College Capital and Constraint Agency: First-Generation Immigrant English Language Learners’ College Success

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-54
Author(s):  
Manka Varghese ◽  
Ronald Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Generation ◽  
College Success ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Differential Forms ◽  
Generation Immigrant

Background/Context Language-minoritized and emergent-bilingual (EB) students have historically and frequently been underexamined in the context of research on minoritized students’ pathways in higher education. Understanding the school to college pipeline for emergent bilinguals (EBs) is becoming a critical area of study to help identify and address the barriers that they experience as they attempt to transition to and navigate postsecondary education. Despite there being a greater knowledge of the barriers experienced by EBs in getting to college, less is known about the resources they bring and their agency, the way they actually mobilize the resources that they possess in negotiating their success to get to and complete college. Purpose/Research Question This study examines why and how some EB students can successfully navigate their environments in order to apply for, get into and complete a selective four-year college. It is guided by two overarching questions: (1) What forms of capital do first generation immigrant EBs draw on to apply for and navigate selective four-year college? (2) How do first generation immigrant EBs navigate and complete selective four-year college? Research Design We examined the pathways of EBs through a conceptual framework which frames their college success as being a result of the relationship between what we refer to as their college capital which they have access to and that they draw on, and their constraint agency. Through interviews, this study analyzes 33 first generation undergraduate immigrant EBs’ transition to and completion of tertiary education, with further analysis being supplemented with in-depth case studies of five out of the 33 EBs. Additionally, we interviewed 14 university administrators and instructors involved in the admission and instruction of EB students on campus. Conclusions/Recommendations EB immigrant students drew on different forms of college capital, which included traditional and non-traditional. Students who drew more on traditional kinds of capital participated more in high participatory agentive ways while students who drew more on non-traditional forms of college capital participated more in low participatory agentive ways. Both forms of participating (low and high) lead to students navigating and completing four-year college. We suggest that more differential forms of help, resources and EB-student–focused partnerships between high school, community colleges, and four-year college which include working on their agentive selves are needed as well as challenging the racism and linguicism that holds White monolingual students as the norm to configure policies and services that will help EBs’ postsecondary pathways.

scholarly journals Crossing Borders toward Young Transnational Lives

2014 ◽  
pp. 200-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Sue Kasun ◽  
Cinthya M. Saavedra
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Cultural Identification ◽  
Return Visits ◽  
The U.S

Young immigrant youth often live their lives across borders, either by physically crossing them for return visits and/or by metaphorically crossing them through social media and cultural identification. The authors argue these students are better understood as transnational, shifting the focus for educators away from imagining their immigrant students on a straight, one-way path to assimilation in the U.S. to understanding these youths’ abilities to cross borders. Specifically, they call for a redesignation of English Language Learners (ELLs) as Transnational English Learners (TELs). Highlighting examples of educators’ successful border-crossing work, the authors call for educators to cross borders as well in their curriculum and relationships with transnational youth.

Teacher and Student Reciprocal Agency in Odds-Beating Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Aaron Leo ◽  
Kristen C. Wilcox ◽  
Catherine Kramer ◽  
Hal A. Lawson ◽  
Mina Min
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Graduation Outcomes ◽  
High Diversity

Background/Context In the field of education, the lens of agency has provided a valuable conceptual alternative to deterministic portrayals of schools as oppressive institutions where teachers and students have little power over the conditions in which they teach and learn. A number of studies have investigated teacher and student agency, but few have explored the relationships between the two, particularly in regard to how teacher and student agency relate in high-need and high-diversity contexts with exemplary student graduation outcomes. Purpose/Focus of the Study In an effort to address the paucity of research investigating the relationships of teacher and student agency, this analysis draws on seven qualitative case studies of secondary schools achieving a trend of above-predicted (i.e., odds-beating) graduation outcomes. We pursued the overarching research question: What are the relationships between teacher and student agency in odds-beating schools? Setting The study took place in a purposeful sample of odds-beating secondary schools identified through multiple regression analyses. The sample included schools in rural, suburban, and more urban communities and were distributed across various geographic regions in the state of New York. All schools shared a pattern of above-predicted graduation outcomes, taking into account student demographic factors (percentage of students economically disadvantaged, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and English language learners). All schools met the criteria of being within the normal range for wealth ratio as well. Research Design This qualitative multiple case study focused on data generated from interviews and focus groups with 302 participants, including teachers, student support specialists, and school and district leaders, as well as field notes gathered during guided school tours, and documents. These data were analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis methods in multiple phases of deductive and inductive coding. Conclusions Study findings indicate that when teachers are offered opportunities to act as agents, they tend to offer opportunities to their students similarly. This research also suggests that affordances for teachers to assert agency can mitigate the constraining effects of state accountability system compliance-oriented practices. We conclude that teacher and student reciprocal agency merits further study and offers theoretical insights of particular import in high-needs and high-diversity school contexts.

scholarly journals Helping Preservice Content-Area Teachers Relate to English Language Learners: An Investigation of Attitudes and Beliefs

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Pappamihiel
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Area ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Content Area Teachers ◽  
Safe Learning Environment

In the United States and Canada, as in many other countries, it has become common for teachers not specifically trained in English as a second language (ESL) to have immigrant and minority language students in their classrooms. These students, who are generally learning English along with the culture of their new countries, present many challenges for their teachers, who are often not appropriately trained to meet their needs. Often teachers of mathematics, science, and other content-area courses feel less than prepared for these students and lack the skills needed to accommodate instruction to their unique needs. In addition, these same teachers often harbor attitudes and beliefs about immigrant students that are not conducive to the development of a safe learning environment and are difficult to alter. This article describes how a community-based service-learning project (CBSL) was used to begin to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of preservice content-area teachers toward English language learners (ELLs). In this study many participants exhibited some level of change in their attitudes about working with ELLs.

scholarly journals Seeing “RED” to Serve Students: An Example of Advocacy for Counseling Services for Refugee and Immigrant Adolescents

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-61
Author(s):  
Lisa Hoffman ◽  
Shifa Podikunju-Hussain ◽  
Melissa Fry
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
School Counselor ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
High Conflict

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent a U.S. newcomer school for adolescent English language learners lacked adequate mental health services for immigrant students. School counseling professionals at this school sought data to advocate for additional mental health professionals without asking inappropriately invasive questions about family legal immigration status. Leveraging the expertise of school administrators, refugee resettlement experts, and university researchers yielded a creative method for collecting student demographic information without violating student privacy. Looking specifically at refugee students from high-conflict backgrounds (the “refugees likely to have experienced distress” or “RED” variable) allowed researchers to pinpoint psychosocial acculturation differences in comparison with other immigrant students. A survey of students revealed differences in reported attitudes toward school and perceptions of discrimination among refugees from high-conflict backgrounds compared to other immigrants and refugees from lower-conflict backgrounds. Findings also supported the notion that immigrant students were likely to have experienced trauma prior to enrolling in this school. Results of this engaged scholarship allowed the resident school counselor to advocate effectively for a full-time mental health counselor position for newly arrived secondary students.

scholarly journals Culture Clash in the Multicultural Classroom: A Case Study From a Newcomer School

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Holly Hansen-Thomas ◽  
SriPadmini Chennapragada
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Responsive Teaching ◽  
Secondary Classroom ◽  
Clash Of Cultures ◽  
Multilingual Classroom

This ethnographic case study of a multicultural/multilingual classroom in a newcomer school describes an incident that occurred among new immigrant English Language Learners from widely diverse backgrounds in a secondary classroom in Texas. Increased numbers of immigrant students in U.S. schools have resulted in classrooms with tremendous diversity in terms of language, ethnicity, culture, religion, among other categories. The incident arose as the result of a clash of cultures and lack of knowledge on the part of students. As a result, an explicit focus on culturally responsive teaching is called for, as is training for teachers in multicultural classrooms regarding the specific demographic backgrounds of their students.

Immigrant students' development of musical agency – exploring democracy in music education

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidsel Karlsen ◽  
Heidi Westerlund
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Multicultural Music Education ◽  
Education Literature ◽  
Generation Immigrant ◽  
Multicultural Music ◽  
Education Agency

In this article, we argue that the musical schooling of immigrant students could be seen as forming a healthy test for any educational context in terms of how democracy is enacted. We engage in a discussion linking music education, agency, pluralism and democracy. In our theoretical reconstruction of multicultural music education we first make a review on how music education literature has approached the cultural and musical schooling of immigrant students. We then attend to sociological theories to discuss why development of musical agency may be of particular importance to first generation immigrant students and how agency-enhancing music education may be connected to the development of sound democratic practices in the 21st century schooling.

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