The Canadian Modern Language Review / La revue canadienne des langues vivantes

Context of the study

This research is part of the third phase of a four-part collaborative project between scholars from an urban university and critical practitioners at a high school in Brooks, a small city in rural Alberta (Alberta, 2022a). The partnership – which was established to address and find solutions for the challenges faced by multilingual, multicultural students who are often racialized – has provided an essential framework for this study (Zaidi et al., 2024, 2025). The high school, which serves as the setting for this study, offers a range of academic and vocational programs and has an enrollment of over 650 students. A significant portion of the student body – approximately 35% – are visible minorities, with 80% of these students identifying as Black. Notably, the majority of the students have a mother tongue other than English, and about 125 students are categorized as ELLs. The diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of these students provided a rich context for exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with critical language awareness and multimodal educational practices.

Positionality statement

As language researchers with varied lived experiences across race, culture, religion, and language, our positionalities are rooted in the commitment to implement equitable practices that support culturally diverse individuals throughout every step of the research process. Our work is informed by both a comprehensive understanding of empirical studies and our own personal and professional trajectories in language teaching, learning, and research.

Our engagement with CMLA stems from academic inquiry and personal necessity. As scholars whose language practices have been questioned, othered, or undervalued, we understand the role that language ideologies play in reinforcing systemic marginalization. Similarly, our understanding of critical spatial awareness emerges from reflecting on how our identities were shaped in relation to the spaces we occupy, whether these spaces were classrooms, institutions, or public discourse. For us, space and language are always entangled.

In this study, we employed Critically Engaged Language and Literacy Workshops (CELLWs) as a central methodology to actively involve newcomer ELL students in ways that foreground voice, agency, and identity negotiation in the research process. Through CELLWs, we aimed to create inclusive educational support that not only promoted student engagement but also empowered the student participants to challenge dominant narratives and advocate for their own identities within the educational system. While we recognize the importance of critically questioning dominant narratives, our approach centred on [End Page 330] listening to how newcomer students themselves navigate and respond to these dynamics. The CELLWs were thus co-designed to support this reflexive and student-led engagement.

Critical awareness

Language ideologies often refer to socially constructed beliefs and attitudes about languages and their speakers. These ideologies frequently underpin systemic inequalities, privileging certain languages while marginalizing others. Critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA) examines how these ideologies operate and equips students and educators to analyze language practices and policies critically. Drawing on Bolitho and Tomlinson’s (1980) original notion of language awareness, contemporary scholars (e.g., De Costa & Van Gorp, 2023; García, 2017; Hedman & Fisher, 2022; Prasad & Lory, 2020) have conceptualized CMLA as an approach to developing multilingual speakers’ conscious awareness of language as a social practice by involving their own multilingual experiences. Prasad and Lory (2020) maintain that power is brought to the forefront during “discussions about bi/multi-lingualism” (p. 809), thus making CMLA a critical entry point for discussions on race, class, language, and equity.

CMLA also provides an analytical lens through which newcomer ELLs reflect on the role of language in education. For this reason, the scholarship has focused on how these concepts correlated with the students’ own varied linguistic, cultural, religious, and racial identities. It has further integrated CMLA to delve into newcomer ELLs’ conscious understanding and critical reflections around the importance and function of incorporating different languages in education. As such, the challenge to deficient discourses regarding minoritized speakers’ language practices, as well as the affirmation that their multilingual practices are legitimate in educational settings, was central to the current study and CMLA. Similarly, Fu and colleagues (2023) found that multimodal and reflective practices helped educators challenge linguistic biases and develop more equitable pedagogies.

Importantly, CMLA can also be understood as being deeply entangled with spatial contexts. As Taylor and colleagues (2017) argued, when students locate opportunities to use their full linguistic repertoires – whether through recalling memories, narrating experiences, or situating themselves within institutional or community settings – they can begin to challenge marginalization. CMLA thus aligns with critical spatial awareness, a perspective which considers how language and power circulate not only across ideologies but also across space and place.

CMLA recognizes the importance of understanding how these spatial contexts – both space and place – shape linguistic practices. In this framework, space refers to abstract, [End Page 331] socially constructed settings in which social interactions occur, while place is concrete and tied to physical settings where linguistic identities are negotiated and shaped. Scholars such as hooks (1990) and Soja (1996) have already reminded us that space is never neutral – it is relational, contested, and political. In this way, when racialized individuals are denied access to affirming educational spaces, they are simultaneously denied access to epistemic authority and self-representation.

Recognizing spatiality as integral to CMLA, this study highlights missed opportunities in educational environments where racialized and multilingual learners are unable to “take up space.” This problem is particularly relevant in the context of arts-based pedagogies, where the act of mapping language onto visual, material, and embodied forms invites students to assert their presence – both linguistically and physically. In this sense, CMLA and critical spatial awareness are not separate frameworks, but interconnected. When newcomer ELLs are invited to analyze how their multilingual practices are positioned in different places and spaces, they begin to assert both identity and agency.

Navigating intersectional identities

Transnational movements have become increasingly prevalent and entail large groups of individuals navigating linguistic, cultural, or social contexts as they seek to thrive amidst the opportunities and challenges in their new environments (Windle & O’Brien, 2019; Zhou & Lee, 2013). For newcomer students, this transition often involves enrolling in schools in the new country where they must learn the primary language(s) of instruction (Cruz & Zaidi, 2025; Zaidi et al., 2024, 2025; Zaidi & Sah, 2024). This insertion into the new space has implications for a newcomer’s sense of identity and belongingness, including the (re)negotiation and resistance of their social identities – such as language, religion, and race – especially as they adapt to their new reality, often encountering prejudice, discrimination, and disadvantages in relation to their peers (Ragin & Fiss, 2017).

Drawing on Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, this study views identity as multi-faceted and constructed through interconnected systems of power that reflect an individual’s varied social locations (Crenshaw, 1989). Within this concept, the insertion of newcomer students into new educational spaces impacts their sense of identity and belonging, thus accentuating prejudice, discrimination, and social disadvantages in comparison to their peers (Ragin & Fiss, 2017). According to Zaidi and colleagues (2024) and Zaidi and Sah (2024), it is crucial to consider these intersecting identities to fully understand the newcomer students’ experiences and the complex dynamics of adaptation and resistance that they face.

It is understood that inequalities and discrimination are based on the interconnected nature of social categories such as language, culture, religion, race, and gender. Within multilingual and multicultural contexts, these concepts connect with other aspects of identity – through this lens of intersectional identities – thereby shaping newcomer ELL students’ lived social and educational experiences. CELLWs, therefore, help newcomer students navigate the additional layers of discrimination based on their racial, religious, and national identities.

In this study, CELLWs were carefully designed for newcomer ELL students to navigate their intersectional identities. This involved a complex process of engaging newcomer ELL students in CMLA programs and activities, with schools and educators ready to create dynamic learning environments and facilitate inclusive learning. Within these spaces, [End Page 332] newcomer students could feel empowered to explore and celebrate their diverse linguistic and cultural identities. Multilingual and racialized identities were crucial role players in the quest to disrupt dominant narratives, perspectives, and systems that continue to exclude them from decision-making processes (Wetzel & Rogers, 2015). In studies such as this one, the inclusion of these community individuals expands dialogues already in place and shifts power dynamics to accommodate diverse perspectives (Oumlil, 2012; Sekaja et al., 2022; Toukan, 2020).

Multilingual and multimodal counter/texts to uncover power dynamics and identities

Despite growing attention to CMLA in different educational settings, there is a need for further exploration in the literature of how meaning-making can be enhanced through multilingualism, multimodality, and semiotics in language and literacy education for marginalized student populations. Responding to the call that “future research can explore the potential for multilingual and multimodal interventions to engage students in difficult conversations about race and racism” (Zaidi & Sah, 2024), our study incorporated artistic activities as a way to foster CMLA.

Through their use of diverse languages and modalities, newcomer ELL students can create new meanings, interact with others and with spaces, and acquire the necessary skills to succeed academically (Cruz & Zaidi, 2025; Zaidi et al., 2025). Multimodal practices play a crucial role in this negotiation, as they facilitate meaning-making through various modes of communication beyond traditional written language (Accurso et al., 2023). By integrating these different modes of communication (which include verbal and non-verbal expressions such as painting, drawing, and writing), multimodality expands the possibilities of understanding, thus allowing students to use different resources to communicate their ideas, thoughts, and feelings (Accurso et al., 2023; Kress, 2011).

CELLWs also serve as vital educational resources by fostering environments where newcomer students can fully engage in multimodal practices and explore their identities (Cruz & Zaidi, 2025; Zaidi et al., 2025). For these workshops to be effective, schools and educators must create safe spaces that value the traditions and cultures of their students regardless of their backgrounds; by doing so, they position the students as active agents at the centre of the learning process (Kiramba, 2017; New London Group, 1996; Windle & O’Brien, 2019). This process involves recognizing languages as culturally diverse representational resources that are shaped and managed by their speakers (Kiramba, 2017; Rahman et al., 2022). In practice, it means employing linguistic and cultural practices as tools for teaching and learning, viewing languages as means of communication and as culturally rich resources that enrich and improve educational content (Kiramba, 2017; Rahman et al., 2022). This way, CELLWs help transform traditional classrooms into spaces where learning is deeply connected to students’ lived experiences, (trans)forming their learning environments in ways that reflect their unique identities and needs.

When entering educational spaces, newcomer students must negotiate and transgress dominant English language spaces (Canagarajah, 1995). This insertion and defiance into a new place imply a reconfiguration of the social identities of the newcomers. However, the current landscape of multilingual education raises critical questions about power dynamics and language ideologies within educational settings. For instance, it is necessary to consider the agenda within multilingual education to value those who have been racialized [End Page 333] and stigmatized (Gebhard & Accurso, 2023), including those who are labelled English language learners and People of Colour. Addressing this imbalance prompts a reflection concerning the ideologies behind teaching dominant languages, mainly because the latter have excluded minority languages (Canada, 2022; Windle & O’Brien, 2019).

Finally, in this integrated framework, linking CMLA with intersectional identities involves investigating how CMLA enhances the understanding of intersectional identities and inequalities. It accomplishes this by highlighting how linguistic injustice/racism is strengthened by other social categories. Meanwhile, an examination of the relationship between intersectionality and resistance reveals that recognizing and accepting intersecting identities can enhance the effectiveness of resistance by ensuring that a variety of perspectives and experiences are considered and valued in discussions.

The relationship between CMLA and resistance can also reveal how fostering critical awareness empowers racialized students to use their multilingual and multimodal resources as tools for resistance, promoting linguistic and racial justice and equity. Hence, through analysis, an improved understanding evolves about what identities and experiences racialized students index in their multilingual and multimodal representations, and to what extent their representations illustrate their CMLA.

In this study, newcomer ELL students participated in Critically Engaged Language and Literacy Workshops (CELLWs), where they created multilingual and multimodal texts. These texts, embodying powerful forms of resistance, employed diverse linguistic and semiotic resources to challenge dominant narratives, disrupt hegemonic discourses, and advocate for social change. This approach aligns with the broader framework of critical pedagogy and identity discussed in Zaidi and colleagues (2024) and Zaidi and Sah (2024), both of which emphasize the creation of counter-narratives that amplify marginalized voices (Bamberg & Andrews, 2004). Moreover, recognizing the role of multilingual and multimodal texts in producing and preserving home languages and cultures can empower minoritized populations as they navigate their identities and experiences in diverse contexts.

Methodology

The study employed CELLWs as a means to explore the journeys and experiences of newcomer ELL youths The methodology involved a qualitative approach that furthered criticality and sensibility in a scholarship that involved social transformation issues (e.g., migrations), which are viewed here not merely as relocation but as a profound transformation of social and personal identities.

Workshops, when employed as a research methodology, move beyond simple instructional sessions to become dialogic, participatory spaces for collaborative meaning-making and knowledge co-construction. As Ørngreen and Levinsen (2017) have argued, workshops can serve as structured spaces for inquiry when they are guided by research objectives, ethical facilitation, and systematic analysis. Rather than being solely data collection instruments, they become sites of epistemological mediation and symbolic expression.

This study draws from arts-based research traditions (Leavy, 2009, 2017) and the creative inquiry frameworks proposed by scholars such as Gauntlett (2007), who emphasized that making and creating – through drawing, mapping, and performance – are legitimate ways of knowing, particularly in research involving marginalized voices. Cecily O’Neill (1995) similarly framed workshops as performative and embodied spaces where participants may safely negotiate identity and belonging through creative engagement. [End Page 334]

The data was collected through a series of eight two-hour workshops over two weeks in October 2023. Table 1 summarizes the proposed workshops, in order of application:

The multimodal nature of walking methodologies emphasizes how people connect to geographical spaces in a more-than-human way (Psarras, 2015; Springgay, 2017a, 2017b). Critically employing walking methodologies (Lasczik et al., 2021, 2023) through digital photos or maps, for example, becomes a multifaceted practice that juxtaposes physical beings with digital landscapes while still offering a range of feelings and avenues for exploration and expression (Springgay, 2017a, 2017b). The different devices (e.g., digital cameras) and gadgets (e.g., GPS maps, Google Earth) used in this methodology continue to be essential in storytelling, and they break the boundaries of space, time, and matter for individuals such as the newcomer student participants in this study.

Additionally, the ELL newcomers’ experiences represented the sum of different localities, feelings, and identity (re)shaping. Both physical and imaginary memories helped guide the scholars in research that encompassed all these components. In essence, the incorporation of walking methodologies functioned as a means to allow community members to be represented in a convergence of physical activity and cultural significance. Furthermore, the digitalization of walking methodologies worked to deepen people’s reflections and engagement with their memories, whether past or present.

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Table 1.

Workshops used in data collection.

[End Page 335]

Critically Engaged Language and Literacy Workshops (CELLWs)

This research methodology came together through the application of CELLWs. As per the authors’ initial conceptualization (Cruz & Zaidi, 2025; Zaidi et al., 2025), CELLWs offer structured, arts-based, and participatory spaces that allow newcomer students to reflect on their experiences and affection towards different spaces and places. Together, the visualization of individuals’ journeys, the emotions they carry, and the reconfiguration of present spaces or places foster educational practices that encourage agency and social awareness.

Through the CELLWs, it became very evident how embracing the thematic workshops within a multilingual, multimodal process helped the researchers approach aspects of language and identity, embrace the opportunities afforded by these tools, challenge dominant English-speaking spaces, and use these spaces to complement and connect communities worldwide. In sum, the CELLWs afforded the opportunity for the student participants to visualize themselves in different spaces within their communities (e.g., classroom, school, neighbourhood, and city) and reflect upon the relational dynamics permeating places, spaces, and their multilingual identities.

In alignment with arts-based methodologies, data collection did not occur with separate interviews or focus groups. Instead, students’ voices emerged within the CELLWs through collaborative dialogue, storytelling, and reflection sessions embedded in the workshop activities. These moments were captured through audio recordings, observational notes, and participants’ multimodal artifacts. Therefore, interviews and focus group-style conversations are considered integral to the CELLW process, as embedded practices of co-construction and expression.

The first set of workshops introduced key elements that helped the newcomer student participants recognize their language use (e.g., language logs) and multilingual identities (e.g., cultural values, expression, and stereotypes). During the second workshop, students employed photovoice to identify how they connected to their school. Here, they were able to clarify their feelings and emotions as they related to their identity in different areas around the school building. Afterwards, they were given the opportunity to incorporate elements that creatively described the relationships they had developed with those spaces (e.g., the creation of collages).

The second set of workshops included opportunities for newcomer students to creatively engage with their multilingualism during their time with the researchers (e.g., poetry) and represent the main features of their cultures to their community (e.g., mailbox painting). During the final workshop, the student participants reflected on their languages and identities through writing activities (e.g., fingerprint writing) that took into consideration how their cultural backgrounds could transform their schools and communities.

Participants

The study included 13 newcomer ELL youths (see Tables 2 and 3) and comprised predominantly Somali and Arabic students. Both groups had experienced displacement as a result of regional conflicts and wars within their respective countries of origin. Within this context, the Somali and Arabic student participants were among the visible minorities who appeared to encounter the most challenges in their day-to-day schooling. These challenges were particularly about language learning, cultural adaptation, and social integration, emphasizing the critical need for targeted support within educational settings. [End Page 336]

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Table 2.

Somali language group.

Interpreters who shared similar backgrounds with the student participants were invited to participate in each workshop to help students with lower levels of English or simply to help them to better understand the workshop tasks. The interpreters also helped translate any written materials received from the student participants that were written in their preferred language. Many of the student participants were also able to help translate and reduce any language barriers. It was noted that some students had varying degrees of understanding of other languages or dialects that they could comprehend but not actively speak.

Data analysis

As the CELLWs drew upon the combination of multimodal artifacts, including painting, drawing, and writing, the researchers employed Beavis and Green’s (2012) 3D framework for literacy, an approach to understanding literacy practices across three interconnected dimensions:

1. 1. Operational dimension: Practical skills that are required to engage with both verbal and visual forms of communication, including the ability to create and interact texts using a variety of media.

2. 2. Cultural dimension: How literacy practices contribute to sociocultural contexts, such as cultural identity expression through language and art.

3. 3. Critical dimension: Questioning power structures and ideologies underlying their literacy practices and social interactions. [End Page 337]

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Table 3.

Arabic language group.

The framework was applied through two rounds of thematic coding. In the first round, a researcher identified and organized themes across the data based on the three dimensions of the framework. A second researcher then conducted a verification round to ensure consistency, coherence, and confirmability in the coding process. The second round of coding was conducted by the same researcher who transcribed the audio recordings from the workshops, thus ensuring continuity between the transcription process and the interpretation of participants’ multimodal expressions.

By employing Beavis and Green’s framework, the study was able to provide a layered understanding of the plurilingual and multicultural competencies that students developed through the workshops. This methodological approach offered critical lenses for analyzing how students engaged with CELLWs, offering insights into the complex interplay of language, culture, race, and religion that are part of newcomer students’ experiences.

Results: Newcomer ELL youths’ narratives

This study illuminated the experiences of newcomer students and their complex interactions with an educational system that has yet to fully embrace the principles of cultural responsiveness. The guiding question – How does newcomer high school students’ spatial awareness, represented through Critically Engaged Language and Literacy Workshops (CELLWs), contribute to the disruption of dominant English language spaces? – was central to our exploration. The findings revealed that the pervasive use of English in educational settings not only posed significant obstacles for these students but also exacerbated their feelings of alienation within a predominantly white demographic (Modood & Thompson, 2022). These challenges underscored the ongoing struggle of these students to assert their identities and resist marginalization in environments that often fail to acknowledge or accommodate their diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. [End Page 338]

The multilingual and multimodal representations and spatial awareness used within the CELLWs revealed that newcomer students frequently navigated the complex subtleties of their multilingual identities by employing diverse linguistic and multimodal forms. The student participants’ realization of their multilingual identities through their language and spatial awareness, which was coupled with the multimodal representation of their experiences and reflections, helped to transform discourses and social contexts (Britton & Leonard, 2020). The study’s findings re-examined critical language and space awareness by (a) pushing the boundaries of newcomer students’ (mis)representation and diversity in schools’ spaces, and (b) showcasing how students’ multilingual identities have transgressed notions of spaces as they came to realize their role in being able to impact existing spaces.

(Mis)Representation and diversity in school spaces

The student participants recognized that their high school had somewhat addressed diversity matters by trying to incorporate certain elements into their school spaces (e.g., flags hanging in the cafeteria). These various flags represented an opportunity for students to revisit memories, use their repertoire (e.g., Arabic), talk about their places of origin (see Figure 1), and engage in conversations that had the potential to demystify stereotypes, enhance empathy, and promote cultural awareness.

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Figure 1.

The majority of students’ photos showed their flags in the cafeteria as a representative symbol.

Notes: [Translation] “The place where the flags are, I become happy when I go there. One time, there I was, talking/explaining to a friend that I’m from Syria. She became so happy when she knew. I told her, ‘I wish I can go back there.’ She told me that ‘one day you will go back’ and she gave me some hope.”

In addition to the flags present in the cafeteria, 10 newcomer students indicated that the prayer space helped them feel at home. The space, originally a small classroom, was transformed into a prayer room to accommodate the needs of Muslim students. As Marah commented, the sense of belonging was accentuated in the prayer room because “when I see people praying like me [in the prayer place], I don’t feel alone. I feel more confident when I’m there.” Their common belief systems, as well as their shared religious practices and habits, certainly supported these students in navigating their cultural backgrounds with more ease. Interestingly, however, different from seeing flags as objects hanging from the ceiling, the act of being present in the prayer room put many of the student participants in the spotlight. It was through the multilingual prayer process, as well as wearing religious and cultural accessories and clothing, that they could more purposefully reiterate some of their challenges more clearly. [End Page 339]

Nevertheless, the challenges of their being part of a visible minority continued to emerge as a primary theme in the CEWLLs activities. As an example, the prayer space initially seemed to attend to the needs of those students who wanted to keep their routine daily prayer routine intact. This space allowed “the Muslims [to] feel safe and respected by others...you could get privacy so that no one will judge you” (Lulu). As time went by, however, the student participants noted that the space set aside was essentially an adapted hallway and “is small. I wish they could make bigger to get space and more people will come and pray” (Junior). Moreover, access to the prayer space was possible through different doors, which allowed non-Muslim students to walk through and often tease the Muslim students inside the room.

Additionally, through the simple act of going to the prayer room, the student participants were also subjected to being recognized as the other, which, according to Modood and Thompson (2022), “takes a racialized form [when] it latches onto what are regarded as distinctive physical features of a group or beliefs about ancestry in order to impute negative characteristics to members of this group” (p. 787). As was the case for the student participants who were Muslim and who wore hijabs and abayas, for example, seven of the student participants experienced a negative reaction from their peers for recognizing their faith through such visible means.

These negative experiences included incidents where some of the male student participants who wore makhawwis (i.e., a long piece of clothing that can be compared to a dress) were called “girls,” or even “terrorists,” for wearing these garments: “When I come to school wearing makhawwis, they think I’m a female” (Little Polar Bear); “People get scared of me, they think I am a terrorist” (Zeek and Skinny). Similarly, female participants who habitually wore the hijab would at times experience their peers’ ridicule, often commenting that they “don’t have hair” (Marim). In sum, all the student participants comments that simply being and/or becoming part of a visible (cultural) minority within a predominantly white-Canadian setting had resulted in an oppression that these students had to overcome, even when it included sometimes being called “FOB” which means “fresh off the boat” (Orange).

Unfortunately, occurrences of racism and disrespect happened more frequently than the positive changes the school had intended to implement. As an example, during the CEWLLs interviews and focus groups, the student participants noted that despite having a prayer room, students who needed to take breaks to pray were not consistently acknowledged by their teachers. Furthermore, even though the school offered a canteen where students could purchase meals, Halal food was not available as an option for the significantly Muslim portion of the school’s population. Student participants also experienced linguistic misunderstandings, whether in class or outside of it, and these misunderstandings tended to put them in the vulnerable position of having to ask for help.

For example, Taliban Boy confirmed that using their language (e.g., Somali) in school spaces often jeopardized their activities:

Like in my language you say, like, adiga. And adiga, is...means “you.” Okay? If you call, if [you] speak in the gym, like soccer, adiga, [teachers] think like you said the N-word. They [teachers] may they say, like, go out, why you said the N-word, eventually do not understand what you said. They just say like, go, go out.

(Taliban Boy) [End Page 340]

Another significant issue identified within the school was the fact that students were not afforded defined opportunities to have discussion about the languages they spoke. As an example, and according to Zeek, “[the teacher] will not listen to you.... If you argue with them, they will call the principal and you go to the office. They lied about you. Like [as if] you said the N-word, doesn’t mean you...didn’t say.... The principal will believe them, you know.”

The CELLW activities were strategically designed to enhance the students’ critical language awareness by engaging them in tasks that explicitly required reflection on their multilingual identities, places of origin, and modes of self-expression. Marim, one of the participating students, addressed the need for more books in Arabic or about Islam (see Figure 2):

The findings challenged the school to address multilingualism, cultural misconceptions, and representation within its spaces by contrasting what the school staff believed diversity meant with the reality of what newcomer students were experiencing based on their beliefs, looks, and languages. This challenge helped to reinforce the notion that as critical practitioners, educators need to continue to reinvent themselves through restless inquiry (Freire, 1996) and uphold the recognition that the desire to reconfigure social spaces appears to be originating mostly from marginalized communities alone. It is within this sphere that the theme of identity functions to reshape participants’ school and community spaces.

Transgressing spaces through multilingual identities

As members of a visible minority within the school, the newcomer student participants recognized that their ethnicity, race, clothing, religious attitudes, and languages had shifted the fundamental make-up of their school and community systems. Many collages expressed the desire for “a Black teacher” who could understand the students, and similarly, this study urges an act of transgressing spaces through multilingual identities. The student participants also acknowledged that by being isolated for the way they behaved during sports activities (e.g., boys speaking usually louder than normal and in different languages) or the way they dressed for physical education classes (e.g., the girls in the study affirmed having their grades lowered for not changing into Western gym clothes), for example, they were exhorting their classmates and school staff to confront diversity in a more holistic manner. As an example, Lulu shared that being a newcomer student in a predominantly white and monolingual school (i.e., English speakers), it is common to be viewed as the different one: “When you’re in your home country, you see lots of people who aren’t different from you, but now...you see lots of different looks” (Lulu).

Regarding self-identification, students were categorized primarily by their dominant language, as presented in Tables 1 and 2. However, their identities in relation to ethnicity and racism (as described by them) were varied and deeply intertwined with their experiences of being born in countries other than Canada. This nuanced self-identification elucidates the multiple layers of identity that influence their perceptions and interactions within the school setting.

Zeek was also able to represent space and time through multimodal expression (see Figure 3) as he vividly walked the researchers through his journey and expressed how his language and identity had transgressed space limits. As someone born in Yemen (flag represented on the left side of the drawing) and growing up in a Somali context after being displaced (flag represented on the right side of the drawing), his entangled memories of food, dreams, and fun were all linked to his experiences upon arrival in Canada. While in a [End Page 341]

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Figure 2.

Student’s (Marim) thoughts on needed changes in school practices. Notes: [Translation] “In the library, I wish/want [there] to be books in Arabic, [about] Islam, so that students feel safe and tranquil.”

[End Page 342]

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Figure 3.

Zeek’s representation of his journey, migrations, and memories.

Canadian school, however, making use of such memories was a challenge as “some teachers will not trust you” (Zeek).

Zeek’s lack of hope in teachers’ support echoed other newcomer students’ experiences with cultural tokenism. For Skinny, “[speaks in Somali] like this is not education.... [The school is missing] the diversity light. They [the school] make a Culture Day, but they make it only once a year.... That is the problem.” However, these newcomer students also became more cognizant of the fact that their presence in the school was creating more than just awareness. In fact, their multilingual identities, beliefs, and behaviours were exhorting the school to change its classroom practices, education spaces, and community systems.

Despite the challenges, the researchers found that some student participants were able to acknowledge their unique differences and discover areas within the school where they could genuinely express their individuality and identity. As Tassneem pointed out, “I feel like everyone could truly be themselves and feel free [in the cafeteria]. For example, speak their own languages.” Nonetheless, the ability to find such spaces and speak whichever languages they wanted did not minimize the student participants’ desire to expand initiatives even more within the school. As an example, Marim indicated that culturally diverse books should be included to enable more and better cross-student connection and understanding: “In the library, I wish/want to be books about Arabs, Islam, so that students feel safe and tranquil.”

Often, minority students were being told not to speak their languages or asked to behave in a certain way, and some of them even avoided challenging such orders in an attempt to fit in. When talking to the researchers, Zeek highlighted that teachers might feel uncomfortable when students speak languages other than English because “they think you’re cheating or talking something about them,” especially in classes like maths or gym. The fact that Marim used “so that students feel safe” in her reflection is one of several [End Page 343] examples of students diminishing their cultural significance to adapt to the dominant spaces where they are.

On the other hand, Junior recognized that his multilingual identity had the potential “to promote understanding, respect...and empathy among different cultures.” Moreover, the experiences of multicultural students could “challenge discriminatory beliefs as languages will have the power to share perceptions and change stereotypes, leading to a more inclusive and accepting society.” Junior’s words were taken from an activity entitled “My Language, My Fingerprint” (see Figure 4), in which participating students had the chance to contemplate the importance of “choosing words wisely and engaging in conversations. That promotes safe communities and equality [equity] for all” (Junior).

Embracing social transformation for these students meant acknowledging that their multilingual and multicultural identities carried meaning. In additional multimodal processes such as painting (see Figure 5), students were able to promote how they wanted to rewrite their journeys, portray their identities, and move away from stereotypes typically addressed to them. As an example, by using delicate and extremely complex calligraphy, the CEWLLs painting activity once again supplied newcomer students with the opportunity to express themselves through their languages.

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Figure 4.

“My Language, My Fingerprint.”

These mailboxes showcased different aspects of the participants’ identities: languages, religion, cultural items, and origin. Through this activity, they portrayed their individual selves and tore down offensive stereotypes that could work to change dominant narratives [End Page 344] that persisted in marginalizing them. This series of CELLWs operated from a disruption of critical awareness (an intentional challenge of common perceptions and understandings that students face about identity in educational settings) and a revisited walking methodology approach. Two activities provoked students to engage with places and spaces by taking photographs and interacting with maps. During interviews and focus groups, students walked with researchers to specific spaces of their choice (that were significant to them specifically) and used these experiences to reflect on and discuss how the physical and abstract locations affected their perceptions and experiences. Together, they foregrounded this study’s findings and centred newcomers’ voices as a means of raising concerns about their identity and position in society.

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Figure 5.

What to show our community through your mailboxes.

Discussion

The multilingual and intersectional identities of the newcomer student participants helped to highlight issues of exclusion and marginalization that visible minorities continue to confront within educational environments (Modood & Thompson, 2022). Yet, despite policies advocating for safer spaces and better quality of education for ELL newcomer students (Alberta, 2022b; Canada, 2023; People for Education, 2023), racism, ignorance, and discrimination continue to permeate many attitudes, thereby diminishing newcomers’ presence and participation in spaces in and outside of schools.

The recurring themes of representation, oppression, and diversity highlight the need for language educators to critically examine how dominant spaces in schools jeopardize the inclusion of their newcomer ELL students. This study emphasized that culturally diverse school practices ought to involve ongoing reassessment of community needs, social demographics, and initiatives that are currently in place to support these students. As the third phase of a four-part study aimed at improving the school environment while supporting these students, this research has highlighted how essential it is for culturally diverse school practices to involve progressive and continuous reassessment of students’ needs, social demographics, and existing initiatives. Language educators, while not explicitly mentioned earlier, are integral to these efforts. [End Page 345]

By engaging newcomer ELL high school students in Critically Engaged Language and Literacy Workshops (CELLWs), this study facilitated a process of consciousness-raising – where students actively became aware of their own positions in the world and how to address the challenges they face (Alim, 2010). In this way, the CELLWs provided a platform for students to reflect on their multilingualism and the shifting spaces within their school community, compelling them to encourage educational stakeholders to confront the invisibility that marginalized communities often experience – even within environments that claim to promote diversity (Sekaja et al., 2022).

This research builds on previous scholarship in CMLA and newcomer youth (Prasad & Lory, 2020) by integrating spatial awareness more explicitly as a core dimension of language ideologies and lived school experiences. While earlier studies have explored either CMLA or critical spatial awareness separately, this study uniquely merges both concepts through a creative, arts-based methodology that centres youth participation. In doing so, it responds to the call for more pedagogical practices that foreground identity negotiation and student agency across multiple literacies and spatial contexts (Taylor et al., 2017).

Following a reconceptualization of CMLA and informed by the voices of these newcomer student participants through Critically Engaged Language Literacy Workshops (CELLWs) – whose social transformation resulted from the reconfiguration of spaces due to their identities – the researchers were able to problematize hidden oppressive attitudes (Taylor et al., 2017). The ELL newcomers’ efforts in this study capitalized on critical moments to analyze and renegotiate identities through power relations that involve race, ethnicity, and social beliefs that continue to play out through language (Taylor et al., 2017).

From their participation in the CELLWs, the newcomer student participants in this study clearly demonstrated how their demographic is helping to reframe school and community spaces with their multilingual identities (Diamond et al., 2021). They were also able to grasp the opportunity to inform education systems as to how educators could move from observing issues involving language matters to developing an analysis of the dynamic complexities of newcomer students (Alim, 2010; Taylor et al., 2017). Finally, the experiences of these newcomer high school students further underscore the need for ongoing re-evaluation of culturally diverse school practices.

Conclusions

In this paper, the researchers involved the newcomer ELL student participants in a series of CEWLLs, and in doing so, the study encouraged them to engage in self-exploration through multimodal and artistic creation (Zhang-Yu et al., 2021). Through this process, they also produced counter-hegemonic narratives (Oumlil, 2012; Toukan, 2020) to enhance the constructivist and individual perspective of critical language awareness. Additionally, by engaging student participants’ voices and their journeys as they navigated their lives and relationships in school spaces, the researchers were able to further their exploration of the relationships between language and discrimination. The research also examined the “connective marginalities across linguistically profiled and marginalized populations” (Alim, 2010, p. 222) and sought to push the boundaries of critical language awareness through the experiences of these newcomer high school students.

This study underscored the potential of multimodal approaches in language education research for deepening the understanding of oppression, language, and identity and their [End Page 346] relationality with physical and imagined spaces. Such a study cultivates and values diversity, which in turn supports educational stakeholders as they develop their situated awareness and critical practices. For the participating students, the knowledge exchanged in this study informed a reconfiguration of conventions, relations, and processes. The study instigated critical agency and provided the participants with tools to voice diversity issues involving power dynamics, racialization, othering, and marginalization (Taylor et al., 2017).

Ultimately, this study worked to erase and undo multilingual invisibility and enhanced the use of multiple languages and the expression of diverse cultures. For this reason, this study is crucial for directing our attention toward cultivating and regenerating a critical stance concerning language ideologies intertwined with space reconfiguring. At its heart, the CELLWs served to engage the student participants in a process similar to consciousness-raising. The entire process acknowledged them as active contributors who possess a solid understanding of their own diverse linguistic identities, and the scholarship encouraged them to employ this understanding to express their needs and desires in a real and practical manner.