Multiple Literacies and Identities: The Experiences of Two Women Refugees

Refugee women who have recently arrived in the United States face a number of formidable obstacles, including learning English as second language; securing employment within as short a time as possible (required by the U.S. government and thus also by refugee resettlement agencies); finding affordable and reliable child care if they have young children; and navigating the "ropes" of an unfamiliar and overwhelming new social, political, and cultural context. With limited literacy in English and few material resources, many refugee women must find creative ways to tap into existing social networks and support systems in order to locate the resources they need to survive and manage in this new context. Their experiences of second language learning and literacy and of immigration are, therefore, influenced and mediated by their experiences as women and as political refugees. In this essay, I rely on sociocultural theories of literacy and poststructuralist conceptions of gender and identity to analyze the experiences of individual women refugees during the resettlement process. Specifically, I ask what kinds of literacies two refugee women use in their efforts to find employment and negotiate the various challenges and obstacles they face in their new lives in the United States, and I examine the relationship between the in-school and out-of-school experiences of literacy for these two women. The data presented here come from a larger 2-year ethnographic study that focused on the structure and organization of an adult English as a second language (ESL) program as well as the experiences and perspectives of seven women refugees, five of their teachers, and the administrators within the program. These data were gathered during long-term participant observation and audiorecorded individual interviews. In order to provide background information and to locate this analysis within a particular local and social context, I will briefly describe the aims, goals, and practices of the educational program that served these women refugees. Next, I will explore and examine particular concerns, priorities, and struggles of two individual women. Finally, I will describe the ways that these topics provide a context for understanding the relationship between the in-school and out-of-school experiences of literacy for individual women refugees enrolled in an adult ESL program. Research Site The policies and practices of the administration and teachers of the adult ESL program at Valley Training and Instruction Center (a pseudonym) prioritize much more than fostering the ability to communicate or teaching the forms and functions of the English language. In fact, institutional documents stress the importance of helping students assimilate and find employment in "as short a time as possible" by providing them with social networks, information, credits, and tests that can be translated into finding jobs quickly. In addition to this stated goal, there are less formal goals represented by the efforts of teachers to make students feel comfortable, secure, inspired, and "worth something at least. " As a result of these agendas, certain types of literacy and learning are prioritized and valued at the expense of language learning and other kinds of literacy. While students are provided teacher-fronted grammar lessons, instruction on how to write a resume, and guidance on how to take standardized tests, they are not encouraged to read or think critically, to practice speaking or writing in English about authentic topics and issues, or to learn strategies for acting on real-life issues and challenges in their lives. In these ways, this particular adult ESL program encourages particular social positions and identities among the students it serves. Influenced by the requirements of government agencies and refugee resettlement organizations and constrained by the large numbers of immigrants and refugees continually enrolling in the program, this educational program aims to "decrease dependency upon public monies by getting refugees employed as quickly as possible" (McSpadden, 1998, 158). …