Newcomer Immigrant Students’ Perceptions of Positive Adult Relationships in Schools

• In Event: Supporting English Learner, Immigrant, and Undocumented Students

Abstract

Despite its status as a ‘traditional receiving state,’ California’s schools are facing significant challenges effectively educating newcomer immigrant students. This study explores newcomer immigrant students’ experiences attending a junior high school in an under-resourced, “low-incidence” school district. Combining extensive ethnographic observations in classrooms and interviews with newcomer students and school personnel, this paper explores how school personnel-student relationships facilitate newcomer students’ academic and social adjustment and wellbeing. This study contributes new evidence about the ways that school personnel behaviors can promote school connectedness and provides insights into ways to improve immigrant-origins students’ relationships with their teachers and other adults in school.

Author

• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, University of California - Santa Barbara