Critical Qualitative Research in Second Language Studies

A volume in Contemporary Language EducationSeries Editor: Terry A. Osborn, University of South Florida, Sarasota-ManateeThis volume begins by locating critical inquiry within the epistemological and methodologicalhistory of second language study. Subsequent chapters portray researcher-participant explorationof identity and agency while challenging inequitable policies and practices. Research oninternationalization, Englishization, and/or transborder migration address language policies andknowledge production at universities in Hong Kong, Standard English and Singlish controversiesin Singapore, media portrayals of the English as an Official Language movement in South Korea,transnational advocacy in Japan, and Nicaraguan/Costa Rican South to South migration.Transnational locations of identity and agency are fore-fronted in narrative descriptions ofKorean heritage language learners, a discursive journey from East Timor to Hawaii, and a reclaimedlife history by a Chinese peasant woman. Labor union and GLBT legal work illustrate discourses that can hinder or facilitateagency and change. Hawaiian educators advocate for indigenous self-determination through revealing the political and socialmeanings of research. California educators describe struggles at the front-lines of resistance to policies and practices harmful tomarginalized children. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) project portrays how Latina youth in the U.S. "resist woundinginscriptions" of the intersecting emotional and physical violence of homes, communities, and anti-immigrant policies and attitudes.Promoting agency through drawing on diversity resources is modeled in a bilingual undergraduate PAR project. The volume as awhole provides a model for critical research that explores the multifaceted and evolving nature of language identities while placingthose traditionally known as participants at the center of agency and advocacy.