Teaching Transnational Youth—Literacy and Education in a Changing World

This is the first book to specifically address the needs of transnational youth, a growing population of students who live and go to school across the United States and other nations including Mexico and different Caribbean islands. The author describes a coherent approach to English language arts and literacy education that supports the literacy learning and development of transnational students, while incorporating these students’ unique experiences to enrich the learning of all students. Drawing from exemplary teachers’ classroom practice and research-based approaches, the book demonstrates how teachers can engage with transnationalism to reap the unique and significant benefits this phenomenon presents for literacy education. These benefits include a deeper appreciation of cultural and linguistic diversity, an increased awareness of world citizenship, and the development of globally informed ways of reading, writing, investigating, and thinking.

Book Features:

• Describes a comprehensive approach to literacy education that is more inclusive, productive, and powerful for all students.
• Shows teachers how attending to transnationalism can fit within and enhance the work they already do with all of their students.
• Includes learning activities that align with best practices for building multicultural, multilingual, and other forms of border-crossing knowledge and skills.
• Includes specific strategies teachers can use to address the unique challenges that transnationalism poses, such as extended absences from the classroom.

Allison Skerrett is associate professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at The University of Texas at Austin.

"Allison Skerrett shows in this book that teachers can mitigate harm through specific choices in their teaching, by viewing difference as a resource that is available to a greater degree when we are fortunate enough to have transnational students in our classrooms."
— From the foreword by Randy Bomer, professor and chair, curriculum and instruction, The College of Education, University of Texas at Austin

"This well-researched and engagingly written book brilliantly illuminates the often hidden or sorely misunderstood life and schooling experiences of transnational youth. It is a primary text for courses on literacy theories and practices, and fills a critical gap in how we conceptualize and implement literacy instruction for all youth."
—Jabari Mahiri, professor of education, UC Berkeley

"Allison Skerrett makes masterful use of research, deep knowledge of teaching, and transnational voices in this most informative book. Readers meet intriguing young people living extraordinary lives and see how literacy affects and shapes those lives. Transnational lives and experiences are then used to inform the curriculum, teaching, and language learning."
—Robert Jimenez, professor, Dept. of Teaching & Learning, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

"Skerrett's book provides much-needed rigorous and practical insight into transnational learners, who differ greatly in their needs and capabilities from immigrant youth. This book comes at exactly the right moment, as we need precision well beyond the term, 'diverse learners.' "
—Lisa (Leigh) Patel, associate professor of education, Boston College, and author of Youth Held at the Border: Immigration, Education, and the Politics of Inclusion

2019 Literacy Research Association's Edward B. Fry Book Award