المناقشات المرتكزة على النص وممارسات صناعة المعنى للنساء العربيات المثقفات: دراسة حالة إثنوغرافية لصالون فكري ثقافي في الولايات المتحدة: ديوانية الفكر والثقافة أنموذجا
[Thesis]
Al Sultan , Hajar Khalifa
Coronel-Molina, Serafin M.
Indiana University
2020
372 p.
Ph.D.
Indiana University
2020
Arab women, living in English-speaking countries, have received heightened attention across the fields of language, gender, identity, education; however, most of the existing research has explored issues and experiences related to their social, linguistic, and/or cultural transition. The literacy and intellectual practices of Arab women within specific social and cultural contexts, or from an interactional and interpretive perspective, have been underexplored. This ethnographic case study drew on Bourdieu's conception of capital and Mercer's conception of interthinking, and employed thematic analysis and interactional sociolinguistics to address three questions: (1) What does the Intellectual and Cultural Salon (ICS) represent for educated Arab women studying and/or living in a large US college town? (2) What are the literacy practices educated Arab women engage in with one another when discussing texts in the context of ICS? (3) How do educated Arab women collaboratively negotiate meaning(s) when discussing texts and engaging with one another in the context of the ICS? Using multifaceted ethnographic data sources, including participant observations, fieldnotes, audiotaping of salon interactions and individual interviews, and relevant documents, the findings of this study reveal that the ICS represents a unique and fertile environment for building and fortifying intellectual and interthinking practices, transformational relationships, and interactional gains. The ICS encapsulated various forms of cultural, linguistic, and social capital, which may be linked to the Arabic contemporary literary salons in the Arab world and in the diaspora to the salons of the past. Interactive read-aloud discussions and meaning-making were a meaningful social relational experience, which facilitated joint attention to texts, intellectual activity, and roles and relationships. The women demonstrated the importance of having access to social, linguistic, and/or cultural capital, and the "embodied" knowledge of how to engage in cultural activities as forms of capital. While negotiating their understanding of texts, their thoughts and the thoughts of one another, and meaning of concepts and terms, the women demonstrated how educated discourse is constructed through joint consideration and joint thinking in their ICS meetings. This study illuminates several theoretical, methodological, and practical implications in relation to joint thinking, meaning-making, learning in small groups, and group work dynamics.