Cover not available

In:Innovative Qualitative Methodologies in Multilingual Literacy Development Research: Amplifying voices from immigrant, transnational, and refugee communities
Edited by Amanda K. Kibler and Fares J. Karam
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 11] 2025
► pp. 184–205

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 10
Embodied reflexivity and researching the literacy practices of an adolescent multilingual refugee who is d/Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing

 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Published online: 7 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.11.10dav
Abstract
In this chapter I extend recent scholarship on researcher subjectivities in Applied Linguistics by considering affective, spatial, and corporeal dimensions of reflexivity and positionality. I draw from ethnographic research on the multisemiotic language and literacy practices of Madou (a pseudonym), an adolescent refugee student from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who was diagnosed as having a severe hearing impairment upon his arrival to the United States as a middle schooler. I conclude by presenting implications for how considering positionality as embodied can yield novel analyses and foster relational ethics in research on the literacy development of multilingual learners from immigrant, transnational, and refugee backgrounds, including those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DML).
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Overview of the study and its findings
    • Background and theoretical framings
    • Research context and participants
    • Research design
    • Classroom observations
    • Mediated and unmediated interviews
    • Analysis of writing
    • Example of findings: Madou the scribe
  • Methodological discussion: Rethinking positionality for more equitable research
    • Embodied reflexivity
    • Positioning in the field: What is seen and not seen
    • Writing as witnessing
    • The research design and the role of intermediaries
  • Implications for qualitative research on multilingual literacy development
    • Considerations for incorporating embodied reflexivity in research on multilingual literacy
  • Notes
  • References
References (42)
References
Ali, A. I., & Talbert, R. L. (2024). Accountable to whom?: Relational accountability in social research. Anthropology & Education Quarterly. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Behar, R. (1997). Vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart. Beacon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. & Dong Jie (2010). Ethnographic fieldwork: A beginner’s guide. Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M., Campbell, E. W., Cevallos, T., Cruz, V., Fawcett, A. Z., Guerrero, B., Lydon, K., Mendoza, I. G., Peters, S. L., & Reyes Basurto, G. (2023). Researcher positionality in linguistics: Lessons from undergraduate experiences in community-centered collaborative research. Language and Linguistics Compass, 17(4). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Canagarajah, S. (2022). A decolonial crip linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 44(1), 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cannon, J. E., Guardino, C., & Paul, P. V. (2022). Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learners: Foundations, strategies, and resources. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chilisa, M. (2019). Indigenous research methodologies. Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cioè-Peña, M. (2021). Raciolinguistics and the education of emergent bilinguals labeled as disabled. Urban Review, 53(3), 443–469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culhane, D. (2016). Sensing. In D. Elliot & D. Culhane (Eds.), A different kind of ethnography: Imaginative practices and creative methodologies (pp. 45–67). University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dávila, L. T. (2008). Language and opportunity in the “Land of Opportunity”: Latina immigrants’ reflections on language learning and professional mobility. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 7(4), 356–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Learning English and “smartness”: Refugee students negotiate language, reception, and ability in school. Journal of Southeast Asian Education and Advancement, 8, 1–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Multilingualism and identity: Articulating “African-ness” in an American high school. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 22(5), 634–646. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020). Multilingual peer group learning in high school ESL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 54(1), 30–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Newcomer refugee youth negotiate language, literacy, and civic education. Special Issue of the British Educational Research Journal, 47(4), 855–871. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dávila, L. T. & Susberry, V. (2021). Multimodal and multilingual co-authoring in high school Social Studies ESL classrooms. In D. Shin, T. Cimasko, & Y. Yi (Eds.), Multimodal composing in K-16 ESL and EFL education: Multilingual perspectives (pp. 55–71). Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dávila, L. T. & Doukmak, N. (2022). Immigration debated: Central African immigrant youths’ discourses of fairness and civic belonging in the United States. Equity & Excellence in Education, 55(1–2), 118–132. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2018). The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (5th ed., pp. 1–32). Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Depaepe, M., & Kikumbi, A. L. (2018). Educating girls in Congo: An unsolved pedagogical paradox since colonial times? Policy Futures in Education, 16(8), 936–952. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, L. (1982). Total communication: Structure and strategy. Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Field-Springer, K. (2020). Reflexive embodied ethnography with applied sensibilities: Methodological reflections on involved qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 20(2), 194–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, O., & Li Wei. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Griffin, D. J. (2021). American Sign Language and English bilingualism: Educators’ perspectives on a bicultural education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(6), 757–770. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hare, K. A. (2020). Collecting sensorial litter: Ethnographic reflexive grappling with corporeal complexity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kangas, S. E. N. (2021). “Is it language or disability?”: An ableist and monolingual filter for English learners with disabilities. TESOL Quarterly, 55(3), 673–683. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leonard, W. Y. (2021). Toward an anti-racist linguistic anthropology. An indigenous response to White supremacy. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 31(2), 218–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li Wei. (2022). Translanguaging as method. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 1(3), Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1972). Vicissitudes of the study of the total communication process. In T. Sebeok, A. Hayes, & M. C. Bateson (Eds.), Approaches to semiotics: Cultural anthropology, education, linguistics, psychiatry, psychology; Transactions of the Indiana University Conference on Paralinguistics and Kinesics (pp. 277–288). De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nero, S. (2015). Language, identity, and insider/outsider positionality in Caribbean Creole English research. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 341–367. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pallas, A. M. (2001). Preparing education doctoral students for epistemological diversity. Educational Researcher, 30(5), 6–11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parks, E. S., & Calderón, J. (2021). Bimodal multilingual education: Recognizing the linguistic resources of a diverse deaf world. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(7), 2699–2710. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosales, V., & Babri, M. (2023). Harnessing emotions for embodied reflexivity in organizational ethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rose, J. (2020). Dynamic embodied positionalities: The politics of class and nature through a critical ethnography of homelessness. Ethnography, 23(4), 451–472. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scott, J. A., & Kasun, G. S. (2021). It’s not enough to move your hands beautifully’: Teaching and learning at a school for deaf students in Mexico. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(8), 1128–1146. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scott, J. A., Amadi, C., & Butts, T. (2022). d/Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learners and literacy instruction. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
St. Pierre, E. A. (2018). Writing post qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 24(9), 603–608. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swanwick, R. (2017). Translanguaging, learning and teaching in deaf education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(3), 233–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thiong’o. N. W. (1986). Decolonising the mind: the politics of language in African literature. James Currey.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, J. (2022). A fish tale about “fieldwork,” or toward multilingual interviewing in Applied Linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 42, 127–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vasudevan, L. (2014). Bodies matter in literacy coaching. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 30(3), 237–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolbers, K., Holcomb, L., & Hamman-Ortiz, L. (2023). Translanguaging framework for deaf education. Languages, 8(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolcott, H. F. (2008). Ethnography: A way of seeing. Altamira Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ybarra, M. G., & Saavedra, C. M. (2021). Excavating embodied literacies through a Chicana/Latina feminist framework. Journal of Literacy Research, 53(1), 100–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue