¿De Dónde Eres?: The Construction of U.S. and Immigrant Culture and Identity in the ESL Adult Education Setting

In this study, I investigated how lessons and interactions in an ESL classroom setting construct U.S. and immigrant cultural identities through narratives and counter-narratives, and how these narratives and counter-narratives reproduced and questioned relations of power along the lines of race, class, and gender difference. The theoretical framework for this intercultural study was informed by Co-cultural theory, CRT, LatCrit, language and power, and Whiteness studies. As the findings of the research show, the narratives constructed through language, interaction, and institutionalized practices in the ESL setting reproduced the ideology of the American Dream. The American Dream emerged as the enduring ideological field within which ESL learners and instructors make sense of U.S. and immigrant culture and identities. I argue that the American Dream ideology is the backbone of the dominant narratives of the dominant, White group of the U.S. American culture. The findings also indicate that while students, instructors, and administrator in the study reproduced dominant narratives, they also created counter-narratives or testimonios to question or resist the dominant narratives.

Name thesis:degree_name

Communication

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Communication and Journalism

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Perry, Chad

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rodríguez, Ilia
• Covarrubias, Patricia
• Balas, Glenda
• Allen, Ricky Lee

• Intercultural
• Communication
• Immigration
• Adult Learning
• Whiteness
• Critical Race Theory
• LatCrit Theory
• American Dream ideology
• Co-Cultural Theory
• Racism

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/4

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:cj_etds-1003