America as Dream, America as Nightmare: Examining the Entanglements of Migration, Citizenship, and Schooling

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Entanglements of Citizenship and Place-Ing the Nation

Abstract

Wealth disparities, nativist rhetoric, and shifting demographics propel America towards an uncertain future. This contestation speaks to the diverging social imaginaries that constitute America, and the way this imaginary is constructed, maintained, and reproduced. This paper examines the role of the schools as one of the key institutions that receives newcomers, facilitates their citizen-making on behalf of the State and, most importantly, where the imaginary of the nation is first forged. Drawing on scholarship from critical and post- frameworks, I will explore how schools have come to define the boundaries of the national imaginary through a discussion of how migration and citizenship are recursively entangled in contemporary manifestations of neoliberalism and the resulting repercussions for educational practitioners.

Author

• Meghan Phadke, Miami University