Supporting Immigrant Families: Developing Individual Versus Collective Responsibility Among Educators in a New Jersey District

• In Event: District Leadership Practices to Support Immigrant-Origin Students: Case Studies From Immigrant-Serving Districts Across the United States

Abstract

Objectives: Schools can be places of support for students and families, if they develop culturally relevant practices (Ladson Billings, 1995; Paris & Alim, 2017). This paper examines a practice used by one district to support immigrant-origin families. We ask: How do educators develop practices to support immigrant-origin families? Who is seen as responsible for supporting immigrant-origin families and how does that impact the practices used?

Theoretical Framework: Contexts of reception (COR) are “the structural and cultural features of the specific contexts that immigrants enter” (Marrow, 2011, p. 9). Schools are a key institution in local CORs for immigrant families. Research demonstrates how actors in local school contexts play important roles in shaping these contexts both positively and negatively (Authors, 2018; Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018; Rodriguez et. al., 2022). For educators, the actions and words of colleagues and administrators impact their sense of responsibility (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Gee, 2001) and therefore how CORs are structured. CORs are also shaped on a district level by leadership and policy (Authors, 2021; Hopkins et al., 2021). Our work examines the impact of developing individual versus collective responsibility for supporting immigrant-origin families in a district and the impact on CORs.

Data/Methods: Our data comes from a multi-year study with six U.S. school districts serving immigrant-origin students and families. We focused on interviews with educators from a suburban district in New Jersey. One author conducted interviews at the district in 2019 and via Zoom in 2022 using a semi-structured interview protocol (Rabionet, 2011). All interview recordings were transcribed and cleaned. Then, the team identified emergent findings after two rounds of thematic analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). First, we identified promising practices and then coded those practices for collective and individual responsibility, using a coding manual created by the team.

Results: This paper focuses on one promising practice identified: a family literacy series in which immigrant-origin caregivers learn reading strategies from their child’s teacher. The series was developed by one kindergarten teacher, Sara. In 2022, Sara was promoted to district bilingual supervisor and expanded the program to four classrooms. Sara had an individual sense of responsibility, motivated by her own immigrant identity. While she was allowed to hold the literacy series by school leadership, the program wasn’t expanded until she was in a formal leadership role. This case study reflects a district culture in which ESL teachers are seen as those responsible for supporting immigrant-origin students and families.

Significance: Collective efficacy has been shown to relate to school effectiveness (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Bandura, 2000; Goddard et al., 2004). Unfortunately, when a collective responsibility for a group of students is absent, as was the case here for immigrant-origin students, individual educators are left to do the best they can. This case study demonstrates the importance of putting individuals who understand immigrant-origin families in positions of power and, for those in formal school and district leadership positions, developing a collective sense of responsibility for all students in the district so that effective programs can be used widely.

Authors

• Jennifer Queenan, Graduate Center - CUNY
  Presenting Author

• Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Graduate Center - CUNY
  Presenting Author