Three Paths, One Community: Diverse Research Approaches and Shared Teaching Experiences with Refugee Women
Elif Varlik and Eda Yildirimer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
Cem Varlik, Istanbul University–Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Türkiye
Adult literacy classrooms, often referred to as LESLLA (Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults) contexts, are commonly framed as sites of urgency, where instruction must move quickly to meet learners’ immediate needs. In our experience, though, these classrooms are also slow spaces: places where teaching means listening first, where certainty gives way to reflection, and where learning emerges through relationships rather than outcomes. In what follows, we will reflect on these experiences and what they mean for shaping our identities as English language educators.
Elif — Learning from community: Teaching and research in adult refugee literacy education
Over the past two years, I have been teaching Afghan refugee women in community-based adult literacy classrooms. I began this work as a teacher candidate in the MA TESL program’s ESL Practicum course, where I first encountered the pedagogical and relational complexities of LESLLA education. Alongside my peers, I co-taught foundational literacy skills to learners navigating not only a new language but also unfamiliar schooling practices, shifting identities, and new lives in the U.S. It quickly became clear that teaching in this context required more than lesson planning or methodological expertise: it required learning how to listen. My choice to stay involved beyond the practicum marked the beginning of a longer commitment that later shaped my teaching and research.
After the practicum ended, I continued volunteering in our local mosque with my spouse, Cem, to support women’s language development. Creating appropriate materials and revisiting topics through a cyclical curriculum became part of our weekly practice. Building relationships with women who had been denied access to formal schooling reshaped my understanding of literacy and learning where communication became a shared accomplishment. Although we did not speak Pashto or Dari, and many of the women had limited spoken English, we exchanged stories through gestures, visuals, and emerging language. Over time, these interactions evolved into a weekly socialization group where learners practised English while building community.
As I became more invested in this work, I sought ways to better support these learners and strengthen my own teaching. I attended webinars, teacher trainings, and connected with educators through professional networks. It led to my MA thesis project, Virtual study sessions for adult literacy education teachers’ multilingual awareness (Varlik, 2025). In this study, I designed online reading groups for LESLLA teachers across North America to examine how they engaged in critical reflection around multilingual pedagogies. Weekly discussions on topics such as translanguaging, trauma-informed teaching, and identity texts fostered sustained reflective practice. Findings from discussion posts and interviews showed that teachers re-evaluated their beliefs, shared instructional challenges, and explored new pedagogical possibilities within the constraints of LESLLA contexts. Participating in these conversations alongside experienced educators was also formative for my own development as a researcher and teacher.
Following the project, I translated these insights into basic computer lessons for our community learners during the summer of 2025. Although learners did not own computers, many used smartphones, and we focused on foundational digital skills — typing, navigating tabs, and searching online — using resources such as Typing.com. Progress was gradual but consistent. The impact, nonetheless, became clear when a case worker shared that a long-term student, Mina, independently completed a part of a digital form during an office visit, using the computer without assistance. Thanks to these experiences, my goal is to continue supporting language learners who challenge me to become a more attentive, reflective, and intentional teacher. Overall, moving between teaching, research, and supporting future educators has reshaped how I understand teacher development as a relational, iterative, and deeply situated process.
Eda — Learning alongside teachers: Reflections from refugee ESL and practicum research
As a transnational graduate teaching assistant (GTA), my experiences motivated my first research project, Identity construction, tension navigation, and pedagogical growth among transnational ESL graduate teaching assistants at a Midwest University in the U.S.A. (Yildirimer, 2025), which showed that GTAs encountered challenges related to cultural and educational differences and pedagogical adjustment. Building on this work, my second research project emerged from observing the additional challenges my peers encountered during a practicum course when teaching literacy skills to Afghan refugee women. While I continued volunteering with this learner group beyond the practicum, I became increasingly aware that not all teacher candidates experienced the same levels of pedagogical, emotional, or professional growth. Recognizing that TESOL and SLA research rarely center on LESLLA learners, who often have little to no literacy in their first language (Bigelow & Vinogradov, 2011) and limited access to formal education (Altherr Flores, 2019), I decided to design a study focused on the practicum experience itself.
In my research, I worked with three female MA TESOL teacher candidates enrolled in the Spring 2025 practicum course who chose to teach a women’s group at a local mosque. Teacher candidates were from Brazil, Nigeria, and Korea, and brought diverse teaching backgrounds. However, none had prior or more than very limited experience teaching LESLLA learners. Over the course of a semester, I explored how the practicum supported candidates in working with linguistically and culturally diverse learners, how the experience contributed to their professional development, and the challenges they encountered in practice. The analysis was guided by the CAELA Network’s (2010) Framework for Quality Professional Development, which foregrounds content, process, and context. Preliminary findings indicated that participants experienced several content- and context-related tensions, including limited information about learner profiles and insufficient pedagogical preparation. While the team-teaching model supported collaboration, structural constraints within the practicum contributed to feelings of uncertainty and fatigue. Despite challenges, participants reported professional growth, increased pedagogical awareness, and a strong sense of emotional reward throughout the process. Working with a highly motivated yet underresourced learner population was described as both challenging and fulfilling.
Based on my research, as well as my experiences within and beyond the practicum examining the language development of this learner population, it is clear that teacher development is shaped by context-informed pedagogical preparation and teachers’ critical awareness of their own identities and their learners’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Such awareness plays a key role in fostering intercultural and linguistic sensitivity and in supporting responsive teaching practices. These insights point to the need for structured preparation and ongoing guidance for teacher candidates engaged in service-learning practica, particularly when working with underresourced and marginalized learner groups.
Cem — Beyond Print Literacy: Integrating Digital Tools in Refugee Women’s LESLLA Classrooms Through Action Research
My motivation for teaching LESLLA learners is grounded in my personal and educational background. My grandmother, who did not have formal schooling or literacy, often expressed her desire to attend school, but this opportunity was not granted, as her family did not support her education at the time. Her experiences made me aware of structural and social barriers, particularly those affecting women, that can restrict access to education. This incident motivated me to volunteer to teach refugee women in the U.S. alongside my spouse, Elif, who was completing her master's degree. Initially, I worried that my male presence might limit participation due to the students’ cultural and religious backgrounds, nearly causing me to quit. However, these concerns were unfounded. The learners adapted, welcomed my presence, and eventually called me "Brother Cem." Their willingness to engage despite cultural barriers became a significant motivation for me to continue supporting their education.
This experience encouraged me to engage more with LESLLA literature concerning lesson structure, curriculum, materials, and student–teacher dynamics. At the same time, I was pursuing my MA in educational technology, which further shaped my interest in research-informed practices.Applying both theoretical and practical knowledge, I designed my graduation project as an action research study to improve adult literacy education. Action research was chosen because its core purpose is to systematically reflect on, intervene in, and enhance instructional practices or address pedagogical challenges.
Literacy is an essential component of the right to education. UNESCO (2019) defines literacy as a mutually reinforcing set of skills, including digital literacy, media literacy, and job-specific competencies. Therefore, this action research sought to address a critical challenge: overcoming the cognitive, social, systemic, and pedagogical obstacles associated with incorporating digital tools into literacy instruction. When I shared this approach with my co-teachers, Elif and Eda, they expressed strong support, and I started working on the materials.
The lessons for this action research started with designing storybooks with AI-generated, real-life-like images to help students understand the content more easily. Topics were chosen from our regular guide, Oxford Picture Dictionary. Each week, learners tried a new Web 2.0 tool (e.g., Kahoot, Wordwall, Blooket, Padlet, and more), which some called “mind-opening games”. With the integration of digital tools and a clearly structured lesson design, learners gained confidence in using mobile devices — scanning QR codes, using a mouse, and posting comments on Padlet — improving their ability to follow lessons, and increasing their engagement. Their regular attendance, individual performance, responses, and progress also became more visible to the teacher through these tools.
The process became a stepping stone for my development as a teacher-researcher. The reflections made throughout allowed me to gain both internal and external perspectives, fostering my ability to adapt to specific teaching contexts and create relevant solutions.
Concluding remarks
Taken together, our perspectives highlight how teacher learning develops through reflection, collaboration, and engagement with student communities. Teaching in a refugee context also taught us the importance of engaging in reciprocal research that emerges from the need to support students’ literacy skills. We suggest that adult literacy education requires classroom-integrated research, structured teacher preparation, and thoughtfully constructed lesson plans grounded in learners’ lived experiences.
References
Altherr Flores, J. A., Fogel, L., Snell, A. M., & von Roekel, K. (2019). Teaching and tutoring adult emergent readers with refugee backgrounds: Implementing a training program for community volunteers. LESLLA Symposium Proceedings, 13(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8104645
Bigelow, M., & Vinogradov, P. (2011). Teaching adult second language learners who are emergent readers. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 120-136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190511000109
Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Network. (2010). Framework for quality professional development for practitioners working with adult English language learners. Center for Applied Linguistics. https://www.cal.org/caelanetwork/profdev/framework/FrameworkNew.pdf
UNESCO. (2019). UNESCO strategy for youth and adult literacy (2020–2025). UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373473_eng
Varlik, E. (2025). Virtual study sessions for adult literacy education teachers’ multilingual awareness [Master's thesis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]. https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129962
Yildirimer, E. (2025). Identity construction, tension navigation, and pedagogical growth among transnational ESL graduate teaching assistants at a Midwest University in the U.S.A. [Master’s thesis, Middle East Technical University]. https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115152
Elif Varlik is a PhD student in linguistics and second language acquisition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and holds two MA degrees in TESL. Her research focuses on multilingualism, adult literacy, and teacher development, drawing on community-based refugee education and supporting MATESL teacher candidates through classroom observations and pedagogical support.
Eda Yildirimer is a MATESOL student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds an MA in English language teaching from Middle East Technical University. Her MA study, which won an award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics, examined the identity (re)construction, navigation of tensions, and pedagogical growth of transnational graduate teaching assistants as well as the professional development of MATESOL teacher candidates in the context of LESLLA.
Cem Varlik is an MA student in educational technology at Istanbul University–Cerrahpaşa and holds a BA in English language teaching from Istanbul Medeniyet University. Cem has volunteered as a teacher with Okul Destek Derneği in Türkiye, supporting underprivileged students, and in the U.S., where he taught literacy to Afghan refugee women.