"Doing Research Really Helps!" Latinx Newcomers' Participation in a Research-Focused After-School Program

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Educational Spaces and Places for Immigrant Youth in a Time of Heightened Anti-Immigrant Policy

Abstract

Purpose
Research on newcomers’ participation in extracurricular programs is scant (Okamoto, Herda, & Hartzog, 2013). Particularly, there is little research on adolescent, Latinx newcomers’ involvement in afterschool programs and on the individual and social impact of their program participation. This lack of research is concerning because of the increasing number of Latinx youth who are arriving to the US and who are struggling to adjust to US schools. This study addressed these research gaps by answering two questions: How do newcomer, Latinx, high school students perceive an afterschool program focused on social research? How does newcomer, Latinx, high school students’ participation in the research-focused afterschool program impact their self-perceptions and teachers’ perceptions of the students?

Methods
This qualitative study unfolded at a newcomer high school (i.e., a school that only serves recently arrived immigrants) in a Mid-Atlantic state and stemmed from the collaboration between the school personnel and a team of university-based researchers. As a member of the research team, I had built a relationship with the school staff for 2 years before the beginning of the study.
The afterschool program lasted one academic semester and consisted of weekly 3-hour sessions. During the program, the participating students (n=14) selected research topics, designed their own studies, created research instruments, analyzed the data, and shared their findings at their school and a local university.
The data for this study came from semi-structured interviews with 4 focal students, formal and interviews with 6 teachers, and fieldnotes that described my participant observations of the program sessions. I analyzed the data inductively and deductively to identify codes, themes, and patterns (Creswell, 2018). Throughout the analytic process, I triangulated the data sources and refined my coding scheme to thoroughly answer my research questions.

Findings
The analysis revealed that the participating newcomer Latinx high schoolers perceived the research-centered afterschool program as a fun, yet challenging experience. The youth affirmed that they enjoyed conducting their own research projects, getting to know what people thought, and sharing their findings with others. However, the teens reported that doing research was challenging because they were nervous about interviewing people and talking about research in front of large audiences. Still, the youth reported learning about research and their school communities during the program.
The focal students also argued that participating in the afterschool program helped them increase their self-confidence and strengthen their leadership skills. The teachers agreed with the students’ reports: they noticed that the students became more self-assured and took more leadership positions throughout the program.

Significance
In sum, this study showed that afterschool programs can have a positive impact on Latinx newcomers’ individual development and on the teachers’ perceptions of their students. The findings warrant the implementation of additional afterschool programs for Latinx immigrants at public schools.

Author

• Angelica Montoya, University of Maryland - College Park