“It’s Created by a Community”: Local Context Mediating Districts’ Approaches to Serving Immigrant and Refugee Newcomers

Abstract

Literature examining the context of reception reveals how various structural and cultural factors shape newcomers’ experiences, and thus their opportunities for integration. Fewer studies explore how school districts are situated in this broader context of reception, or how district policies and practices for newcomers are enabled or constrained by the local context. This study draws on a zones of mediation framework to examine how external forces mediated districts’ approaches to serving growing numbers of immigrant and refugee newcomers. Analysis of interviews with 57 stakeholders from across three districts revealed that the presence or absence of community-based support networks, as well as the extent to which local policies and perceptions emphasized inclusion, mediated districts’ programmatic approaches. Implications for district and community leaders are discussed.

Professional learning for secondary teachers of English learners in an urban school district: examining systems of support

“…An EL counselor explained: “The district has a department that does [training] on refugees, but I feel it needs to be done with an agency and with students and parents that can talk about the experience, not three white women.” As noted by this counselor, limited expertise at the district level related to supporting newcomers and their families constrained teachers' access to EL-related professional learning opportunities. While prior research demonstrates how partnerships with immigrant and newcomer community organizations can bolster district and school-level supports for ELs (Hopkins et al , 2021), the lack of such partnerships in this district seemed to further constrain opportunities for teachers to deepen EL-specific knowledge and skills (human capital).…”

Safety and Belonging in Immigrant-Serving Districts: Domains of Educator Practice in a Charged Political Landscape

“…Studies of public school settings serving immigrant-origin students in the United States have highlighted the various ways in which schools are nested within broader sociopolitical dimensions of context (Callahan et al, 2020;Dabach, 2015b). In regions considered nontraditional immigration sites-known in the literature as parts of the New Latino Diaspora in the Midwest and Southeast-school districts are often unfamiliar with the particular experiences of their growing immigrant-origin populations and may be unprepared to offer relevant educational and social resources (Hamann et al, 2015;Hopkins et al, 2015;Mangual Figueroa, 2013). At the same time, schools may function as supportive receiving sites, providing immigrant-origin students with opportunities to learn (Hopkins & Lowenhaupt, 2016) and creating bridges between students, families, and social services in the community (S. Rodriguez, 2020).…”

“…We build on these efforts and argue that schools and school districts constitute a COR nested within the broader society in which immigrant-origin students live (Hopkins et al, 2021). Understanding public schooling and educators' practices in this light permits us to view variation in immigrant-origin students' experiences not only as individual and idiosyncratic but also as linked to processes of ongoing stratification affected by educator's practices.…”

“…Beyond the classroom, research has found that educator practices can determine how immigrant-origin students access educational opportunities via academic and language programs, structured interactions with nonimmigrant peers, and a range of support services (Crawford & Fishman-Weaver, 2016;Hopkins et al, 2015;Lowenhaupt & Scanlan, 2020). Schoolwide practices that build on students' assets, such as bilingual programs, have been shown to promote student belonging (DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2018;Dorner, 2012).…”

“…We seek to understand how educators' understandings of safety and belonging shape the practices they enact in schools. 2 Prior research has shown that educators' interpretation of policies shapes their practices in ways that matter for immigrant-origin students' sense of safety and belonging in a hostile anti-immigration climate (Hopkins et al, 2021;Jaffe-Walter & Lee, 2018;Quinn et al, 2017;. This article addresses two research questions: How do educators describe safety and belonging against the backdrop of a charged immigration policy climate?…”