Supporting and Advocating for Immigrant and Refugee Students and Families in America’s Urban Schools: Educators’ Agency and Practices in Everyday Instruction

Abstract

Persistent educational inequity for immigrant and refugee students and their families calls for instructional practices centering on access, quality, and social justice. Drawing on two qualitative case studies, this article examines how three U.S. urban school teachers attended to the systemic inequalities and unique challenges confronting immigrant and refugee students both inside their classrooms and outside the school. Our analyses show that the teachers strategically enacted various critical instructional practices, including linguistically responsive pedagogy, translanguaging, and sociopolitically responsive pedagogy. The teachers’ agentic practices have important implications for teacher education and professional development for immigrant and refugee learners in urban settings.