Finding Shared Humanity in a Community-Based Program With Immigrant-Origin Youth: A Narrative Inquiry

• In Event: Between Two Worlds: Lessons From Narrative Inquiry and Immigrant Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how 11 volunteer teacher assistants and youth mentors, from both refugee and nonimmigrant backgrounds, drew upon their lived experiences in the transnational context of a community-based summer program for refugee-background youth to critically engage in global meaning-making and interculturality as well as co-investigate the citizen-scholar question driving this project: How can we change negative perceptions of immigrants and immigration in the United States? Findings suggest the sharing of personal stories can foster self-reflection, appreciation of one another's uniqueness, and sense of shared humanity.

Author

• Carrie Symons, Michigan State University