThaoP. (1999). Hmong education at the crossroads. New York, NY: University Press of America.
63.
Ting-ToomeyS. (1993). Communication resourcefulness: An identity-negotiation perspective. In WisemanR.KoesterJ. (Eds.), Intercultural communication competence (pp. 72–111). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
64.
VygotskyL. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
65.
WalshC. A. (1991). Pedagogy and the struggle for voice: Issues of language, power, and schooling for Puerto Ricans. Toronto, Canada: OISE Press.
66.
YoonB. (2007). Offering or limiting opportunities: Teachers’ roles and approaches to English language learners’ participation in literacy activities. Reading Teacher, 61(3), 216–225.
