Citizenship Education for Noncitizens: How Social Studies Teachers of Immigrant Youth Conceptualize Their Craft

• In Event: 35.039 - Immigrant Youth and Citizenship Education

Abstract

In efforts to diminish civic opportunity and achievement gaps, researchers have examined effective practices for social studies teachers who work with marginalized youth (Howard, 2004; Levinson, 2012; Rubin, 2008; Salinas & Sullivan, 2007; Tyson, 2002). Many of the studies, however, have focused on teachers of U.S. born low-income students of color. There is very little literature, however, on the beliefs and practices of social studies teachers of immigrant youth, a population whose resources, needs and experiences may differ from those of other students.

In this exploratory study, I interviewed 12 social studies teachers of immigrant youth in two New York City high schools. I asked them about their pedagogical aims and practices, focusing on how they defined citizenship and citizenship education, engaged student identities in teaching history and government, and explained how concepts of social cohesion and cultural diversity played out in their teaching (Banks, 2008). Data included two, forty-five minute interviews of the teachers. Using qualitative thematic analyses (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2013),

I found that the majority of teachers adopted what Abowitz and Harnish (2008) term a “liberal” concept of citizenship and citizenship education. Liberal concepts of citizenship privilege citizenship rights over concerns about citizenship responsibilities; promote critical thinking about, over acquisition of, social studies knowledge; draw on student identities to illustrate persistent themes like migration, diversity and democracy; and imagine social cohesion and cultural diversity as complementary, rather than conflicting, aims for the education of immigrant youth. Two of the teachers adopted “civic republican” orientations (greater emphasis on citizen responsibility, acquisition of traditional knowledge and social cohesion vs. diversity), while one teacher constructed critical, transnational concepts of citizenship education and cultural diversity (emphasis on critique of social studies knowledge, discussion of young people’s transnational identities and the promotion of activism regardless of citizenship status).

The presenter explores the implications of the findings for teaching/learning about citizenship to newcomer youth, drawing upon the findings of the study as well as the work of Banks (2008), Abowitz & Harnish, (2006) and el-Haj (2009) to promote among social studies teachers critical and transnational approaches to citizenship

Author

• Terrie Epstein, Hunter College - CUNY