“Al-Rafiq Qabla Al-Tariq”- Acompañamiento in Sanctuary Schools

• In Event: Sanctuary Schooling: Educational Renewal for Im/Migrant Youth Through Research, Remedy, and Repair

Abstract

Purpose: This paper explores the ways in which Acompañamiento happens in Global High, a school that serves recently arrived migrants and English Language Learners. The paper aims to answer two questions first: How do alumni students of Global High reflect on their schooling experience through their identities as language learners and immigrants? Second: how do the liminal stage alumni educators occupy, position them as acompañados for students and for one another?

Theoretical Framework: Following the growing works on accompaniment, my work is grounded on theories of Acompañamiento (Sepulveda, 2011; Matos Rodríguez, 2018) and theories of belonging (Abu El-Haj, 2015; Jaffe-Walter and Lee 2016; Yuval-Davis, 2011) and theories of care (Nieto 2005; Noddings, 2002: 2019). The paper examines how a culture of care in the school demonstrated by the schools structure and process of intentional hiring combined with students agency and desire for belonging paves the way for accompaniment to begin forming inside school walls between students and alumni educators and transcend to the daily lives outside the building.

Methods and Data: This paper draws on ethnographic work from a larger research project that explores how alumni of Global High reflect on navigating learning in a new language, a new culture, and a new land all while preparing for college and career paths. Methods consist of interviews and focus groups with 30 alumni students of which 8 are alumni educators.

Results: Acompañamiento is happening on multiple layers within the school and beyond. Each layer is simultaneously two folds, encompassing life inside of Global High and outside school walls. One layer would explore acompañamiento and care through a process of intentional hiring of alumni back into the school under various titles. Alumni occupy this liminal stage that allows them to accompany students on their educational journey of learning English through content, getting accustomed to the school system and culture while simultaneously accompanying students on their journeys that transend school walls. Alumni Educators occupy a liminal stage that is strengthened by their shared experiences with the students allowing them to provide a system of support that does not end when students leave the building. Another layer of accompaniment is happening simultaneously among the students themselves. Students accompany one another on their journey as new immigrants in the school and build on this process to accompany one another as they are figuring out life in NY, including searching for job opportunities, extracurricular programs and access to social resources.

Scholarly Significance: This paper highlights the importance of accompaniment for recently arrived immigrant youth and English Language Learners as they navigate belonging in a new school and a new country.

Select References:
Abu El-Haj, T. R. A. (2015). Unsettled belonging: Educating Palestinian American youth after 9/11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Jaffe-Walter, R., & Lee, S. J. (2018). Engaging the transnational lives of immigrant youth in
public schooling: Toward a culturally sustaining pedagogy for newcomer immigrant youth. American Journal of Education, 124(3), 257–283.

Nieto, S. (2005). Why we teach now. Teachers College Press

Author

• Orubba Almansouri, Graduate Center - CUNY