The Language, Education, and Identity Development of Transnational Youth—Learning from and Advancing Transdisciplinary Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

For more than a quarter of a century, much research, thought, and attention have been directed at addressing the language, education, and identity development of transnational youth. Yet, we find ourselves in a social and educational reality where these students still battle persistent negative stereotypes, discrimination, inequitable learning experiences, and tenuous futures. In the United States and in many countries around the world hosting transnational students, youth “who live across two or more nations and who attend school in one or more of the nations they call home” (Skerrett, 2020, p. 499), divided thoughts, conspiracy theories, red-hot emotions, and political talking-points still drown out empirical research about these youth’s identities, experiences, needs, and contributions to all of the countries that make up their homes. In this Special Issue, we seek to present transdisciplinary research on the language, education, and identity development of transnational youth in order to present a holistic approach for advocating for these students. A bringing together of diverse disciplines and sectors of research is needed to put forth a stronger argument for how the transnational funds of knowledge (Przymus & Serna-Gutiérrez, 2022) that these youth possess enrich the multiple contexts in which they live and go to school. This is also needed to continue to cultivate and nurture those linguistic, educational, and identity resources.

This Special Issue invites contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics that address the language, education, and identity development of transnational youth:

• Cognitive linguistic approaches;
• Sociolinguistic approaches and other applied linguistic approaches (e.g., critical multimodal discourse analysis);
• Linguistic and/or semiotic landscapes;
• Fanfiction as a site of language, academic, and identity development;
• Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) as sites of language, academic, and identity development;
• Dance, music, and other arts- or identity-based performance;
• Social networking sites and other online social media as sites of language, academic, and identity development;
• Borderland epistemologies;
• Bilingual education;
• Preservice and/or in-service teacher professional development;
• Culturally relevant and sustaining study abroad programs;
• Language socialization;
• Imagined communities, imagined identities;
• Communities of practice;
• Social semiotics;
• Linguistic ideologies;
• Raciolinguistics;
• Language policy and planning;
• Testimonios;
• Language assessment;
• Bilingualism and disability;
• Intersectional identities;
• Sign language and/or other nonverbal forms of communication.

Abstract Deadline: June 1, 2025

Notification of Abstract Acceptance: June 29, 2025

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2026

Dr. Steve Przymus
Dr. Nicole King
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• transnational youth
• language development
• identity
• applied linguistics
• cognitive linguistics
• sociolinguistics
• linguistic ideologies
• nonverbal communication
• language planning and policy