Multimodal Literacy Experiences of Kurdish Migrant Children in Northern Cyprus

In this study, I examine how the features of multimodal literacies might centre Kurdish migrant children’s voices, and engage in social interaction with their non-migrant peers in a primary school setting in Northern Cyprus. This study revolves around the affordances that artefacts provide for Kurdish seasonal farm workers’ children to enunciate their cultural and social lives through the use of multimodal literacy practices. I conducted this study with four Kurdish migrant students whose parents are seasonal farmworkers. I explored the ways in which the medium of valued objects might centre their voices, Kurdish identity, and culture, which have been neglected for many years. I drew upon multimodal research and capitalised on their spoken, written and drawn narratives of valued objects in order to generate new literacy learning paths to explore how Kurdish students can expand their participation and social inclusion. My research comprised of three major phases. In the first phase I asked my research participants to depict their stories of valued objects in spoken narrative. Then, in the second phase, I asked them to narrate their stories in a written form. Finally, in the last phase I asked them to depict their stories through drawing a picture. The findings of this study foregrounded different themes that emerged from the children’s multimodal narratives of their valued objects. The themes identified in this study are: i) their emotional perspectives and sentimental worlds, ii) cultural heritage, iii) heritage language, and iii) emergence of critical consciousness. The findings demonstrated that multimodal literacy practices around Kurdish migrant children’s valued artefacts provided a socially just literacy learning environment. This study demonstrated the affordances of using Kurdish migrant students’ cultural resources in multimodal literacy practices in creating social inclusion, recognition, and introducing socio-culturally responsive literacy experiences which cultivated their critical consciousness related to issues of power. Finally, this study demonstrates an alternative literacy experience that can inform further research and more importantly policymakers about the benefits of valuing the social and cultural resources of minority groups and opening new pedagogical ways for socially just education that can redress structural inequality, discrimination, oppression, and exclusion.