Lessons from an Expert Teacher of Immigrant Youth: A Portrait of Social Justice Teaching

ABSTRACT

With approximately 40 million foreign-born people in the United States, US classrooms are witnessing an intense concentration of newcomer students and a persistent achievement gap between immigrant students and their English-speaking, US-born peers. Yet, some teachers are consistently successful with “those” children typically marginalized by schools. In this article, we describe, analyze, and theorize the practice of a master teacher who has spent over 20 years working with newcomer immigrant youth in the United States. Daphne invites her students to co-create the curriculum with her around their pressing questions, driven by her strong belief that her students are full of capacity, woke to the world around them, and thinking deeply about issues that affect them. Daphne’s practice demonstrates the power of critical pedagogy, funds of knowledge, and learning communities when they are enacted consistently as an ongoing and regular practice. Her students become agentic learners who thrive in ways we would wish for all students.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Daphne, Hill Learning Academy, and the Urban Residency Program are pseudonyms.

2. Given the dialogic and collaborative nature of this research, it seemed important to honor and capture the authenticity of Daphne’s perspective. Thus, quotes without attribution are Daphne’s words, woven throughout the text so she speaks in her own voice about her work and her students.

3. Other is italicized to indicate that othering is a racialized and socially constructed process that positions certain groups of people, such as newcomers to the United States, as outside or on the margins of the so-called norm or mainstream. The use of italics also signals that this “assigned” label or perception does not define newcomers or culturally and linguistically diverse peoples.

4. Daphne is required to teach to the ELA Common Core State Standards and adapt them for English learners. As long as ELA and ESL teachers at HLA address the standards (e.g., understanding narrative, informational, and argumentative texts), they have the freedom to choose texts and topics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. Lin Goodwin

A. Lin Goodwin (葛文林) is the dean of and a professor in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on teacher/teacher educator beliefs, identities, and development; equitable education and powerful teaching for immigrant and minoritized youth; international analyses and comparisons of teacher education practice and policy; and the experiences of Asian/Asian American teachers and students in US schools.

Rebecca Stanton

Rebecca Stanton has been teaching in public schools for over 20 years. After earning her master’s degree in TESOL and English education in 1999, she taught for ten years in Southern California. She then moved to New York and has been working in New York City schools ever since. She is currently enrolled in a Queens College post-master’s advanced certificate program.