Living Here, yet Being There: Facebook as a Transnational Space for Newcomer Latina/o Adolescents

1. Living Here, yet Being There:Facebook as a Transnational Space for Newcomer Latina/o Adolescents Mary Amanda (Mandy) Stewart University of North Texas Mary.Stewart@unt.edu Stewart, 2012 LRA

2. Framework • Diaspora Media Studies (Lam & Warriner, 2012) • Transnationalism • Technology Stewart, 2012 LRA

3. Transnational • Noun: Those who have "moved bodily across national borders while maintaining and cultivating practices tied…to their home countries" (Hornberger, 2007) • Adjective: To “depict social practices, political processes, and cultural phenomena among individuals who do cross geopolitical borders regularly as well as those who do not." (Warriner, 2007) Stewart, 2012 LRA

4. Technology • Technology uniquely affects the hybridization of cultures occurring in transnationalism. (Garcia Canclini, 1995) • Digital media has sparked the greatest change in literacy since the printing press. (Warschauer, 2009) Stewart, 2012 LRA

5. Technology and Immigrant Youth • Extant research primarily focuses on how Asian immigrant youth in North America develop their multilingual and multicultural identities in digital spaces through the use of a variety of technology. (Black, 2006; Lam, 2000, 2004; McGinnis, et al., 2007; McLean, 2010; Yi, 2007, 2010) Stewart, 2012 LRA

6. Research Questions • 1) For what purposes do the participants use Facebook? • 2) How does their transnational Facebook use challenge their label as at-risk students? Part of a larger study of newcomer Latina/o immigrants out-of-school literacies. High school: 2,000 students of many races with 13 in the ESL classes Stewart, 2012 LRA

7. Participant Information as of Jan. 2012 Stewart, 2012 LRA

8. Methodology • Interviews, n=5-8 for each student • Observations in their ESL classes, n=15 • Analysis of Facebookdata: All posts from creation to June 2012 Facebook information as of June 2012 Stewart, 2012 LRA

9. 1) For what purposes do the participants use Facebook? • Demonstrate sophisticated transnational literacies through Facebook in order to: • Connect to Home • Maintain their Latina/o Identities • Acquire English Stewart, 2012 LRA

10. Connect to Home • Why do you use Facebook? • "For my sister and my mom.“ • "Para mishermanos y misprimos" For my brother, sister, and cousins. • “Vecinos” neighbors • Mother/daughterrelationship: "El otro día me regañó [mi mamá] porque eso, había una foto donde tenía el cabello todo arreglado y me gusta que lise el cabello. Se enojóporeso." The other day she got onto me because there was a picture of me with my hair all done up and she likes my hair straight. She got angry because of that. Stewart, 2012 LRA

11. Connect to Home • "felizcumplepollo” happy birthday chicken • "felizcumpleaki en guatemala lo qeremosmuxobndicionesmuaa ..!! cuidece.” happy birthday here in guatemala we love you many blessings mwaaa ..!! take care. • Protect younger siblings: "Hey victor mucho respeto a mi hermana ok" Hey victor respect my sister ok Stewart, 2012 LRA

12. Maintain Latina/o Identities Stewart, 2012 LRA soy purochaplin

13. Latina/o Identities: FB Likes Latin American Music Artists, TV Shows, and Soccer Teams Stewart, 2012 LRA

14. Youth Codes in Spanish TQM Te quiero mucho/ I love you a lot X Por For XK Porque Because Stewart, 2012 LRA

15. Acquire English • "Aquí en la escuela casi no tengo amigos de americano, así que los tengo en Facebook." Here in school I really don't have American friends, so I have them on Facebook. • "i love" "me too" "what up" • "They are sooo precious!" • "yes i know >>they are Hilda's baby" Stewart, 2012 LRA

16. Acquire English: Youth Codes • “Cuandoyoleo, yopreguntoqueesesto, y ellos me dicen.” When I read it, I ask what is this, and they [co-workers] tell me." (omg, lol, XD) • “omg!!!!!!”-Posted by Alejandra on Celia’s page • Celia: “omg? Hola mi amiga?” • Celia on why she does not post much on FB: "Es quequieroescribir en inglés, pero no puedo. It's because I want to write in English, but I can't." • Celia posting on her page: "omg tomorrow i have test" Stewart, 2012 LRA

17. Significance • More than a decade ago, the New London Group (1996) asked us to consider how the notion of literacy must change to address educational inequalities in response to: • 1) the increasing local diversity through global connectedness; and, • 2) the development of new technologies. Stewart, 2012 LRA

18. 2) How does the students’ transnational Facebook use challenge their label as at-risk students? • Outsiders in their high school • Lost in mainstream classes • Failing high stakes tests required for graduation • Limited English proficient • Posses transnational skills needed in the 21st century that are rare in mainstream populations • Communicate in multilingual and multimodal ways • Emergent multilinguals Stewart, 2012 LRA

19. Implications • Facebook facilitates their English acquisition more effectively than their school environment. • Use for writing • Facebook provides a safe place for them to interact with “americanos.” • Use to create dialogue in classes between the newcomer and mainstream students • Shared funds of knowledge (Paris, 2012) • Facebook allows them to get news and information from other parts of the world. • Critical literacy, cultural consciousness Stewart, 2012 LRA

20. Future Research • Studies that demonstrate how immigrant students’ social networking can be leveraged for academic learning • Studies at the college level show how FB has been used in the classroom to: • analyze literature (Skerrett, 2010) • safely develop an academic discourse (Reid, 2011) • foster intercultural communication (Lang, 2010) • create a sense of community within the class (Reich, 2010) Stewart, 2012 LRA

21. Muxo gracias X venirThx 4 comingXD Slides available at maryamandastewart.weebly.com. Paper on LRA site. Mary.Stewart@unt.edu Stewart, 2012 LRA