Examining the relationship between immigrant students' political socialization and feelings of belonging in America and Canada

• In Event: Citizenship education and immigrant students

Abstract

In this study, I consider how immigrant students’ political socialization process may be shaped by their sense of belonging to their school community. While political scientists have long acknowledged the importance of education in the political socialization process, they have focused on what students learn rather than how the school and community influence the students growing understanding of their roles in public, political communities. Psychology, sociology, and human development scholars all recognize the important role that belonging has at both the macro and micro level. Thus my research question asks: what is the relationship between immigrant students’ feelings of belonging to their school and their political socialization process?

My theoretical framework draws on the political socialization research by incorporating the various components of this process including feelings of political trust, knowledge, efficacy, interest and participation which influence adolescents’ later political engagement (Lay, 2012). For immigrant students whose families are new to their adopted countries’ political systems, schools become an important place to learn about the political system. As the first public and political community immigrant students engage with, schools convey to students both important overt political messages as well as subtle societal expectations of immigrants’ roles in their new communities. Therefore I argue that students’ feelings of belonging matter in how students learn and understand the political community where they live. If students feel excluded from school, they may receive a subtle message that their new society does not want them there and may spark students’ disengagement and distrust in their community and political process.

To unpack the role of belonging in students’ political socialization process, I examine both the macro and micro level functioning of belonging which involves both the construction of communities’ identities and individuals’ feelings of shared relatedness and connectedness to others (Yuval-Davis, 2011; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). By considering the multiple levels of belonging, this study recognizes the intense need to belong to a community that lies at the heart of the human experience. By utilizing research from multiple disciplines, the paper studies how immigrant students’ feelings of belonging affect their political socialization processes.

Using a comparative case study, I examine two school districts: Larton, Pennsylvania and Perth, Manitoba which in the past 15 years have become new immigrant destinations. As new immigrant destinations, the cities face a particular set of challenges as they struggle to integrate the immigrants and wrestle with questions of community identity (Massey, 2008). These communities share similarities in the communities’ size, economic conditions, and immigration history. Lastly, Canada and the United States have comparable immigration trends and requirements, governmental characteristics, and school system characteristics, making the comparison fruitful. The interesting differences arise in the attitudes and policies towards immigrants and multiculturalism which provide important context for the cities that this paper investigates.

I consider the multiple levels of action in the school community that either embrace or exclude immigrant students. The case studies focus on high school immigrant students’ experiences but recognize that actions at the local level reflect the policies of multiple actors and levels of government. To examine the enactment of school policies, I analyze policies and practices regarding immigrant students to understand how these policies may work to in/exclude these students and interview teachers, administrators and school board members to gain insight into school officials’ perceptions of immigrant students’ integration and school policies that target them.

To study immigrant students’ feelings of belonging and their political socialization process, I interview each participating immigrant student three times asking about their perceptions of in/exclusion as well as their political socialization processes. Additionally, students complete a political socialization survey based on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study and a reflective writing piece. Lastly, I observe ninth grade civics classes to understand how immigrant students make sense of the curricula which introduces them to their new government.

Initial findings suggest that immigrant students understood the ambivalence and in some cases hostility of the school district and officials felt towards immigrant students. The school officials’ stances towards immigrant students impacted their feeling of belonging to the school. Many immigrant students interviewed did not feel welcome in their school and it impacted their political socialization with many students expressing a decreased sense of trust, efficacy and interest in the political system. These initial findings suggest that students’ feelings of belonging do matter in their political socialization process and highlight that the process does not occur in a vacuum but includes students’ experiences of belonging to their school community.

Author

• Kristina Brezicha, Penn State University