Studying success for students who are immigrants from Africa - a facilitator's perspective

What was this project?

A small group of refugee and immigrant youth and parents from Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi came together to discuss schooling in Appleton, WI. Together, those researchers along with two facilitators started to uncover what is and isn’t working about their education in the Fox Valley. This team worked together from August 2020 through August 2021 to complete a research cycle that started with forming a research question and finished with meeting with AASD school district administrators to share their experiences and findings.

What was your catalyst for this CPAR project?

I believe that our students can do much more in our schools and communities than they are currently being given opportunities to do. As an educator, I see many disconnects between the kinds of opportunities open to all students, and the kinds of activities our students with refugee backgrounds engage in. In my work with English Learners, I am fortunate to be able to get to know students and families deeply. I prioritize getting to know their hopes, dreams, and concerns, and I keep those ideas at the center of my work. In the years leading up to this project, I spent time building trusting relationships with each student and family I work with.

What was one tension or struggle that was present for you in this project?

Participation is not automatic - one of the assumptions of CPAR, was a consistent tension in our research project. For others navigating shifts in involvement with their participatory research projects, I offer several keys to keeping this tenant of CPAR from being a barrier.

1. One - Remain consistent in offering time and space to meet, as well as in reminding participants of meetings. This is important especially when working with students who have many other life responsibilities, when working cross-culturally and in multiple languages, and when meeting face to face is not an option.

2. Two - Stay grounded in the relationships with each student, and the team as a whole. Building strong connections across the team is one strategy that encourages participation, and creates space for mutual accountability.

3. Three - Provide many ways to participate. While we had a group chat, not everyone was used to checking that chat on a regular basis, so sometimes it is necessary to meet with students individually, to work on the parts of the project they are most passionate about, then figure out the best way to share that progress with the rest of the team. This strategy worked well, especially when facing internet challenges. Sometimes we made more progress in getting to know one another, and problem solving the current step of the research project with an hour long phone call than we may have in a group meeting.

Was race a concept important to this project? How did you show up for those conversations as a white person?

Race was part of the discussions within our research team on and off throughout the project. When we first began to frame our participant surveys we talked about whether or not it was important to the team to use race as a demographic indicator. Ultimately, the students decided that it wasn't something they wanted to be explicit about. Over 90% of educators in this community are white, and the student data from this study came solely from students who are immigrants from Africa whose race is Black. The students decided that if race or incidents of racism came up in survey responses, then that was the place to note it, but they didn't want to influence students to answer questions specifically with a racialized lens. Students did discuss feeling marginalized and a few students shared

In my co-facilitation of this project, I provided historical and current information about ways that race as a social construct has impacted different people in our community and across the United States. When discussing our childhoods, I shared with students not only information about the racial makeup of my community and my family, but also information about how wealthy that community was, and the kinds of resources I had access to.

Did you experience any changes in your thinking and capacity as a facilitator of this research?

Shifting power can happen in small and large ways. One way that I have shifted the power dynamics recently was to leave myself out of the decision making process entirely, and then to figure out how to support the answer or conclusion the group came to.

It is important to build the capacity of the youth involved so that they are activated to organize and communicate. The spectrum of participation really helped me see that the conditions need to be set in the project to provide opportunities for the youth to learn new skills, take chances, reflect, and try again. Without these opportunities, they may not see themselves as leaders or organizers. Feedback and positive encouragement are also really critical to this effort.

CPAR work needs to be grounded in relationships. It’s necessary to take the time to build rapport, respect, and hope together, for one another, and for our world. This means that in our work we make time for connection, embrace the complexities of each person’s life, and be present for one another without trying to solve problems. Additionally, I saw a great benefit in encouraging the participants to form deeper and stronger connections with their family members through invitation and reflection, question asking, and inclusion in the research process in general.

Learning/lessons about the CPAR process that I want to remember for future work.

1. When trying to solve a problem that impacts youth, ask those youth to solve it.

2. When feeling pressure about the pace of the work, check in with myself about the source of the sense of urgency. Timing and sense of urgency

3. Work in partnership with other CPAR classmates and colleagues. There are many many people working to partner with youth to change our communities. Talking through what I am working on and how, soliciting feedback and hearing about the work that others are doing or have done is necessary to keep going.

4. Don’t go it alone. Especially when working on systemic change, remember that there are many people willing and able to provide support, and that the most effective ideas and solutions come from those closest to the issues.