Leadership in times of crises: Using ICTs as tools for education in immigration contexts. The cases of New York City (USA) and Melilla (Spain)

• In Event: Education, Immigration, and (Im)mobility in a Global Context: Policy, Leadership, and Institutional Responses

Abstract

Educational leaders face unique challenges integrating historically excluded and disadvantaged immigrant youths during times of crises, especially in a rapidly transitioning, digitalized society. This chapter aims to analyse the potential of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) use in promoting the inclusion of students during and after the COVID pandemic within two key international contexts of immigration, the cities of New York and Melilla. We inform our analysis with a survey of the international immigration, educational leadership, and ICTs application literatures. We describe the specificities of each educational context and expand our analysis with insights derived from interviews conducted among public school K-12 and higher education leaders. The literature and qualitative findings reveal that the use of ICTs is a powerful ally in the outreach, education, and inclusion of hard-to-reach and vulnerable students. Due to national mandates for distance or online education during the peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic, ICT tools became widely available, increasing the inclusion of hard-to-reach students, mostly immigrants, despite challenges. We conclude with recommendations for public policies focused on the continued use of ICT tools as praxis for inclusive education within historical contexts of immigrant reception.

Authors

• Norma Fuentes-Mayorga, City College of New York

• Marina García-Carmona, University of Granada