Term of Award
Fall 2024
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
College of Education
Committee Chair
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 1
Robert Lake
Committee Member 2
Peggy Shannon-Baker
Committee Member 3
Min Yu
Abstract
This is a study of the identity formation and cultural transformation of three Turkish women teachers as we move back and forth between the Turkish and U.S. cultures, languages, and identities. The three participants, Güneş, Derya, and I, were born and grew up in Türkiye where we obtained our undergraduate and master’s degrees and immigrated to the United States where we obtained additional graduate degrees. We shared our experiences about what it means to be Turkish, what it means to be an American, and most of all, what it means to be in-between, neither Turkish nor American. Theoretically, my dissertation draws upon a wide array of works on immigrants’ experience as curriculum (e.g., He, Phillion, Chan, & Xu, 2008; Chan, Phillion, & He, 2015 ) with a particular focus on language (e.g., Anzaldúa, 1987; Brown, 1994; Cummins, 1989, 2000, 2001; Igoa, 1995; Kunduz, 2022; Schumann, 1978; Soto, 1997; Valdés, 1996, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999), culture (e.g., Carger, 1996; Conle, 2005; Freire, 1970/1993; González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; He, 1998, 1999, 2003; Li, 2011, 2013, 2015; Soto, 1997; Valdés, 1996, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999), and identity (e.g., Anzaldúa, 1987, 1990; Chan, 2003, 2004, 2006; Gonzales, 2016; He, 2003, 2010; Isik-Ercan, 2014, 2015; Igoa, 1995; Kaya, 2009; Otcu, 2010; Ziyanak & Sert, 2018) in-between spaces and places (Anzaldúa, 1987; Bhabha, 1994; He, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2021, 2022a; Isik-Ercan, 2014; Kaya, 2009). Methodologically building on cross-cultural narrative inquiry (He, 1998, 1999, 2002a, 2002b, 2002c, 2003), I utilize the composite auto/biographical narrative inquiry method (He, 1998, 1999) to delve into the storied experiences of my participants and myself, particularly our experience of acculturation (i.e., learning a second or an additional culture) and enculturation processes (learning and relearning the first culture) (Brown, 1994; He, 1998, 1999, 2003; Schumann, 1978). Seven findings have emerged from my dissertation inquiry. I sincerely hope that we develop culturally and linguistically responsive (Gay, 2000/2010), relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1994/2009), and sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2017) curriculum and pedagogy where immigrant parents, teachers, educators, students, administrators, policy makers, and other educational workers work together to cultivate a welcoming, caring, and inclusive learning environment for immigrant students as they cross cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and ideological boundaries to become world citizens (Nussbaum, 1997) in a contested world.
Recommended Citation
Mentch, Bahar, "A Cross-Cultural Narrative Inquiry into Three Turkish Women Teacher's Experiences of Cultures, Languages, and Identities in the U.S. South" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2848.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/2848
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
