The “Warm Embrace” of a Newcomer School for Immigrant & Refugee Youth

Discourses of Belonging: Intersections of Truth, Power, and Ethics in Evaluation With Migrant Youth

“…for newcomers, which often conflate belonging with cultural assimilation (Bajaj & Suresh, 2018). Decades of research show that English-only ideologies guide interventions for migrant youth, as part of assimilationist approaches to immigrant incorporation.…”

“…Market reforms in education have contributed to and maintained inequalities in many urban communities in the name of "school choice" and school turnaround and closures and the proliferation of charter schools across urban districts like the one in this evaluation (Cucchiara, 2013). Programs like the evaluation here are intended to serve marginalized groups in the district because schools are unwelcoming or ineffective (Bajaj & Suresh, 2018). Lipman (2011) describes how neoliberalism-the transference of market forces in economics to all aspects of life-diminishes equity and access to resources in many urban communities.…”

“…Scholars in education have critiqued neoliberal aims in educational programming because they are colorblind and often exacerbate inequalities faced by marginalized groups who they often are supposed to serve (Orfield & Frankenberg, 2013). For example, a focus on English-language learning limits opportunities, college access, and meaningful sociocultural curriculum for immigrant students (Bajaj & Bartlett, 2017;Bajaj & Suresh, 2018). Finally, these ideas and practices position newcomer immigrant youth as lacking and reinforce deficit-based ways of thinking that become the basis for programs and interventions (Bartlett & Garcia, 2011).…”

Pushing the Boundaries: Education Leaders, Mentors, and Refugee Students

“…An emerging, but small, body of literature addresses how American schools can create safe learning environments with supportive curricula and culturally responsive pedagogy and leadership that could potentially counter the school-related acculturation stress. Much of this research (Bajaj & Bartlett, 2017;Bajaj & Suresh, 2018;Bartlett et al, 2017;McBrien et al, 2017;Mendenhall & Bartlett, 2018) draws attention to how international schools in New York City and Oakland educate refugee youth and other newcomers. This scholarship calls for curricular, pedagogical, and assessment approaches that avoid tracking and segregating refugee students, and that also utilize the students' experiences and languages as resources that can be integrated throughout the school day and in related out of school learning.…”

“…This scholarship calls for curricular, pedagogical, and assessment approaches that avoid tracking and segregating refugee students, and that also utilize the students' experiences and languages as resources that can be integrated throughout the school day and in related out of school learning. Bajaj and Suresh (2018), for instance, demonstrate how Oakland International High School-which aims to welcome and integrate newcomers-excels at leveraging community collaborations, creating meaningful family engagement, and enacting a flexible curriculum to meet the refugee students' and their families' needs. Mendenhall and Bartlett (2018) also argue that refugee students benefit from a critical transnational curriculum and note that afterschool and extracurricular programs provide important academic, language, and social supports to refugee youth.…”