Immigrant students and global education

Research on immigrant students in higher education often articulates a deficit narrative emphasizing the challenges immigrant students face in comparison to their native-born peers. In education for global competence, however, immigrant students’ life experiences give them a potential advantage. This study investigated whether project-based learning designed to take advantage of immigrant students’ intercultural life experiences could contribute to the development of global competence among undergraduate students. Developing and teaching a collaborative, project-based course where undergraduate students researched the intercultural experiences of their immigrant peers, researchers measured specific learning outcomes using quantitative and thematic analysis of student research papers and reflective essays. The study concluded that project-based assignments designed to take advantage of immigrant students’ intercultural experiences could yield significant contributions to the global education of immigrant and non-immigrant students alike.

Leisure Behavior of Young Immigrants in Andalusia (Spain): The Process of Acculturation through Physical Activities and Sport

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role that physical activity and sport plays during leisure time (LTPAS) in the social integration of young immigrants (Africans, Latin-Americans, and Eastern Europeans) in Andalusia, Spain. Method: With this aim, Physical Activity and Sport Acculturation Index (PASAI) data were collected through a survey of the immigrant population aged 15–20. The final sample consists of 440 surveys. The average age was 17.6 (SD = 2.9). 48.4% of them were men, 72% were single, and 72.8% had secondary-level studies. In terms of generation, the second-generation population represented 25.8% of the total, the 1.5 generation 43.5%, and the first generation 30.7%. The questionnaire was voluntarily answered by immigrant students in classrooms and was completed in the second stage via random surveys of residential areas to cover the quota of age and origin. A regression analysis was applied in two phases, generating two models. The first included independent socio-demographic variables; the second included structural variables. Results: First, the results show that immigrants have a low participation rate in physical activity and sport during their leisure time. Second, generation and origin are the main variables that predict variation in physical and sport participation.

Translanguaging Pedagogy to Support Bi/Multilingual Students' Language Learning in Social Studies

This qualitative case study investigates how Mrs. Vega, a high school social studies teacher, supported her emergent bi/multilingual immigrant students' development of academic, content-based language learning in a U.S. Government class. Drawing upon data collected as part of a larger ethnography and using translanguaging pedagogy as a theoretical frame, this chapter centers Mrs. Vega's translanguaging stance, design, and shift. Findings demonstrate the multiple and varied ways Mrs. Vega's pedagogy supported her students' already-present linguistic and cultural abilities in support of their disciplinary learning. Implications are provided for theory and practice.

There Are No Spanish-Speaking Therapists Here

This chapter involves the issues in the creation of a bilingual and culturally competent psychological clinic in a university town in a southern state in the United States known as one of the most Latinx immigrant hostile states in the country. Prior to the creation of the clinic, there were virtually no options for Spanish speakers for culturally or linguistically competent psychological services, and the population of bilingual/bicultural graduate students in psychology and the college of education was very low. This chapter is written from the perspective of the faculty founder of the clinic and the women who have served as clinic coordinators and sacrificed much time and energy in addition to their significant program requirements so that the local Latinx immigration could have linguistically and culturally competent psychological services. Thus, this chapter will blend the available research literature with the experiences of creating and running a clinic that supports many Latinx immigrant students and their families.

Asian Immigrant Communities' Civic Participation in Cultivating Bilingualism and Biliteracy in the United States

This chapter discusses how Asian immigrant communities in the United States cultivate Asian immigrant children's literacy learning in their heritage languages. Although the United States has historically been a linguistically diverse country, bilingualism has not always been valued and acknowledged. Strong social and institutional expectations for immigrants to acquire the socially dominant language have resulted in language shifts among immigrants. Concerned about their descendants' heritage language loss, Asian immigrant communities make organized efforts to establish community-based heritage language schools. Heritage language schools play an important role in immigrant children's learning of their heritage language and culturally appropriate ways of behaving and communicating. It has also been noted that heritage language schools encounter several challenges in motivating heritage language learners. Heritage language schools should be considered as complementary education for immigrant students because they take critical responsibilities to support immigrant students' language and literacy development in their heritage languages.

Translanguaging as a Pedagogical Practice for Successful Inclusion in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classrooms

The research was developed and implemented to investigate the attitudes and views of both Greek and immigrant students with regard to performing translanguaging and its role in their communication, as well as in enhancing their intercultural awareness and sensitivity, in an attempt to explore whether translanguaging can lead to a successful inclusion of students with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds at school. To clarify it more, the research focused on investigating whether translanguaging improved and enhanced 1) students' interaction and 2) collaboration on joint projects/tasks within and outside the school context. The researcher made use of 1) semi-structured interviews with students, while 2) special observation protocols were used by the researcher to record authentic interaction and communication of students and teachers in practice and to explore trends towards raising intercultural awareness and sensitivity in environments that encourage translanguaging.