Thesis advisor: Rebecca J. Lowenhaupt / As the population of students with at least one foreign-born parent increases in US schools, educators play key roles in supporting them. The anti-immigrant context during the Trump era has heightened the urgency for all US educators to understand the experiences of their immigrant-origin students and respond accordingly. Discourses about immigrant-origin students have profound implications on how their educators understand and support them. In this study, I explored the nature of the discourses educators privilege and perpetuate when working with immigrant-origin students. I studied two distinct contexts with varying community reflections of the national conversation during the Trump era. I proposed the following questions: How do educators in two different immigrant-serving districts make sense of their immigrant-origin students’ experiences in an anti-immigrant sociopolitical context? What larger discourses about immigrants and immigrant-origin students do educators reflect as they make sense of their immigrant-origin students’ experiences? Through a thematic analysis of 10 educator interviews from each district, I found that three key factors influenced educators’ sensemaking about their immigrant-origin students’ experiences: 1) comparison of immigrant-origin students to non-immigrant-origin peers, 2) responsibility towards deeply understanding immigrant-origin students’ experiences, and 3) personal and professional identity and experiences with immigrants and immigration. A critical discourse analysis of policy documents and language related to supporting immigrant-origin students surfaced different defining discourses about immigrant-origin students on federal, state, and district levels. The findings led to three key insights: 1) Educators made sense of their immigrant-origin students’ experiences through existing individual and collective mental models of immigrants and immigration, or lack thereof, 2) The location, student demographics, and sociopolitical backdrop of each district context heavily influenced individual educators’ discourse about immigrant-origin students’ experiences, and 3) Power can be shared between federal, state, and district-level entities in order to create more humanizing and culturally sustaining environments for immigrant-origin students. The conclusion includes implications related to these key insights. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This qualitative case-study research investigated how Eastern European immigrant youth in a southern English public secondary school adjusted to and experienced the British educational system, which involves streaming students into levels of academic ability. The study focused on these students experiences of day-to-day life in a British secondary school and it explored the challenges and successes that they experienced. The study also investigated the experiences of teachers and administrators involved in the education of immigrant students. Through the use of student and faculty experiences, through recorded interviews, this study sought to understand how educators could improve the ways they are educating immigrant students.

This qualitative case-study research investigated how Eastern European immigrant youth in a southern English public secondary school adjusted to and experienced the British educational system, which involves streaming students into levels of academic ability. The study focused on these students experiences of day-to-day life in a British secondary school and it explored the challenges and successes that they experienced. The study also investigated the experiences of teachers and administrators involved in the education of immigrant students. Through the use of student and faculty experiences, through recorded interviews, this study sought to understand how educators could improve the ways they are educating immigrant students.

Undocumented educations are those educational practices falling outside of legitimated educational institutions or appearing only in marginalized, liminal ways. Through resisting, conflicting with, or simply not fitting into the grammar of school they do not “count” as education. Those educations, and thus the everyday lives of those who practice them, are routinely placed “at-risk.” Often, policymakers and educators propose reforms to this issue, aiming to more effectively include or ensure stronger academic outcomes for populations of students whose educational lives have been marked in precarious ways. Working with 9 recently immigrated youth in New York City, this project explores such undocumented educations in youth’s everyday lives in order to open new understandings of what counts, who counts, and in what ways, in educational discourses. Rather than joining the chorus of reform efforts, I listen to the rigorous, wild, and ethereal educational practices already present in youth’s lives. This project takes up entangled methods of an affective ethnography and a history of the present. Historical work explores prevalent discourses around the education of “newcomer” youth to interrogate how this educational truth came to flourish as an intervention for newcomer youth. Affective ethnography, meanwhile, moves through many places exploring sensations, intensities, and encountering everyday educations and their relationship to the educational life of the school. An affective ethnography opens space to work with youth in exploring educations largely illegible to dominant discourses without submitting these educational practices to new forms of control. Results suggest that linguistically and culturally affirmative schools emerge from understandings of how to better include and improve outcomes for newcomer youth. At the same time, political shifts require schools to constantly evolve to continue pursuing these ideas. Youths’ educational practices change and move through spaces like school or afterschool programs but also connect and flow in a borderless curriculum that challenges the supremacy of educational projects built dominantly on inclusion and success. Failure, daydreaming, and experimentation all play critical roles in youth’s everyday lives. The project ultimately concludes that listening to the already-present everyday educational practices of immigrant youth makes a radically different, ungoverned educational otherwise possible.

Using a qualitative bricolage approach (Kincheloe, n.d., 2008), this study explores the everyday school life of immigrant students enrolled in an Advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom in a high school in southwest Virginia. The overarching objective of this study is to examine how these students"five from Mexico, three from Honduras, and one from China" experience school. I present my research in two manuscripts: "Just Like Me: How Immigrant English Language Learners Experience a Rural High School and "I'm NOT Stupid!" The Trouble with JanCarlos. In Just Like Me, I use figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998) and positioning theory (Davies, 2000; Harre & van Langenhove, 1999) as analytical frameworks to present how the students rely on their positions as English language learners in an ESL program, on the ESL faculty, and on one another to co-construct a variety of practices that create opportunities for agency in the school space. I describe how they co-construct a world, vis-a-vis their everyday practices, in and through which, they navigate the institution, meet academic needs, and establish networks of care. I also examine the "dissonant threads""elements of data that resist perfect codification"to deepen analysis and to portray a complex portrait of ESL II (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). In I'm NOT Stupid, I trouble the school experiences of JanCarlos, a student in the advanced ESL class. Using dialogue and reflexive internal dialogue, I story two events that altered the trajectory of his school life"an emotional argument with the ESL teacher and punishment for drawing graffiti on a bathroom wall. I present how each of these events represented "critical incidents" (Tripp, 1998; Webster & John, 2010) in my research as they interrupted my objective stance and altered my interpretations (Poulos, 2009). As I "connect the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political" (Ellis, 2004, xix), I use autoethnography to critically examine each event. As I watched events unfold, I routinely asked the relational ethical question""What should I do now?" (Ellis, 2007, p. 4). In so doing, I make transparent my position and power in creating knowledge (Kincheloe, McLaren, & Steinberg, 2012). / Ph. D.

The Ontario Grade 10 Civics curriculum reflects Canada’s desire for good citizens. Since Canadian schools have a diverse population, many of whom are immigrants, civics education students from diverse cultural backgrounds deserve attention. This study examines how young Chinese immigrant students who came to Canada experienced the transition from Chinese conceptions of the “good” citizen that they learned in China to Canadian ones. This thesis specifically probes students’ perception of civic responsibility, civic participation, and critical thinking conveyed in the Chinese and Canadian civic education courses, and asks how, if at all, do participants perceive their experiences as Chinese immigrants affecting their Canadian citizenship education experiences? The study included in-depth interviews with Ontario Chinese immigrant students who attended civic education classes at least in Chinese elementary schools and subsequently moved to Canada before the required Ontario grade 10 civics course. The findings generally demonstrate different experiences of Chinese and Canadian citizenship education and indicate Chinese immigrant students’ educational and cultural backgrounds are significant factors influencing their Canadian civic education experiences. These findings have important implications for guiding future Canadian citizenship education practices by better understanding the interests, needs, and values of Chinese immigrant students.

This dissertation study investigated how immigrant youth attending two different high schools for late-arrival immigrants in New York City constructed civic belonging by attending to their everyday enactments of citizenship across the contexts of school, neighborhood and home. Civic belonging refers to the embodied social practices by which immigrant youth cultivate social trust and construct an emotional connection to particular communities and places. In conducting this research, I utilized a critical visual research methodology, as well as interviews and focus groups. Data was collected from 10 immigrant youth from Guinea, the Gambia, Senegal, Yemen, Bangladesh and the Dominican Republic. My findings were that participants constructed civic belonging in school by creating social trust that bridged cultural, religious, linguistic, and ethnic differences. In their neighborhoods, their civic belonging was restricted by a politics of belonging that created distrust and misrecognition of their cultural and religious identities. Finally, my participants constructed civic belonging in relation to their understandings of home. Family relationships mediated their civic belonging by reinforcing home country ties. This study has implications for how public schools can better educate immigrant youth as citizens who build solidarity with diverse others and work towards a common good. This is critical in today’s world that is more connected through the movement of people, and yet, where many nation-states seek to limit the rights of immigrants to belong within their borders.

This phenomenological study explored the perceptions and lived experiences of female West Indian immigrant students as they academically and socially acculturated while attending Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Snowball techniques were employed to select 11 female immigrant West Indian undergraduate and graduate students living in southeastern Florida and attending FAU. Data were gathered from two in-depth one-on one interviews with each participant. Stories emerged that highlight the immigrant experiences of these female West Indian students. Such narratives have been lacking in the higher education literature about how this population of women persists in colleges and universities in the United States (U.S.). Six findings emerged that constituted the acculturation and adjustment experiences of these women: 1) family influence, 2) financial difficulties, 3) emotional and physical challenges, 4) institutional support, 5) women’s empowerment, and 6) host society adaptation. In conclusion, female West Indian immigrant students are a valuable asset and provide a tremendous benefit to higher education institutions in the U.S. in terms of cultural and academic contributions that they offer. More attention needs to be paid towards better preparing university staff, administrators, and faculty. This can lead to increased retention and graduation rates. The study gives voice to these women whose lived experiences in higher education have been so seldom addressed. Analysis of their experiences suggests a plan of action that includes: family engagement programming, on-campus financial support, student health services outreach, healthier dining options, mentorship programs, immigrant student support services department, online community support, faculty, cultural awareness, and immigrant student programming. Recommendations for future research are also discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The aim of the research is to study the integration process of war-displaced adult immigrant students in the Swedish education system, regarding to war-displaced adult immigrant students' points of view to integrate to the Swedish education system and the challenges that war-displaced adult immigrant students faced to achieve the desire of integration. To implement this research study, the researcher used a qualitative research interview method through open-ended interviews with war-displaced adult immigrant students and previous literature research. Therefore, the theory of interest in the research study is empowerment theory and that to study the challenges of war-displaced adult immigrant students from segregation, social exclusion, socioeconomic status, language barriers, and bad relationships with peers. Also, to explore the skills war-displaced immigrant students applied to overcome the obstacles of the integration process into the new education system. In contrast, the researcher would use qualitative research method by semi-structure interview method to conduct the interview and implement the data analysis by different themes and subthemes. Additionally, ethical considerations are considered in the research study, and the rights of the participants are perceived the results are in line with theoretical framework and literature studies. The findings in the research showed, the obstacles of adult immigrant students and the skills they have used to integrate into the new education system for example about, language barriers, lack peer’s interest, staff support and previous knowledge. Keywords: adult immigrant students, integration, challenges, empowerment

The purpose of this study was to find out what a sample selection of teachers in Malmö and Lund, Sweden, perceived to be the most common strengths and challenges of newly arrived students when learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study was conducted as there have been very few studies so far in Sweden on this particular subject, as well as an influx of newly arrived students in the recent years. The two research questions ask what the most common strengths and challenges for newly arrived students are, as well as, how the participating teachers meet the perceived challenges. Four qualitative interviews were constructed based on interviews and questionnaires used in similar studies, and then analyzed using tape analysis. The results showed that all four participants agreed that background factors (such as possible trauma) played a big part, and affected how quickly students go from introductory programs into regular Swedish high school, as well as a lacking vocabulary. Since the findings in this study is coherent with findings in similar studies, it becomes obvious that further action needs to be taken to ensure that our newly arrived students learn what they need to, and get the help they deserve.