Beneath and Beyond: Informal Networks as the Undercommons of Immigrant Youth’s Postsecondary Pathways

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Equitable Community Partnership for Educational Research

Abstract

Based on qualitative research conducted at a newcomer school in New York City, this paper employs a pláticas methodology to explore informal pedagogical networks that emerge in the “undercommons” of schools for immigrant youth (Harney & Moten, 2013). Set against formalized college access programs, WhatsApp groups, informal peer support, and general collective inquiry all inform this paper’s focus on how youth formed peer-to-peer mentorship, non-hierarchical information exchange, and community care. The paper ultimately argues that collectively-run informal youth networks fundamentally shift educational questions of youth agency, educational trajectories, and pedagogical relationships. Youth here still explore what formalized programs and college might offer. Yet they also open spaces to reimagine the radical possibilities born of education as a collective, community-based endeavor.

Authors

• Lauren McCoy, Hunter College

• Jordan Corson, Stockton University