"You Two Are Good Teachers!" Hmong Immigrant Youth Leading and Learning in a Dance Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Agency and Identification: Equitable Opportunities for Marginalized Students

Abstract

This paper draws on ethnographic research at an Asian American community-based organization to illuminate the ways in which Hmong immigrant youth contributed to their own learning in a youth dance program. The paper is guided by the question: How do youth engage as resources for themselves and the individuals around them in the educational space of a youth dance program? It provides a nuanced perspective on the meanings of collaboration, mutual support, and leadership in teaching and learning practices. In doing so, it illuminates the potential of the notion of interdependency for theorizing pedagogy and educational achievement. This paper advances the scholarship on the ways in which dance programs in community-based organizations engages immigrant youth knowledge in their education.

Authors

• Bic H. Ngo, University of Minnesota

• Betsy Maloney Leaf, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities