The construction of cultural identities in migrant children: An approach based on collaborative ethnography

Abstract

The construction of cultural identities in migrant children requires a deep knowledge of the experiences that take place in different spaces (school, home, mosque, neighborhood associations, civic center, etc.). Our research reflects on the processes for the construction of cultural identities and the contribution of collaborative ethnography in their analysis. The use of this methodological approach has allowed for the incorporation of the voice of migrant Preschoolers in the exploration of the construction of their identities. This article aims to explore the possibilities of collaborative ethnography in the study of the construction of cultural identities through multimodal semiotic analysis. For this, a holistic case study and techniques typical of the Mosaic Approach have been used, such as mapping, family portrait, roleplay and self-portraiture. The multimodal social semiotic analysis has highlighted the diffraction that occurs in the different discourses of girls and boys, highlighting conflicts in the construction of their identities between their culture of origin and culture of destination. It has also shown how cultural stereotypes are already configured from an early age. The conclusions of this study underscore the usefulness of collaborative ethnography and multimodal semiotic analysis for the study of the construction of cultural identities in childhood.