Ecological Identity in the Making: Poetic Encounters between Young Migrants and the Elements of Nature
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Shahwan, Sara. 2024. Ecological Identity in the Making: Poetic Encounters between Young Migrants and the Elements of Nature. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (Ecological Identity in the Making: Poetic Encounters between Young Migrants and the Elements of Nature)
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Abstract or Description
Young people in diaspora remain preoccupied with the question of identity, embarking on passionate ‘investigations of self’ (Said, 1986) where they seek to navigate non-/belonging and the liminal in-betweens of their multiple identities. In this context, my study examines the educational process of ‘ecological identity work’ that construes the self in relationship to the environment (Thomashow, 1996). Focusing on poetic encounters with the elements of nature, I draw upon an eclectic theoretical framework that interweaves elemental ecocriticism (Cohen and Duckert, 2015; Oppermann and Iovino, 2015) and common worlding pedagogies (Taylor & Giugni, 2012; Taylor et al., 2021). Attending to the materiality of the elements of air, water and earth in literary texts and pedagogies promises to shed light on our complex interconnectedness with the more-than-human world – the entanglements of inside and outside, body and environment, matter and metaphor. This study attempts to address the gaps in ecopoetics as related to its multilingual aspects and its pedagogical role for young people on the move. To address my overarching research question on how migrant children develop their ecological identities through poetry reading/writing and filmmaking, I employed Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL) and participatory ethnographic methods. Over the course of three months, I conducted a series of poetry and filmmaking workshops with a group of ten Arab migrant students aged 12-14 in Istanbul.
The study finds the elements of nature to be central to the transnational imagination of young migrants, allowing for an exploration (and a possible reconciliation) of the tensions between rootedness in place and mobility across borders. My research further illustrates the affordances of ecopoetry as a common worlding practice that challenges subject/object dualisms and encourages inter-relational encounters with human and nonhuman others. Multilingual and multimodal interactions are found to facilitate a multi-directional reading of the self and the world. The ecological approach to both identity and literacy has crucial implications for understanding global citizenship, healing young people’s detachment from the environment and promoting a pedagogy of radical hope. A key contribution of this study lies in the co-construction of critical ecopedagogies with migrant young people, advocating a reclamation of heritage languages, literature and practices as invaluable parts of the semiotic repertoires that migrant students utilise in restoring an affective attunement to nature.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
Ecological Identity, Environmental Education, Common Worlding Pedagogies, Elemental Ecocriticism, Ecopoetry, Children's Literature, Arabic Children's Poetry, Migrant Children, Multilingualism and Multimodality, Heritage Language Learning, Literacy of Radical Hope, Walking Methodology |
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| Date: |
31 December 2024 |
| Item ID: |
38242 |
| Date Deposited: |
31 Jan 2025 11:18 |
| Last Modified: |
31 Jan 2025 11:24 |
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URI: |
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