Educational Interventions for Responding to the Presence and Needs of Undocumented Students

• In Event: 35.055 - Community Resistance to the Forced Separation of Migrant Children

Abstract

Though campus personnel often serve as important resources in accessing college, undocumented students often describe uncertainty regarding whom they can trust (Teranishi, Suárez­Orozco, & Suárez­Orozco, 2015). Experiences where students’ needs are not met, support is not provided, and information is not allocated often result in a sense of isolation and an unwillingness to seek advisement or assistance (Pérez, Cortés, Ramos, & Coronado, 2010). Campus personnel play a critical role for students seeking support and information. Yet, the lack of training and support needed to assist undocumented students asserts that there is a need for professional development opportunities that prepare campus personnel to work with undocumented students. Given the need for professional development opportunities that are responsive to the needs of practitioners working with undocumented students (Cadenas, Cisneros, Todd, & Spanierman, 2016), this presentation highlights the outcomes of an accessible and replicable educational intervention that acknowledges the important role of campus personnel for responding to the presence and needs of undocumented students in the borderland.
Institutions of higher education are social microcosms in which the vision of social justice and multiculturalism in larger society can be realized. For this reason, institutions must interrogate the extent to which they are reflective of such vision and the role educational interventions can play in transforming their educational environments. Institutions of higher education—particularly those within the borderland—bear the responsibility of preparing their campus personnel to support all students, regardless of immigration status. One approach toward holding themselves accountable is by supporting educational interventions that highlight the intersection of immigration and education, and encouraging campus personnel to attend. Educational interventions provide a starting point for institutionalizing undocumented student support services.
Given ever-changing federal, state, local, and institutional policies, campus personnel need help interpreting information and implementing supports. By embedding educational interventions into routine professional development opportunities, institutions can foster greater competency and self-efficacy amongst campus personnel for working with undocumented students (Cisneros & Cadenas, 2017). Across the country, undocumented students and allies have developed educational interventions that are congruent with their state, local, and institution-specific climates (Cisneros & Lopez, 2016). Institutions must commit to providing such ongoing opportunities for campus personnel to grow and develop. Institutions, for example, have developed Dreamer Resource Centers and hired staff to coordinate campus-based initiatives and professional development trainings (Canedo Sanchez & So, 2015). Coordinators streamline institutional efforts to remain culturally responsive to the needs of undocumented students (e.g., food pantries, transportation vouchers, peer groups, mental health supports, emergency grants, and scholarships), while challenging institutional processes that systematically exclude or further marginalize undocumented students. The development of such infrastructures ensure that campus personnel working with undocumented students feel supported, and that educational interventions are part of the efforts that higher education institutions employ to remain culturally embedded and socially responsive to the communities they serve. This presentation seeks to highlight viable examples of culturally responsive practices that institutions of higher education on the borderland can employ.

Author

• Jesus Cisneros, University of Texas at El Paso