ABSTRACT
The chapter is a comparative case study in two New York City high schools—one with U.S.-born students and one with immigrant students—within the context of immigration units in their English language arts and social studies classes. Based on the teaching and learning principles of Freirean pedagogy and a Bakhtinian conceptualization of dialogue, this study examines varied critical dialogic approaches to understand immigration from diverse and nuanced perspectives. The critical dialogic approaches enacted by the four teachers in the study included: (a) collaboration across content areas, teachers, and students; (b) inclusion of multimodal sources with divergent perspectives; and (c) transcendence of students’ singular experiences. The challenges to this approach included top-down policies such as standardized testing that limited curricular design and the way in which these policies directly impacted how students addressed immigration issues that affected their lives. Analysis of interviews, class work, and student surveys after the units highlight the views students hold on current immigration issues related to undocumented immigrants, the federal DREAM Act, and the officialization of English. The key findings suggest that is it is not the background of the students that determines their views and understandings, but how they are taught to view a concept via multiple perspectives and empowered to voice and act upon their views.
