Educators’ Perceptions of Immigration Policy Implications on Their Schools: A Mixed-Methods Exploration

Abstract

Background/Context: This article draws from a larger study focused on how recent immigration policies have influenced school districts across the United States and how educators have responded to support their immigrant-origin students. Scholars have found that immigration policy powerfully shapes the lives of many immigrant youth in multiple ways. Since the 2016 election, increasingly restrictive immigrant policies have had troubling consequences for immigrant-origin youth and their families. Although researchers have found schools to be crucial contexts for immigrant-origin youth, there is a need for additional research on how educators serving immigrant-origin youth are making sense of recent immigration policies and their implications for schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Focusing on data from one school district in Illinois, we explored educators’ perceptions of the implications of immigration policies on their schools along with the factors that influence their perceptions. Our research question was as follows: “What factors influence how educators perceive immigration policy implications on their schools, and how do these factors influence educators’ perceptions?” Research Design: We used an explanatory sequential design in a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. We began the study by collecting and analyzing quantitative data. We then collected and analyzed qualitative data with the intent of explaining and expanding on the quantitative results. We took this two-phased approach because we wanted to see if there were factors that significantly influenced educators’ perceptions of immigration policy implications from a larger data set provided through survey results. Findings/Results: According to the quantitative analysis, White educators in nonteaching roles who had a high sense of responsibility to respond to the political climate were more likely to report an impact of immigration policies and rhetoric in their schools. The qualitative data supported the patterns shown by the regression results and highlighted one more influencing factor not captured by the survey data. Conclusions/Recommendations: This article contributes to research in immigration and education by taking a deeper look at educators’ perceptions of immigration policy implications and the factors affecting those perceptions. In a sociopolitical context with a legacy of anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, it is important to become more aware of educators’ perceptions of immigration because those perceptions greatly influence how educators understand and interact with their immigrant-origin students. Immigrant-origin students need more support in an uncertain and changing policy environment, and as researchers, we must work with practitioners to bring more awareness to how our own perceptions can shape our actions.