Children's Perspectives on Care within U.S. Immigrant Households

• In Event: Amplifying Children's Voices for Transformative Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This study explores how Brazilian immigrant children (ages 8–9) understand and practice care within their everyday lives. Drawing on Feminist Ethics of Care, we examine how caregiving is shaped by sociocultural, migratory, gendered, and economic contexts. Data come from the second phase of a four-year ethnography, including biweekly home visits, recorded conversations, WhatsApp artifacts, and art-based activities. For this presentation, we will highlight an art-based activity in which Author 2 posed the open-ended question: “Who are the people who care for you? And who do you care for?" Findings reveal children’s caregiving toward family and peers, their transnational emotional ties, and their emphasis on reciprocal relationships. These insights offer valuable perspectives on care within immigrant families and educational research.

Authors

• Rosangela Araujo Silva, University of Georgia

• Mariana Lima Becker, University of Georgia