Identity, Agency, and Voice: Immigrant Resilient Practices Across Diverse Contexts

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium showcases the resilience and agency of youth and their families from urban and immigrant communities by examining how they develop their own practices, identities, stories, and positions vis-à-vis deficit perspectives and challenges. Specifically, four papers explore how: Latina mothers resiliently adopt and share with their preschool children their own literacy practices in mainstream ESL classrooms; Korean migrant youths author complex identities in new media spaces, drawing on their experiences as resources; middle school students challenge social injustice by creating critical narratives; and high school students from immigrant families utilize multimedia journalism to voice perspectives on their community. Together, these papers will discuss ways to meaningfully connect youth practices and education research and policy.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 5: Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Chair

• Wan Shun Eva Lam, Northwestern University

Papers

• Mi teléfono es mi mejor maestro: Latina Immigrant Mothers’ Use of Smartphones as Literacy Tools - Karisa Jessica Peer, University of California - Los Angeles

• Migrant Youths’ Authoring of Self(ves) Through New Media - Sujin Kim, University of Missouri

• Critical Conversations: Privileging Middle School Students’ Perspectives on Social Justice - Mary Ellen Miller, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Multimodal Voicing in Youths’ Video Documentaries on Immigration - Natalia Smirnov, Northwestern University; Wan Shun Eva Lam, Northwestern University

Discussant

• Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri - Columbia