![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
While anti-immigrant policy and practices have a long history in the United States, many students are unfamiliar with the historical or current immigration crises. This study explores the challenges of teaching a graduate seminar about immigration and education at a predominantly white university. Five graduate students and their instructor share their reflections from a post-course survey and field notes related to the course’s ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ and experiential learning. The class was moved emotionally, interrupting previous beliefs and shifting attitudes. However, the course fell short of exploring one’s own positionality fully, resulting in unfinished learning about how Whiteness upholds the status quo. The authors argue for a neo-abolitionist pedagogy, one that creates a ‘third space’ to process emotional responses and discuss social positionalities to prevent unproductive feelings of guilt or pity that function to further otherize immigrants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Although one field trip included information about Greece and Japan.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Denise Blum
Denise Blum, Associate Professor, Social Foundations in Education, Oklahoma State University.
Erin E. Davis
Erin Davis, Doctoral student in Social Foundations in Education, Oklahoma State University.
Kari Gibson
Kari Gibson, Doctoral candidate in Administration Leadership, Oklahoma State University.
Rexi Lee Phillips
Rexi Phillips, Doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Oklahoma State University.
Annette Sharon Stanly Jeyaraj
Annette Sharon Stanly Jeyaraj, Master's Student in Global Studies, Oklahoma State University.
Bailey Winters
Bailey Winters, Master of Global Studies, Oklahoma State University.