Immigrant Experiences: Expanding the School-Home-Community Dialogue

Using the lens of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1994), this book presents empirical studies and personal stories, examples across immigrant and refugee experiences including African, Asian and Latin immigrants. The chapters focus on the educational wellbeing of immigrant children and their families, and on bringing the home, school and community together as a united force to meet their needs.

Table of Contents:
Foreword—Barbara A. Lehman Poem: Silenced by Language—Christina Levy Introduction: Immigrant Discourses Beyond Educational Spaces Ruth McKoy Lowery, Mary Ellen Oslick, and Rose M. Pringle Part 1: Research and Implementation Chapter 1: Our Stories: Voices of Jamaican Immigrant Parents Ruth McKoy Lowery and Rose M. Pringle Chapter 2: The Intersection of Culture, Scholarship, and Survival: Nigerian College Graduates in America’s Higher Institutions Justina Ogodo Chapter 3: Culturally Responsive Leadership Development Project for Mental Health & Resilience: A Case Study of Bhutanese-Nepali Women in Central Ohio Binaya Subedi, Arati Maleku and Sudarshan Pyakurel Chapter 4: A Pedagogy of Inquiry: Preparing Teachers to Work with Immigrant Families Christian Winterbottom Chapter 5: Creating Worlds from Wordlessness in The Arrival: A Dramatic Dialogic Inquiry Approach to Immigration with Pre-Service Teachers Nithya Sivashankar Part 2: Practice and Reflection Chapter 6: Usher’s New Look: Transforming Lives of Immigrant Teens through Spark Exploration and Peer-to-Peer Programming Careshia Moore and Yvette Cook Darby Chapter 7: A Non-Immigrant’s Immigrant Experience: Relocating After Hurricane Maria Carrie Teston Geiger Chapter 8: Being Strategic in Planning: Financial Education for Immigrant Families Sandra Benain-Reid-McKoy Chapter 9: Bridging the Gap: Using Emphatic Intentions to Connect with the Displaced Immigrant Angie McDonald Part 3: Resources Chapter 10: Resources on Immigrants and Refugees Mary Ellen Oslick, Marla Goins, and Shawn Anderson Brown

About the Author :
Ruth McKoy Lowery, PhD, is professor of children’s literature and literacy, and associate chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University. Her current research focuses on immigrant and multicultural literature, the adaptation of immigrant and at-risk students in schools, and preparing teachers to teach a diverse student population. Mary Ellen Oslick, PhD, is an assistant professor of literacy and reading at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in reading methods, children’s literature, and critical literacy practices throughout the content areas. Rose M. Pringle, PhD, is an associate professor in science education in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. Her research agenda extends into two parallel, yet related research areas in science teacher education.

Review :
This captivating and compelling book is filled with tremendous intellectual vitality. Each contributor has provided a well-researched, thoughtfully well-written and well-described account of the experiences of immigrants in the United States. Readers will greatly appreciate the accounts and analysis of immigrant experiences that are portrayed against the complex, troubling, and political background of the current times. This book powerfully frames immigrants and refugees through a strengths-based lens. The authors offer readers robust insights into the challenges that many families and their children face while navigating home and school culture in the United States. This book presents practical and realistic recommendations grounded in research-based culturally responsive teaching practices for the classroom. This book includes innovative suggestions for creating space that ultimately honors the voices of immigrants and refugees inside and outside of the classroom. We often recall stories of treasured customs and traditions handed down from previous generations of family members. However, as these are often from the distant past, today’s America also represents more recent and current newcomers. Immigrant Experiences: Expanding the School-Home-Community Dialogue sheds much needed light on contemporary immigration, through the authors’ own lived stories.This timely book can serve as a means to begin and extend conversations to foster understanding of how immigrants greatly contribute to the identity and humanity of our country.