Repairing U.S. High Schools With and For Recently-Arrived Guatemalan Adolescents in Rural Missouri

• In Event: Toward Remedy and Repair in Multilingual Education: Critical Participatory Inquiries With Emergent Bilinguals and Families

Abstract

Objective
Schools across the U.S. struggle to equitably serve multilingual, adolescent newcomers, as they navigate trauma and interrupted education; must learn English quickly to gain credits toward graduation; and juggle employment, caregiving, and high-school coursework (Hos, 2020; Peña-Sullivan, 2020). Therefore, our objective is to report findings from an on-going, research-practice partnership in rural Missouri, where district leaders asked us to explore how to enhance newcomers’ pathways to graduation. For answers, we worked directly with students, to gather their ideas for remedy and repair in “Tunis” high school.

Framework
To develop a caring research praxis focused on newcomers’ experiences living “in between,” our work was framed by the sociology of childhoods (Orellana, et al., 2001) and transnational borderlands (Anzaldúa, 1987). We also employed trauma-informed learning and research practices (Helmick, 2023) as we developed trust through mindfulness, culturally-sustaining activities, and nurturing relationships with students (Purvis et al. 2013).

Methods and Data
Our partnership employed critical participatory (Call-Cummings et al., 2023) and mindful ethnographic methods (Orellana, 2020) from August 2023-July 2024. Bilingual team members (doctoral student from Guatemala, professor of educational policy, and state specialist in migrant education) emphasized fostering democratic and caring interactions while working with two “Beginner English” classes, where we led Guatemalan games, relaxation and forum theater-informed activities, and reflective questionnaires in Spanish (20 visits with 56 adolescents, 90% Guatemalan). Data creation and analysis has been iterative, guided by a critically-conscious, grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2017) that included writing journals/field notes, open/axial coding, reflecting on findings with participants, and weekly team meetings.

Results
Academic Support. Tunis prepares tailored study plans upon enrollment, offering traditional routines, flexible schedules, and equivalency exams. However, decisions about academics has neglected students’ input, and academic communication has been lacking; 18/46 students mentioned not knowing their schedule for next year. Students also emphasized needing support in Spanish and paraprofessional assistants in class.

Emotional Support and Understanding. Tunis leaders know that youth face serious hardships in migration and integration, so they’ve hired new mental health professionals. However, students want more; 57% want a therapist at school to visit any time. They told stories about being excluded by white students and established immigrant peers; they said teachers should be “more patient” and stop “humiliating us.”

School-Family-Culture Connections. Tunis has various communication channels with families in the U.S., but not Guatemala. Students want to stay connected to their culture through traditional food in the cafeteria (55%) and opportunities to discuss their home countries with teachers they trust (50%). They also want schools to use WhatsApp to communicate with their Guatemalan families (70%).

Significance
This work underscores what’s working with rural district efforts to support newcomers toward remedy and repair, and provides areas for improvement in policy guidance, community collaboration, and transnational family engagement, which we will work with students to present to Tunis in November 2024. We will also discuss and critique this research-practice partnership as an example of community-based, relational research that started with a district question and turned to adolescents for answers.

Authors

• Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri

• Sophia Piral Lee, University of Missouri

• Cynthia Chasteen, University of Missouri