Establishing Teacher Allies to Resist Essentialized Racist Nativist Discourses of Immigrants Through Social Justice Curriculum

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Perspectives on Advocating for Immigrant and Refugee Learners and Their Families

Abstract

For teachers in North Carolina, developing an understanding of immigrants becomes critically important as new demographic trends and anti-immigration rhetoric has resulted in the implementation of restrictive laws, policies, and practices. The researchers used qualitative methods to collect a series of narratives in the form of I-essays from 71 pre-service teachers over four semesters. This study explored the ways in which exposure to counter narratives of undocumented or dacamented youth and families altered the frames in which teachers view immigration, undocumented, and undacamented immigrants. Data support how the use critical conversations around immigration and exposure to the lives of youth and families through the use of film and narratives can support the development of teachers as immigrant allies

Authors

• Lan Quach Kolano, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Leslie Clement Gutierrez, Johnson C. Smith University

• Anna Sanczyk, University of North Carolina - Charlotte