Co-Creating Spaces for Educational Possibilities: How Elementary Teachers Centered Immigrant-Origin Students and Cultivated Critical Classrooms

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

Abstract

Objectives: This paper highlights the work of elementary teachers in a school that has co-constructed “educational possibilities” (AERA 2024 Call for Proposals) in each of their classrooms with students. For three years, 5-8 teachers have met to critically examine ways to dismantle the inherently racist injustice of xenophobia and all injustices facing immigrants and families of immigrant-origins in the U.S through classroom practices. During our presentation, we will talk through the processes, challenges, and implications of these teachers’ work.

Theoretical framework: The work teachers work connects with the following project’s principles: 1) The immigration experience is complicated, and 2) Teaching through translanguaging is central.

The first principle outlines how “in addition to other challenges, immigrants are often treated like second-class citizens or denied citizenship altogether…experience violent laws and policing practices that often make the US a hostile space for immigrants” (Project Author, n.d.).

The second principle focuses on translanguaging, a theory of bilingual languaging and learning that highlights the vibrant repertoire of racialized bilinguals and is constantly shaped by social interaction (García & Wei, 2018). It highlights how historical and political processes of nation-state building, racialized bilingual students, many first or second generation immigrants, are continuously categorized in schools as deficient in language (García et al, 2021). Pedagogical implications of translanguaging highlight that students' rich multilingual practices need to be part of their educational experiences, not only to support instruction but also because they’re central to students’ learning and lives. In this way, complex and varied experiences of racialized students are validated in schools (García et al, 2016; Co-author & Author, 2016). Students and teachers engage in understanding the hegemony of language practices through translanguaging. Additionally, teachers need frameworks that help explain how race and citizenship are inherently intertwined (Ladson-Billings, 1998).

Methods and Data Sources: Using qualitative methodologies (Bogdan & Biklen, 2010) and narrative inquiry (Chase, 2010), this paper examines data collected from one public school in New York during a three year period. This paper focuses on how teachers’ professional development led to a collective community for critical learning with one another, students, and families. We examine data including surveys, professional development reflections, and focus group interviews with students, educators, and families.

Results: The results of this study illuminate ways educators co-committed to understand the immigrant experience of their students and leverage it in their classrooms. Teachers were able to 1) cultivate critical learning spaces as professionals, 2) co-create classrooms alongside students where all people can safely discuss different issues related to the immigration experience, and 3) keep translanguaging central as a practice to further develop criticality and community.

Scholarly significance: This study highlights practices of teachers that can be replicated, re-tried, and studied in meaningful ways. Doing so may lead to more effective pre-service teaching programs and more significant professional development for all teachers so that students will have more holistic experiences learning about issues of immigration. Students will also have space to reflect about their own personal lives and reclaim their classrooms as spaces for community and growth.

Authors

• Maite Sanchez, Hunter College - CUNY

• Noelle Mapes, Graduate Center - CUNY