(2020). Vulnerable Youth in Volatile Times: Ethical Concerns of Doing Visual Work with "Transfronterizx" Youth on the U.S./Mexico Border. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, v42 n3 p198-216
During the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years at a public high school in El Paso, Texas the author developed and led an after-school arts-based literacy class. This arts-based literacy class was part of the design of a larger ethnographic study spanning the same timeframe that examined how Texas' high-stakes accountability policies shaped schooling for emergent bilingual high-school students (Bach, 2020). This class centered students' lives as resources for creative expression and invited students to document their lives and explore subjects of interest and relevance to them using photography and writing. This paper presents a discussion of the ethical concerns that surfaced in doing research and visual work with vulnerable youth on the U.S./ Mexico border. Aggressive immigration enforcement and the different contexts of surveillance youth experience inside and outside of schools make "transfronterizx" and Latinx youth especially vulnerable. Out of respect for these… [Direct]
(2020). "Airplanes Not Walls": Broaching Unauthorized (Im)migration and Schooling in Mexico. Teachers College Record, v122 n8
Background/Context: This article builds on U.S.-based research on undocumented status and schooling to examine how an elementary school teacher in Mexico successfully integrates transnational students' experiences related to unauthorized (im)migration into the classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Drawing on a politicized funds of knowledge framework, we focus on an exceptional fifth-grade teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and relational decisions to provide concrete examples of how educators on both sides of the border can carefully integrate students' politicized experiences into their classrooms. Setting: This research took place in a semirural fifth-grade classroom in Central Mexico during the 2016-2017 academic year, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Population/Participants/Subjects: This article focuses on the routine educational practices within a single fifth-grade classroom in a highly transnational Central Mexican town…. [Direct]
(2009). What's Age Gotta Do with It? Understanding the Age-Identities and School-Going Practices of Mexican Immigrant Youth in New York City. High School Journal, v92 n4 p34-48 Apr-May
Recent reports of out-of-school immigrant youth have brought attention to predominantly Mexican and Central American immigrant youth who immigrate to the United States and do not enroll in formal schooling (Fry, 2002; Hill and Hayes, 2007). Many arrive to the United States unaccompanied, joining their older, undocumented counterparts in becoming part of the undocumented labor queue (Esquivel, 2007). New York City is one of the more recent destinations for these immigrant youth, with Mexicans leading all immigrant groups in terms of the highest percentage of school-age youth not in school. This article examines how these youth understand their life stages, both pre-immigration in Mexico and post-immigration in New York City, as well as the behaviors and actions they undertake in both contexts that lead to earlier and more rapid transitions to adulthood across the transnational social space. Most often considering themselves adults, these youth remain outside of formal high schools to… [Direct]
(2019). Becoming More Egalitarian: A Longitudinal Examination of Mexican-Origin Adolescents' Gender Role Attitudes. Developmental Psychology, v55 n11 p2311-2323 Nov
The current study examined the trajectory of gender role attitudes of 471 Mexican-origin adolescents (236 girls, 235 boys) from 5th grade (M[subscript age] = 10.86 years) to 11th grade (M[subscript age] = 16.75 years), investigating how situating identities (i.e., gender, nativity, SES), ethnic identity (i.e., ethnic pride), and familial context (i.e., parents' attitudes) contributed to adolescents' gender role attitudes across time. Participant interviews were conducted every other year, resulting in 4 waves of data. Most parents (96%) were Mexico natives, with an average immigration age of 18.16 years for fathers and 14.01 years for mothers. Results revealed linear and quadratic trends in gender attitude traditionality for all adolescents, characterized by a linear decline through age 16 years that leveled off through age 18 years. Although both girls and boys trended toward egalitarian gender role attitudes across adolescence, girls endorsed more egalitarian attitudes than did… [Direct]
(2013). U.S.-Mexico Border Studies Online Collaboration: Transformative Learning across Power and Privilege. Equity & Excellence in Education, v46 n2 p236-251
In response to the national conversation about the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration in recent years, we created an online partnership between students in concurrent border studies courses at our two campuses: a public Hispanic-serving institution in South Texas and a private, small liberal arts college in Michigan. We explored whether and how the tensions between privileged and disadvantaged students documented in the traditional classroom would manifest online, and how we could use virtual technologies most effectively to structure transformative learning, defined as recognition and articulation of the structural and cultural systems that frame individual experience and meaning-making, across difference. As we document in this essay, tensions around racial, class, and educational inequality did occur in our partnership. Yet these tensions were crucial in creating the conditions for transformative learning because they generated "disorienting dilemmas" that challenged… [Direct]
(2001). Who Should Get in?. New York Review of Books, v48 n19 p57-66 Nov
Reviews seven books on immigration, discussing what recent scholarship tells about the ways that successive waves of immigrants affect people already living in the United States. The books examine: the arrival of Indians from North Asia, the case against immigration, immigration policy and U.S. economics, the U.S. experience with international immigration, immigration from Mexico, and immigration's economic, demographic, and fiscal effects. (SM)…
(2021). Humanizing the Journey across the Mexico-U.S. Border: Multimodal Analysis of Children's Picture Books and the Restorying of Latinx (Im)migration. Children's Literature in Education, v52 n3 p411-429 Sep
In response to current anti-immigration rhetoric and policy coming from national leadership, the authors engage in multimodal analysis of picture books that humanize individuals who make the journey across the Mexico-U.S. border. Findings suggest that picture book narratives restory anti-immigrant sentiments by (1) placing the child at the center of the story, (2) demonstrating the way in which the (im)migration journey is a shared journey, and (3) featuring expressions of tenderness among the characters. The article emphasizes the importance of elevating young people's perspectives on Latinx (im)migration through children's literature…. [Direct]
(2009). The Geography Teacher. Volume 6, Number 1, 2009. Geography Teacher, v6 n1 p1-48 Mar
\The Geography Teacher\ provides hands-on reference and educative material for K-12 Geography teachers. The journal also pioneers innovative ideas for contemporary teaching methods, including lesson plans. This issue contains the following: (1) Ask Dr. de Blij (Dr. Harm de Blij); (2) Meet GADO (TGT); (3) Why French? (David Bulambo Bitingingwa); (4) People to People: A Small World After All (Leigh Kostis); (5) Reading Our World (The Geography-Literacy Task Force); (6) The World Ball (Jennifer Maloney); (7) Engaging Students in Geography Using Travel (William Benedict Russell III); (8) Interpreting Rock Art of the Anasazi (National Geographic); (9) How Are Islands Formed? (National Geographic); (10) Two Ancient Cities: Inca and Maya Civilizations (National Geographic); (11) An AP Human Geography Teaching Note: Debating Immigration from Mexico (Jody Smothers Marcello); (12) A Difference: Angelina Jolie Girls' Boarding School (Ed Grode); (13) Book Review: Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik… [Direct]
(2011). Newcomers to the U.S.: Developing Historical Thinking among Latino Immigrant Students in a Central Texas High School. Bilingual Research Journal, v34 n1 p58-75
Newcomers are a special subgroup of the student population designated as English Language Learners (ELLs). The research project described in this article investigates how a teacher integrated language and content in a single subject area, social studies, in a high school newcomer classroom. Three extended lessons were presented to newcomer students in Central Texas who are native speakers of Spanish. The case study in the newcomer classroom documented immigrant students' use of digitized primary resources and document-based questions pertaining to the social crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957; the civil rights concerns of the Chicano "Movimiento" of the 1960s and 1970s; and the U.S. public's conflicting responses to immigration, particularly from Mexico, in the 21st century. Each extended lesson required that the students systematically understand sources; contexts; historical significance; and notions of agency, empathy, and moral judgment. Despite the challenge of… [Direct]
(2018). Historical, Sociopolitical, and Mental Health Implications of Forcible Separations in Young Migrant Latin American Children and Their Families. ZERO TO THREE, v39 n1 p8-20 Sep
This article will address immigration as a psychosocial event and will describe the different stages of the immigration process, when immigration becomes traumatic, and how each immigration stage can place vulnerable Latin American families at high risk for traumatic stress. It will explore pre-migration experiences and the factors bringing young families to cross the United States-Mexico border. The authors discuss (a) the long- and short-term effects of family separations on young children and their caregivers and (b) trauma- and diversity-informed interventions targeted at increasing safety, empowerment, and hope…. [Direct]
(2018). Our Children's Fear: Immigration Policy's Effects on Young Children. Center for Law and Social Policy, Inc. (CLASP)
This report documents how the current immigration context is affecting the nation's youngest children, under age eight, based on interviews and focus groups in 2017 with more than 150 early childhood educators and parents in six states–California, Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. This study was motivated by widespread reports that children and families are being harmed by the Trump Administration's immigration policy priorities. This report documents impacts on young children of immigrants, whether their parents have some form of lawful immigration status or are undocumented. [For the companion report, see "Immigration Policy's Harmful Impacts on Early Care and Education" (ED582817).]… [PDF]
(2021). The (Mis)Treatment and (Non)Education of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children in the United States. National Education Policy Center
The focus of this brief is on the education of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving from Central America and Mexico, fleeing violence and poverty in their countries. Upon arrival, these children encounter a complicated immigration legal system, while having to navigate a new society within an anti-immigrant sociopolitical context. In recent years, these unaccompanied children have been exposed to traumatic situations such as overcrowded detention centers and abuse. After an analysis of research around this issue, the brief provides recommendations for policymakers and leaders to alleviate the trauma suffered by these children and to ensure that they receive necessary educational and coordinated supports…. [PDF]
(2021). Seeking Safety and Humanity in the Harshest Immigration Climate in a Generation: A Review of the Literature on the Effects of Separation and Detention on Migrant and Asylum-Seeking Children and Families in the United States during the Trump Administration. Social Policy Report. Volume 34, Number 1. Society for Research in Child Development
In recent years, families with children from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America constitute a large and growing proportion of migrants and overall filed asylum claims. In an effort to deter overall immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border, the executive branch under the Trump administration has made substantial changes to federal immigration and asylum policy in recent years. Given the sensitive nature of early development and the hardship and trauma that many migrant children have experienced, immigration policies that do not prioritize child wellbeing, and in fact, neglect or harm it, can have lifelong negative consequences on physical and psychological wellbeing. In light of the scope of children and families affected by these policies and potential magnitude of their effects, the present review aimed to: (1) outline federal immigration policies under the Trump administration that primarily impacted migrant children and families; (2) review the research base… [PDF]
(2019). Discourses of White Nationalism and Xenophobia in the United States and Their Effect on TESOL Professionals in Mexico. TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect, v53 n3 p835-844 Sep
White nationalism has emerged in the mainstream of U.S. political discourse, and restricting all forms of immigration has become a central focus of isolationist, "America First" policies. In August 2017, TESOL International released its "Position Statement on Immigration Policy and Reform in the United States." The authors respond to the position statement and address Mexican English teachers' views towards the immigration debate in the United States, how this debate reflects what Mexicans see as discourses of White nationalism and xenophobia, and the impact they have on the everyday work that teachers do in English classrooms in Mexico. They begin by giving a brief historical background on the closely intertwined relationship between the two countries, and then discuss the effects of the current climate on language educators' work. They explain that manifestations of anti-Mexican xenophobia in the United States increase the difficulty of Mexican English language… [Direct]
(2018). Vidas al Revés/Upside-Down Lives: Educational Challenges Faced by Transnational Children of Return Mexican Families. Journal of Latinos and Education, v17 n3 p272-285
Drastic immigration policies and economic conditions have resulted in unparalleled return rates to Mexico. Deported parents are faced with the difficult choice of leaving US-born children behind or taking them to their country of origin, where many face significant educational, cultural, and linguistic barriers. This study focuses on six families and the challenges they have faced living with undocumented status in the US, re-adjusting to life in Mexico, and the educational challenges faced by their children in both countries…. [Direct]