(Re)Imagining Education: Brazilian (Im)Migrant Children's Experiences of Schooling in the United States

• In Event: 63.031 - Children Negotiating Everyday Borders: How the Anthropology of Education Contributes to Research on (Im)Migrant Children in Schools

Abstract

(Im)migrant children in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world arrive at schools with different levels of knowledge of English. Schools and society in turn are quick transform these realities into deficits of language and culture. The argument on this paper is twofold: first, anthropological and ethnographic methods offer particular approaches to understand (im)migrant children’s experiences in schools and with education, specially regarding long term engagement with families outside of school; second, (im)migrant children and parents are constantly negotiating borders in their everyday lives. These borders reflect the hegemonic influence of English as language of instruction and Portuguese as the language of imagination.

There is scarce research conducted with Brazilians, who constitute a significant and, given economic and political instability of late, rapidly growing part of the Latinx population in the United States (Cordero 2016). They do not conform to the label of students or English learners, in fact they are negotiating borders of home, school and life at all times. In addition, while many of them remain undocumented, together with their families they are expected to learn how to navigate school system, a new language and be part of a community in a new place.
In the U.S. education has worked under subtractive approaches to schooling (Valenzuela, 1999), such as replacing home language with English, that inhibit the improvement of bi/multilingual Latinx students’ educational opportunities and outcomes (e.g., Cummins, 1979; Paris & Alim, 2014; Reyes & Halcón, 2001).

Methods: This eighteen month long ethnography was conducted in a primary school of Framingham in Massachusetts where 10% of the population identify as Brazilian (a little over 8,000 people). Interviews and observations were also conducted in their homes, places of work and entertainment. Anthropological ethnographic methods were employed in order to move past the school/schooling aspect of their lives and understand how and when education is happening for immigrant children.

Findings show that (im)migrant Brazilian children in kindergarten are constantly negotiating their own expectations and excitement about learning in the U.S. as well as their parents’ expectations of education. Parents’ cling on to the narratives of their own migratory sacrifices in the hopes that they are fulfilled with their children doing well in school. Findings illustrate how (im)migrant children in school make a concerted effort to speak in Portuguese and use their vocabulary and knowledge from outside of school to show effort, but when at home receive praise and credit only when the same knowledge is demonstrated in English. Findings also show how a new two-way immersion language program at the school is providing a space for families, parents and children to discuss their own expectations of language use in formal and informal settings.
Brazilian Latinos constitute one the largest immigrant populations in Massachusetts—a state with some of the widest economic and educational discrepancies between white and Latino/a residents in the nation (Stebbins & Comen, 2018). 45% of the students attending Framingham Public Schools (FPS) who speak a language other than English speak Portuguese (FPS, 2017)

Author

• Gabrielle Oliveira, Boston College