Adaptive Practices among Immigrant Students in U.S. Rural Areas

• In Event: Immigrants, Refugees, and Undocumented: Speaking Truth to Power

Abstract

This paper examines the adaptive practices of rural immigrant youth, identifying the resources they draw on as they transition to and settle in such communities, as well as the needs they continue to experience in contexts with comparatively fewer networks of support for newcomers. Though ethnographic participant observation and open-ended, in-depth interviews at a “Lunch and Learn” summer program conducted at two affordable housing programs in a college small town, the paper highlights how the youth expressed themselves creatively, intellectually and affectively through photographs they took of themselves and their home communities—an approach called Photovoice. This participatory action research approach facilitated the development of visual, written, and other communication skills among participants as they narrated their lives, as well as rich sociological data that allowed insight into immigrant adaptive practices towards generating "school-relevant selves" who can envision themselves succeeding in environments of higher education.

Authors

• Ramona Fruja, Bucknell University

• Nneoma Ibezim, Bucknell University