THE ADOLESCENT CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS, LANGUAGE BROKERING, AND CIVIC PURPOSE

Lisa Dorner, Ph.D., University of Missouri

Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis

October 22, 2014

AGENDA

Research study and context Literature review and definitions Data collection Findings Implications (your turn!)

LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF ‘LANGUAGE BROKERS’

Started in 2001 Research team Data includes:

Surveys Journal entries Participant observation field notes Transcribed translations Transcribed interviews with parents and children

(Dorner, et al., 2007; Dorner et al., 2008; Orellana, 2009; Orellana et al., 2003)

WHAT IS LANGUAGE BROKERING?

“The work that the children of immigrants do as they use their skills in two languages to read, write, listen, speak, and do things for their families” (Orellana, 2009).

Natural Translation Family interpreting Cultural mediator

Phone calls, bills, bank statements, report cards, movies, doctor visits, store transactions …

BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW

Educational and psychological outcomes: Greater metalinguistic awareness, enhanced

academic achievement Decline in psychological well-being, with

increased anxiety, acculturative stress Social and relational processes:

Positively related to respect for parents Positions youth as helpers: tutors, advocates,

workers in a family business, and caregivers of siblings

Developmental processes: Moves from family to community in adolescence

WHAT ABOUT…?

THAT IS . . . (GUIDING FRAMEWORKS)

Rarely is language brokering conceived as an expression of citizenship, even though . . .

Brokers act as competent citizens as they demonstrate civic knowledge, skills and dispositions (Torney-Purta & Lopez, 2006).

Civic purpose: the desire of people to make a difference and help one’s communities (Haste & Hogan, 2006) in ways that are “of consequence to the world beyond self” (Damon, Menon, & Bronk, 2003, p. 121).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the language brokering practices of adolescents from Mexican immigrant homes?

How do adolescents understand their work, especially in relation to civic engagement?

What implications does this work have for citizenship education in schools?

DATA COLLECTION

Built upon case studies from 2001 10 narrative interviews (McAdams, 1995)

with first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans (ages 18-28)

Meetings and extended conversations with 4 adolescents over 1 year (2009-2010)

FINDINGS: HOW BROKERS VIEW THEIR WORK

Brokers demonstrate a sense of “civic purpose.” Taking on “responsibility” “Stepping in” Recognizing “global” and local connections

But, for some, there are challenges in enacting this purpose. Civic pathways disrupted. Civic action disrupted. Caught in between.

PURPOSE: TAKING ON RESPONSIBILITY

I think a turning point is when I started becoming a translator for other people… like my dad would bring friends over…. It’s definitely everything to do with who I became…. Like you see people in need, you have the skill, and you use it…. And I think my role as a translator gave me, that, um, that responsibility, the sense of responsibility: this is much bigger than your family, this is much bigger than, um, than your goal as a kid, you know. This is about helping other people because if you don’t help these people, they’re gonna be in trouble. And that gives you a sense of responsibility where it becomes part of who you are. And I think that has a lot to do with, who you have become and my role as a citizen in this country.

PURPOSE: STEPPING IN

I’m comfortable knowing something and trying to explain and bridging the gap… I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I had to explain really difficult concepts to my parents…. in a different language. It made me really, it’s very practical for me to do that, even though it’s challenging and still, I am working on it.… I think, definitely, it has a lot to do with what I do, and how I am as a person in terms of helping people. Um, so my ability to communicate, like even when I don’t understand stuff, I feel very comfortable stepping in.

PURPOSE: RECOGNIZING GLOBAL & LOCAL I’m more concerned about just being a genuine

person, just citizen being, you know. Narrowing citizenship down to just my country, I guess, isn’t all of that, I don’t wanna say, important to me. It’s just less of, I guess, the word has more of a connotation now. Um, being at the university and having friends from all over the world and how our world is very quickly transforming into, you know, it’s a lot easier to be, to think globally, I guess. I guess the notion that citizenship is only about being a great American is, is less of an idea to me…. It’s -- or me being able to help out my neighbor – [it’s] more about a global aspect than, um, you know as opposed to, oh, it’s about all being American or being Mexican.

CHALLENGE: CIVIC PATHWAYS?

I want to a nurse. But then since I don’t have a social security number or anything, it’s kind of hard.

I would like to be able to go to college. And to be able to get, at least some help from the government. You know the FAFSA and I can’t file for it. So, I mean, I have good grades. I have a 3.9 average and, like, I’ve managed never to have an F or a D. And um, I would like to go to college and get some help, get financial help. . . [but] I can’t even get that.

CHALLENGE: CIVIC ACTION? Interviewer: Have you gotten involved with anything that

would contribute to your desire to help the immigrant community?

 JR: No.  I: No?  JR: No, not yet. Not, it may bring a lot of attention to me.

Well, to anybody, people that, ah, if I go out and do something about it, ah, I guess people are scared that the police might not like it. Like think that they are doing something bad when the are trying to do something good.

 I: So, what do you think would happen?  JR: Well, they do - how they used, they did the batting and

stuff downtown.   I: Did you go to that? JR: Na. Maybe because ah of all the - Probably like the Civil

Rights Movement, I thought of what it would be like with police and hoses and dogs and all that.

CHALLENGE: CAUGHT IN BETWEEN?

“That’s basically it, because my Dad – I guess he still needs me, that’s why. He still needs me to, to talk to, to different people when he can’t express himself.”

SUMMARY

Taking on “responsibility” Having practice “stepping in” Recognizing the “global” and local;

citizenship is more than a national identity or piece of paper

But without that legal citizenship, enacting civic purpose can prove difficult . . .

IMPLICATIONS (YOUR TURN!)

Language brokering and civic purpose – adolescents: Exhibit concern for others Understand community issues Want to address those issues politically Want to become (have become) community

leaders

Community programming? Citizenship education?

THANK YOU!

Please contact me for updates or with questions:

dornerl@missouri.edu

For this presentation, please visit Resources on:

www.lisamdorner.com

DATA ANALYSIS

Constructivist approach to grounded theory:

Open coding for patterns and themes Constant comparison of patterns across

different youth and experiences over time Memo writing Returning to the data for axial coding