Beyond the Textbook: Facilitating Transformative Civic Discussions About Immigration With Diverse Elementary Students

• In Event: Classroom-Based Civic and Intersectional Identities

Abstract

Drawing on a five-component transformative civic education theoretical framework (Author 3, 2020), I examine how immigrant students, their peers, and their fourth-grade teacher engaged in transformative forms of civic education through how they countered dominant discourses about immigration. Through taking a microethnographic/discourse analysis approach, I highlight curricular and interactional moves the teacher made to create space for students to expand on mainstream curricula. I found that students drew on their own civic knowledges and perspectives to make important contributions that went beyond the narrower scope of their textbooks. I argue that teachers can further transformative civic discussions about immigration through curricular and interactional moves that encourage immigrant students and their peers to share their civic knowledges and perspectives.

Author

• Jessica Somerville-Braun, Skidmore College