Literacies and identities in transnational education: a case study of literacy curricula in a Canadian transnational education programme in China

Abstract

This ethnographic case study focused on a transnational education programme in an inner city in Mainland China that used both Chinese high school curriculum and Canadian provincial curriculum from New Brunswick. The goal of the study was to capture the desires and power relations that shaped literacy and identity options in the school's hybrid curriculum. Findings revealed the affordances of the programme in expanding students' cultural and linguistic knowledge and capabilities in two languages and the constraints to their literacy and identity options. Notable constraints included the compartmentalization of English and Chinese curricula, standardized literacy tests, and the school policies that limited teachers' incorporation of new media literacies and critical literacy. The study contributes to extant knowledge of transformative transnational literacy education that could help educators provide pedagogical opportunities for students to construct fluid and multi-layered identities that connect to their complex, multilingual literacy practices.