Claiming Space, Occupying Belonging: Immigrants and Refugees Contesting Otherness in Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium is to critically examine dominant educational discourses and practices that shape the schooling experiences of immigrant and refugee youth in public schools across the globe. While discourses like ‘diversity,’ ‘belonging,’ and ‘inclusion’ are often deployed to frame immigrant and refugee education, this panel considers the limitations of such ostensibly affirming discourses as they potentially assume deficit narratives about these young people and can contribute to further marginalization and othering. Drawing on multiple case studies from different social contexts, the panelists interrogate how school actors engage with, negotiate and/or resist such framings to ultimately re-interpret initiatives, re-craft their educational experiences, and re-direct how educational space is demanded and occupied outside of assimilationist rhetoric and hegemonic discourse.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Division B - Section 4: People and Politics (The Who of Curriculum)

Chair

• Thea R. Abu El-Haj, Barnard College, Columbia University

Papers

• Sociopolitically Relevant Pedagogy for Immigrant and Refugee Youth - Monisha Bajaj, University of San Francisco

• Beyond Belief: Muslim Student Space-Making and Political Claim-Making in a Midwestern High School - Roozbeh Shirazi, University of Minnesota

• Coming Together on the Idea of Being "Foreign": Transcultural Pedagogies for Immigrant and Refugee Youth - Brooke Harris Garad, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Everyday Agency in Syrian Refugee Schools: A Case for Engaging in Critical Refugee Studies - Zeena Zakharia, University of Massachusetts - Boston

Discussant

• Maria Hantzopoulos, Vassar College