Between worlds: the narration of multicultural/transnational identities of women working in a post-national space

This dissertation explores the question: What does it mean to live in-between as an accelerated flow of people moves between worlds? The high-speed of Internet connections, cellular communications and air travel are redefining the traditional notion of a shared history, memory, national identity and language. By using Bakhtin’s literary tools of analysis, the author captures the complexity that characterizes the narration of identities in multicultural/transnational women living in a post-national space during the beginning of the twenty-first century. Few studies in the field of multicultural/bilingual education have applied Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia and chronotope to make meaning out of the complexities in multicultural/transnational identities. Using life history methods as a means of gathering the stories of thirteen multicultural/transnational women who lived in El Cachimbazo, Guatemala, for six months during 2002, the author not only provides a qualitative, alternative perspective on bilingual education but also a new tool to understanding the multiple dimensions of identity construction in multicultural/transnational individuals.