Ethical Considerations and Institutional Negotiations in PAR Research on Immigration and Education

• In Event: Intersecting Immigration and Education: Immigrant-Origin Students, Families, and Educators in New York State

Abstract

Objectives: The Initiative's main research goal has been to co-construct knowledge with educational stakeholders about the ways in which immigration shapes educators, students, and families educational experiences. Our discussion examines the parameters set by institutions of review that can extend harm and limitations in the humanization of community-driven projects with immigrant communities.

First, we reflect on our negotiations between our commitment to centering immigrant-origin student voices and institutional requests to restrict mention of immigration, racialization, and queer identities from our protocols for elementary students. Despite their purported intention to protect immigrant students, we argue that these restrictions further stigmatize the immigrant experience and discuss how we advocated for centering student voices and mitigated the institution’s concerns.

Second, we discuss our efforts to humanize how we obtained consent from the participants, in particular immigrant-origin students and their family members or caretakers. As research has demonstrated (Author, 2017), many of the protocols set by IRB granting offices often alienate and alarm immigrant communities.

Third, we draw attention to how we aligned our research to two of our guiding principles: (1) immigration exists beyond the Latinx narrative; (2) we aim to move beyond allyship to working as accomplices. With the former, we discuss how we centered linguistic justice through translation of our protocols and consent forms. In the latter, we talk about conducting PAR research during an ongoing pandemic in which school stakeholders are overworked and facing increased institutional racism.

We conclude with a reflection on how the relationships that are constructed beyond the purview of research are foundational starting points in building trust between the university and school districts, especially when conducting research in and with directly impacted immigrant communities.

Theoretical framework: Our examination draws on Paris & Winn’s (2014) approach to humanizing qualitative research with “youth and communities who are marginalized by systems of inequality” (p. xv), as we also pay critical attention to our positionalities as immigrant-origin or immigrant researchers and educators ourselves (Diaz-Strong et. al, 2014). We highlight how despite the fact that our project’s guiding principles are rooted in social justice epistemology, the institution often limited the humanization of this inquiry-action work.

Methods: This state-funded project has involved two kinds of research activities: a mixed-method survey of educators in nine school districts (conducted in 2021-2022) and focus groups with educators, families, and students at three elementary schools in the State (conducted in 2022-2023).

Data sources: Our analysis draws on our IRB materials, as well as field-notes and discussions on navigating institutional barriers.

Results and Scholarly Significance: As the work of BIPOC scholar-educator-activists demonstrates, humanizing research requires a shift towards justice in method and praxis (Baker-Bell, 2020; Kinloch, Burkhard, & Penn, 2020; Paris & Winn, 2014). Ethnographic and educational research has shown that children articulate a sophisticated awareness of how immigration policy intersects with their experience at school and beyond (Author, 2023). Yet, there is little evidence examining the schooling experiences of immigrant educators, students, and their families, and how schooling policies can better serve them, especially as early as elementary school.

Authors

• Anthony J. Harb, University of California - San Diego

• Brian Avila Klein, Graduate Center - CUNY

• Sara P. Alvarez, Queens College - CUNY