Examining policy designs influence on two new immigrant destinations schools’ responses to immigrant students

• In Event: Highlighted session: Critical reflections on refugee and immigrant experiences in the global north and south

Proposal

Objective

This comparative case study examines two new immigrant destinations (NID) in Canada and the United States. NIDs are characterized by a rapid influx of new immigrant populations and often have limited infrastructure to respond to such a rapid demographic change (Winders, 2014). While both Larton, Pennsylvania and Perth, Manitoba (pseudonyms) exemplify NIDs, these two communities reacted very differently creating two very different contexts of reception. Contexts of reception include the community’s normative responses, the economic conditions, and the immigrants’ social networks (Stepick & Stepick, 2009). Policies frame contexts of receptions and contain messages that create future politics by mobilizing individuals and signaling to them their place in the political community (McDonnell, 2009). Thus, policies shape immigrant students’ integration and send messages to them about their new political communities and their roles therein.
This paper utilizes the policy design framework to respond to two questions. First, how do the policy designs of the applicable federal, state/provincial, district/division and schools frame immigrant students? Secondly, how did these policies influence the immigrant students’ experiences and understanding of their new communities? Answering these questions demonstrates how policies shaped these schools’ responses to their immigrant students thus shaping the students understanding of their new political communities.

Theoretical Framework

The policy design framework recognizes that understanding a policy’s influences requires examining the observable construction of the policy as well as the practices and interpretive and symbolic dimensions of the policy (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 2). This framework allows researchers to examine the “target population (the recipients of policy benefits or burdens), goals or problems to be solved (the values to be distributed), rules (that guide or constrain action), rationales (that explain or legitimate the policy), and assumptions (logical connections that tie the other elements together)” (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 2). These policy design elements shape the policy feedback loop which involves examining who the policy mobilizes and perhaps more importantly what the policy signals to citizens about their place in the government (Mettler, 2002). Thus, the policy design framework recognizes that current policies create the conditions for future political action and engagement (Ingram, Schneider, & DeLeon, 2007).
This framework demonstrates how macro-level policies intimately shape target populations’ feelings of belonging and incorporation in the civic community. This feeling of belonging has important consequences for citizens’ sense of civic identity which shape their civic and political activity (Author, forthcoming).

Context

This study examines Larton, Pennsylvania, and Perth, Manitoba, two NID school districts. These communities share similarities in size, economic conditions, and immigration history. Importantly, Pennsylvanian and Manitoban schools have very similar decentralized structures as both consist of school boards or divisions at the local level, state/provincial, and federal levels making this comparison fruitful.

Data and Methods

This research comes from a larger comparative, embedded case study that examined how these NIDs responded to their immigrant students and shaped their feelings of belonging to their new communities and their political identities. A case study explicitly recognizes the contextual nature of this research such that what occurs in schools reflects and engages multiple systems across the government (Baxter & Jack, 2008). Recognizing that policies shape these experiences, data on the policies as it pertains to immigrants and immigrant students of the two nations, state/province, district/division, and schools were gathered.
The data from this study, therefore, consist of publicly available documents from the two high schools, school board/division meeting minutes and district policies were examined. I analyzed state/provincial documents that specifically dealt with immigrant students. Lastly, at the federal level, I included immigration policies and policies that supported immigrant students’ education. To understand how the policies impacted schools, interviews with immigrant students, teachers, administrators and community members were conducted. These documents and interviews were analyzed in Nvivo using both inductive and deductive coding.

Findings

The policies of these two NIDs framed immigrant students differently. While the U.S. and Canada shared many similar policies toward immigration and immigrant citizenship (though Trump’s presidency has changed this), one important difference has been Canadians’ support of diversity enshrined in a federal multicultural policy and constitutional multiculturalism clause (Kymlicka, 2007, 2010).
Another important difference comes from the Provincial Nominating Programs which allows provinces to recruit workers to address province specific needs (Carter, Pandey, & Townsend, 2010). This policy then framed immigrants as important to the province’s economic vitality. The Manitoban Ministry of Education consistently creates policies that develop inclusive schools by sponsoring numerous professional learning opportunities for educators. Perth’s divisional and school level policies continue this trajectory of inclusivity, including an emphasis on the benefits of diversity for all students found in the district’s mission statement.
In contrast, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) provided school districts very little guidance on supporting and integrating their newcomers. The PDE’s website detailed districts’ legal obligation to their immigrant students presenting them as an obligation, not as valued community members. In Larton, the district and school policies did not acknowledge the change in population nor did it create integration opportunities for the immigrant students.
Thus, the policies crafted at these various levels established very different contexts of reception that shaped the schools’ work as evidenced by the student interviews. Larton students reported feeling that their school did not welcome or want them. In Perth, however, most students reported feeling cared for and respected in their school. The students’ different experiences in the schools influenced their understanding of their new community, citizenship, and their political development.

Significance

Larton and Perth students’ differing feelings make sense considering the policy differences. These policies framed and communicated messages to the students, teachers and school leaders that shaped how educators responded to their new immigrant students. These differing experiences then shaped the students’ understanding of their civic communities and their civic role models. This paper will conclude with a discussion of how educators can creatively counteract negative policy messages, in order to help them advocate for the crafting of equitably policies that support immigrant students’ feelings of belonging and by extension their development of engaged political identities.

Author

• Kristina Brezicha, Georgia State University