{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86678"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86678","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Capturing the Lived Experiences of Refugee Families: A Positioning, Literacies, and Multimodal Perspectives Study","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cun, Aijuan; 0000-0002-8785-8637"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["McVee, Mary","Learning and Instruction"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T21:36:22Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T21:36:22Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z","subjects":["education"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86678","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["McVee, Mary","Learning and Instruction"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cun, Aijuan; 0000-0002-8785-8637"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T21:36:22Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["education"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86678"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Prior research has revealed that the number of refugee individuals and families moving to the United States significantly increased between 1980 and 2016. Even though the number of incoming refugees declined in 2017 due to U.S. government policy changes, this decline did not influence the size of the existing population base. Due to the differences between the United States and their countries of origin, most students and families experience various kinds of challenges within an unfamiliar educational system and everyday life. Additionally, the students' funds of knowledge and family strengths are not easily recognized in American formal educational settings. Not only do the students struggle with school learning during their resettlement in the United States, but teachers also need help to prepare for working with the students. A deeper understanding of the lived experiences of these families will support the students in expressing their voices and also help educators understand and advocate for the students. Drawing on positioning theory, literacy as a social practice, and the social semiotics multimodal perspective, this qualitative study aims to explore the lived experiences of three refugee families in the United States, particularly with regard to education, language, literacy, and culture. Ethnographic and narrative methods are utilized to support data collection and analysis. Data sources include audio and video recordings of family conversations, interviews with parents, artifacts provided by the participants, and the researcher's post-data-collection reflective notes. Data analysis generated three major themes bounded with times and spaces: the participants' past experiences across global contexts, the participants' current experiences in the United States, and the participants' expectations and imagined selves within future orientations. Findings present (1) the ways that participants position themselves and their family members within these three themes, (2) the ways that the children make representational meaning of their lived experiences related to the three themes during multimodal-storybooks-making processes, and (3) the ways that the children and parents engaged with literacies in Burmese and English in multiple contexts. Findings highlight that the participants were positioned as experts who could strategically mobilize social, cultural, linguistic, and literacy resources in global contexts; these positions debunked the myths that refugee families are deficit resources that can aid them in navigating dominant discourses. Implications include the following: refugee children's family identities and literacies that are situated in transnational contexts should be acknowledged and valued by educators in formal educational settings; refugee children should be encouraged to author their own storybooks, exercise their agencies, and collaborate with their peers for meaning-making through multiple modes; refugee parents' voices should be heard, and the parents should be encouraged to be involved in their children's learning in multiple ways. This dissertation work also calls for further research on various methods to advocate and empower the voices of refugee students and families.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Capturing the Lived Experiences of Refugee Families: A Positioning, Literacies, and Multimodal Perspectives Study"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["McVee, Mary","Learning and Instruction"],"dc:creator":["Cun, Aijuan; 0000-0002-8785-8637"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T21:36:22Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Prior research has revealed that the number of refugee individuals and families moving to the United States significantly increased between 1980 and 2016. Even though the number of incoming refugees declined in 2017 due to U.S. government policy changes, this decline did not influence the size of the existing population base. Due to the differences between the United States and their countries of origin, most students and families experience various kinds of challenges within an unfamiliar educational system and everyday life. Additionally, the students' funds of knowledge and family strengths are not easily recognized in American formal educational settings. Not only do the students struggle with school learning during their resettlement in the United States, but teachers also need help to prepare for working with the students. A deeper understanding of the lived experiences of these families will support the students in expressing their voices and also help educators understand and advocate for the students. Drawing on positioning theory, literacy as a social practice, and the social semiotics multimodal perspective, this qualitative study aims to explore the lived experiences of three refugee families in the United States, particularly with regard to education, language, literacy, and culture. Ethnographic and narrative methods are utilized to support data collection and analysis. Data sources include audio and video recordings of family conversations, interviews with parents, artifacts provided by the participants, and the researcher's post-data-collection reflective notes. Data analysis generated three major themes bounded with times and spaces: the participants' past experiences across global contexts, the participants' current experiences in the United States, and the participants' expectations and imagined selves within future orientations. Findings present (1) the ways that participants position themselves and their family members within these three themes, (2) the ways that the children make representational meaning of their lived experiences related to the three themes during multimodal-storybooks-making processes, and (3) the ways that the children and parents engaged with literacies in Burmese and English in multiple contexts. Findings highlight that the participants were positioned as experts who could strategically mobilize social, cultural, linguistic, and literacy resources in global contexts; these positions debunked the myths that refugee families are deficit resources that can aid them in navigating dominant discourses. Implications include the following: refugee children's family identities and literacies that are situated in transnational contexts should be acknowledged and valued by educators in formal educational settings; refugee children should be encouraged to author their own storybooks, exercise their agencies, and collaborate with their peers for meaning-making through multiple modes; refugee parents' voices should be heard, and the parents should be encouraged to be involved in their children's learning in multiple ways. This dissertation work also calls for further research on various methods to advocate and empower the voices of refugee students and families.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86678"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["education"],"dc:title":["Capturing the Lived Experiences of Refugee Families: A Positioning, Literacies, and Multimodal Perspectives Study"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z"}