In spite of immigration’s influential role in American history and politics, contemporary issues in immigration are rarely addressed in elementary classrooms. This instrumental case study of a bilingual social studies methods course in an elementary teacher preparation program examined projects focused on immigration and related executive orders issued by newly elected President Trump in the spring of 2017. The lessons and student conversations analyzed revealed the importance of providing young learners with nuanced and thoughtful opportunities for testimonio , or personal narrative, that address the difficult funds of knowledge that immigrant children and the children of immigrants may possess, such as personal experiences with deportation and detention. In the midst of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and around the world, the preservice teachers’ work offers possibilities for powerful, student-centered pedagogies and counter-narratives at the elementary level.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1155&context=edu_pubs

“La lucha todavía no ha terminado”/The struggle has not yet ended: Teaching immigration through testimonio and difficult funds of knowledge

/pdf/we-are-history-too-using-text-sets-to-honor-latinx-stories-31gnpdjzyp.pdf

We Are History Too: Using Text Sets to Honor Latinx Stories in Social Studies and ELA Integrated Instruction

The current nativist and ethnocentric policies and rhetoric put forward in the United States have compromised the safety of undocumented Hispanic/Latinx Americans. Many in these communities abstain from overt action toward change. Nonetheless, there are examples of community members who embrace the narrative "undocumented and unafraid." Through in-depth individual interviews and focus groups, we qualitatively examined how undocumented Mexican community coalition members (N = 10), focused on enacting socio-political change on behalf of their predominantly Mexican southwestern community, understood the role of their group as a venue for bridging resources and social action. Findings centered on three specific broad themes: (1) Meeting Community Needs: A Disconnection from Resources; (2) Community Coalition as a Space for Bridging Resources; and (3) Community Coalition as a Space for Activism and Social Change.

A southwestern grassroots community coalition of undocumented Mexican community members: A location for bridging resources and sociopolitical action.

Background/ContextAnti-Latinx political discourses have long positioned Latin America and, by extension, U.S. Latinxs as economic, sociocultural, and political threats to the general welfare of the...

“All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic”: The Presence of Anti-Latinx Political Rhetoric and Latinxs as Third World Threats in Secondary U.S. Citizenship Curriculum:

Jesús A. Tirado

Papers

Undocumented, unafraid, and precarious: Thinking through conceptions of civics by undocumented activists