Abstract
Drawing from a larger ethnographic study, in this research I examine how a group of newcomer Mexican immigrant high school students counteracted a hostile school climate, educational practices and adverse relationships with mainstream peers and adults. The purpose of this study is to help educators and policy makers understand how engaging in social justice movements in the educational context has helped immigrant students to counteract and reconstruct their adverse schooling experiences into positive contributions to their success. This study suggests that Mexican immigrant youth demonstrate agency through civic engagement and intra-tactical strategies that strengthen their linguistic, cultural, and learner identities. The article concludes with recommendations on how educators and policy makers can facilitate engagement in order to support and improve education for immigrant and Latina/o students.
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Notes
The dehumanizing terms alien, illegal, and criminal are often used interchangeably to perpetuate xenophobic ideologies. In this article, we use unauthorized and undocumented interchangeably in order to challenge the dehumanization and criminalization of individuals based on immigration status.
All student names, towns, school are pseudonyms used to protect the identities of the participants.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Institute of Educational Studies (IES) during the author’s AERA/IES Postdoctoral Fellowship. The research reported in this manuscript does not reflect the views of AERA or IES.
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Gutiérrez, L.A. Youth Social Justice Engagement in the Face of Anti-Latina/o Immigrant Illegitimacy. Urban Rev 46, 307–323 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0269-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0269-y