Understanding the Needs of Immigrant High School Students: Importance of Multiple Perspectives through a Social Justice Lens

Background and Purpose

Children/adolescent immigrants represent approximately 20% of those attending US schools.  They can face poor school-based functioning due to lower English language abilities and acculturation stress.  Recent executive orders regarding immigrants/immigrant families have heightened stress and fears for many immigrants.  It is not clear what impacts these orders have had on students and their parents.

Transition in adolescence is culturally constructed.  To develop strategies to support positive transitions, adolescent, parent and teacher perspectives need consideration.  Transitions occur within several ecological systems: microsystems (parent-adolescent), mesosystems (parent or adolescent and teachers) and macrosystems (dominant and immigrant cultural values and practices).  None exist in isolation; ecological theory offers a framework to describe/understand multiple system interactions and contributions.

Parental involvement can support adolescent academic success.  Barriers to involvement include: unfamiliarity with US educational systems, language/communication issues with school officials, concerns about immigration status.  Teachers can support adolescent academic success.  Barriers to support include: poor awareness of immigrant culture or impact of acculturative stress, effects of the current political environment regarding immigration.  While there is an increasing understanding regarding parent, student & school personnel collaboration, gaps remain in work with immigrant families.  Strategies regarding social and economic justice concerns regarding immigrants – either legal or illegal immigrant status – are not fully identified or understood.  Finally, there is limited attention regarding culturally responsive practice in school settings.

Teachers and school-social workers need culturally sensitive strategies that reflect an understanding of multiple ecological systems to (1)effectively engage with immigrant communities, (2)integrate multiple perspectives (parents, students, teachers, social workers and other systems/parties), and (3)facilitate the collaborative work to achieve successful learning experiences and outcomes.

 

Methods

This study examined younger adolescent high school students.  Research aims included to: (1)understand the perspectives/needs of younger adolescents, parents, and teachers and (2)identify collaborative efforts supporting academic success.  Community-based participatory research was employed using a “co-learning” approach.  Participants included students(n=15), parents(n=15), and teachers(n=21) from a school in a large northeastern urban city, where all students are immigrants.  Participants were recruited through flyers and follow-up e-mails.  Focus groups were conducted separately with students, parents, and teachers.   Transcriptions from focus groups were coded thematically, using NVivo; analyses were informed by grounded theory principles.

Results

Parents did not understand the school system or parental rights. Many worried about negative consequences when disagreeing with school officials, particularly related to immigration issues.  Teachers were less aware of immigrant culture, finding it challenging to work with parents.  Needs included communication strategies with parents and information about immigrant cultures.  Teachers emphasized the importance of support networks for students and parents.  The greatest concern for students was teachers’ understanding of their culture or immigrant experiences.   Adolescents highlighted the importance of peer-to-peer activities that address isolation and stigma.  All respondents identified the importance of supporting adolescents/parents through advocacy efforts.

Conclusions & Implications

Findings underscore the importance of an ecological-systems approach, offering multiple-perspectives regarding challenges/barriers and supports promoting immigrants’ academic success.  Implications point to roles that teachers and school-social workers can have to address these issues and parent/adolescent concerns regarding immigration status.