Teaching Civics to Immigrant High School Students

• In Event: Teaching as Inquiry: Learning With and About Students

Abstract

Teaching Civics to Immigrant High School Students

Research Purposes:
For the past four years I have been teaching ESL, Civics and U.S. History at a Title 1 New York City public high school that serves a diverse population of newcomer immigrant teens. My students represent a range of educational and cultural backgrounds. A cursory look at the historical record reveals our long-standing debate on immigration; our collective projection of vice and virtue onto immigrant communities is as old as our republic itself. But while America talks about immigrants, how do immigrants conceptualize their own place in this nation? This question is at the center of my work as a classroom practitioner, and animates my inquiry with my students. In my classes, I have been trying to uncover what messages my students are receiving about membership and belonging in America and how they respond to those messages. What I hope to uncover in the future is what impact curricular choices have on students’ sense of membership and belonging in the USA. For example, is it empowering or discouraging for students to learn about the Xenophobia that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act or rhetoric used against immigrants during the 1920’s. Does knowledge of immigrant allies and activists from generations past alter students’ sense of agency? Does instruction change whether students consider themselves “American” or even desire to be lumped into that category?

Methods and Data Sources:
My inquiry revolved largely around identifying noteworthy questions or striking comments that students made, either in class discussions, writing assignments, or as part of class projects, then looping back to those comments and questions with inquiry. Much of my data was collected via informal group “think-tank” sessions, which were weekly lunchtime meetings with a core of six students from different world regions. I audio recorded these discussions and then transcribed them for further reflection, alone and with my research group.

Findings:
Students responded in a range of ways to prompts, sometimes completely opposite to one another, regarding questions of belonging and membership in the USA. Often students’ definitions of membership were tied to external behavioral traits and indicators, like English language fluency and lack of accent; for some students’ only being born in the USA could confer true “belonging” status. Economic participation and financial stability were also regarded as indicators of belonging in the US, and particular forms of behavior. Students disagreed with each other about whether the United States is a reliable and safe place, one that they want to belong to. Some acknowledge missing their countries of origin; others did not. Some support new immigrants and refugees; others did so with many reservations. In addition, immigrant students do not naturally share a sense of solidarity with other immigrant students, with legal status and perceptions of difference based on home culture presenting a potential wedge between “us” and “them”.

Author

• Brian Tauzel, University of Washington - Seattle