Biliteracy Education in Cross-border Spaces: Case Studies of Curriculum between Canada and China

This dissertation concerns cross-border biliteracy education. It aims to understand how biliteracy education curricula can disrupt binaries between first and second languages, print-based literacy and multimodal literacies, and formal and informal literacy experiences in the service of equitable, diverse, inclusive, and ethical education. This dissertation consists of three papers that draw on data from two research projects. The first paper, “Literacies and Identities in Transnational Education: A Case Study of Literacy Curricula in a Canadian Transnational Education Programme in China”, and the second paper, “Literacy Teacher Agency and Transnational Education: A Case Study of Curriculum Implementation in a Sino-Canadian Secondary School Program in China” report on findings from a project titled “A multiple case study of literacy curricula in Canadian transnational education programs in China”. These papers concern the literacy and identity options provided to the students and teachers’ roles in the enactment of the school’s curriculum. Findings from the study of the first two papers reveal factors that mediate students’ literacy experiences and identity options and teachers’ curriculum implementation. Main mediators included the school’s governing structure on local/expatriate teachers and local/global curricula, standardized testing systems, the school’s policy on the use of digital resources, and students’ facility with the English language. The factors combined to create and exacerbate binaries of first and second languages, local and global curricula, and formal schooling and out-of-school experiences which may further constrain students’ identity options. The third paper, “Enacted Agency in a Cross-Border, Online Biliteracy Curriculum Making: Creativity and Bilingual Digital Storytelling” responded to the need identified in the first two studies for curricula to promote expansive literacy and identity options to students. This study experimented with how cross-border biliteracy curriculum could create opportunities for students to make meaning across languages, modes, and spaces. It took the form of a netnography of an online emergent biliteracy curriculum, culminating with students’ multimodal digital stories. This study provides a counterpoint to the standardized curriculum of secondary school. Findings related that the intra-actions among non-humans (e.g., materials, time, and physical and virtual spaces) and humans (e.g., researchers, teachers, and students) shaped participants’ creative acts.