Bridging transnational funds of knowledge into classrooms: A narrative inquiry of a Korean migrant becoming a teacher of newcomer students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on notions of transnationalism and transnational funds of knowledge and using a narrative inquiry, this study investigates the experiences of a Korean migrant social studies teacher named Ms. Choi who works with newly arrived students in New York City while maintaining close ties to her home country. I explore how she makes sense of and negotiates her position as an Asian migrant teacher and how her own sense making of herself influences her teaching practices, which draw on her students’ transnational funds of knowledge through the use of a variety of engaging multimodal and multilingual repertoires. Bringing attention to Ms. Choi’s personal, migratory, and teaching life and experiences, this study contributed to scholarly challenges of racialized ideas of assimilation for Asian migrant communities and prompts more alternative and complex understandings of Asian migrant teachers’ lives and pedagogies that cross multiple borders.