Socio-Material Assemblages: (De)Colonizing Literacy Curriculum in Transnational Education

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Socio-Material Assemblages: (De)Colonizing Literacy Curriculum in Transnational Education
Language: English
Authors: Zheng Zhang (ORCID 0000-0002-5794-0664)
Source: Language Teaching Research. 2025 29(7):2857-2879.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 23
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Elementary Secondary Education, Literacy Education, English, Mandarin Chinese, Decolonization, International Schools, Modern Language Curriculum, Technology Uses in Education, Native Language Instruction, Second Language Instruction, English (Second Language)
Geographic Terms: Canada, Hong Kong
DOI: 10.1177/13621688221127406
ISSN: 1362-1688
1477-0954
Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed rapid growth of K-12 transnational education programs, but little is known about how human/nonhuman assemblages impact K-12 transnational literacy curricula and how sociomaterial assemblages affect (de)colonizing literacy practices. This study of English and Mandarin literacy curricula at a Canadian transnational education program in postcolonial Hong Kong was informed by posthumanism and theories on decolonizing curriculum. The study combined ethnographic data collection tools (curriculum documents, interviews, classroom observations) and a diffractive methodology of reading, thinking, and writing with multiple data sources and theories to explore how sociomaterial relations between humans and nonhumans shaped the (de)colonization of literacy curricula. Findings show a generative sociomaterial assemblage in the transnational education program that enabled encounters of local-global curricula, local-global languages, and academic-multimedia literacies. New forms of imperialism and colonialism also joined the assemblage and normalized binaries of L1/L2, local/global, and academic/multimedia literacies, thus constraining students' meaning making across languages, places, and semiotic resources. The article proposes literacy curriculum and pedagogies that could foster students' ethical relationship building with humans and nonhumans in globalized schooling contexts.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1482049
Database: ERIC
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