The cultural and historical configuring of bilingual/bicultural parent participation. (original) (raw)

This article focuses on one of three case study parent's conscious reflections of their own being and becom ing as a parent in a bilingual/bicultural family (of young children). The article draws from a research study that aims to understand what parents bring to bilingual/bicultural practices as migrants in an Australian context. The contention for this article is that history in motion creates an intergenerational pathway for individual development beyond their own individual histories in the forming and transforming of Self. This research study is situated in a cultural historical framework that facilitates a dynamic insight to the formation of the parent Self and the participation and contribution they bring to their current social world from their personal and intergenerational histories. The article discusses the theoretical underpinnings and methods of data generation for this study that enabled consideration of how the bilingual/bicultural parent represents their subjectively configured Self, in their own unique ways of being and becoming as a migrant parent in Australia, maintaining their heritage language and culture.