Literature Review
Literature Review
In order to begin this project, finding frameworks were integral in centering my research.For this project, I sought to find literature that would serve as guide when considering the potential strengthening of a partnership between student organized immigration advocates and Harvard as an institution of higher education.
The first piece I found was Understanding and Supporting Undocumented Students by Jerry Price which is based upon the sociocultural theory (Lewis, Enciso, and Moje, 2007; Roth and Lee, (2007) and Gildersleeve’s (2009, 2010)) framework. This framework states that pre-college experiences shape and continue to shape undocumented students’ histories of participation in higher education. Building upon this, it asserts that student affairs must reflect group’s history of participation within and across that institution (Enciso 2007), while becoming social justice advocates. This in turn can turn a sense of exclusion of said students into one of inclusion, through a pedagogy created on the formation of a methodology that accounts for the “pluralistic ways that undocumented students demonstrate their cultural assets, leadership development, and needs as undergraduate students” (33). This would be done by “historicizing college going for undocumented students… [and] to reimagine what serving and supporting those students may look like” (21). This framework takes a more active approach in regards to student affairs professionals, also known as meeting them “where they [students] are,” which opposes the direct perception of AOD students who state that in order for support to be provided, it must begin with the active demand of said students. This in turn, led me to see ask student affair professionals in charge or in close working relation to AOD on how they “historicize students experiences” and how that connects to the creation of supports for undocumented students.
Seeking to look further into the history of the undocumented experience, I found No Undocumented Child Left Behind, Plyler v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren by Michael Olivas. This piece follows the impact of Congress- passed Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, resulting increased border security and sanctions on employers of illegal immigrants. It states that Plyler v. Doe stood as “solution an immediate issue in dispute: whether the State of Texas could enact laws denying undocumented children free access to its own public schools. But it also dealt with a larger, transcendent principle: how this society will treat its immigrant children” (8). This would provide the historical contexts of immigration and national education policies that would be relevant for student affairs professionals to keep in mind when advocating and creating support/resources. It would “historize” the undocumented experience, following source 1’s framework. This got me wondering if the student group (AOD) itself has contextualized historically the relationship between education and immigration throughout the formation of its’ constitution. Analyzing the organization's constitution and the interviewees of the undocumented community could help understand the gap between the institutionalized supports (AOD/administration partnership) and the said need of the community.
Gonzales’ frameworks developed in Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America, but noted in this article are central to the conversation for education policy and immigration (undocumented students) particularly the 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults. Appreciating its theory on the “profound implications [undocumented status has had on identity formation, friendship patterns, aspirations and expectations, and social and economic mobility” (603) will serve as a lens to review how Harvard’s student affair professionals awareness of the what it means to be an undocumented student: moving “from protected to unprotected, from inclusion to exclusion, from de facto legal to illegal” (604) affects the undocumented student experience. In a society in which educational attainment is critical for social mobility of all children, particularly low-income and undocumented students, this awareness from an institutional side would be imperative for the formation or strengthening of a student organization’s partnership with their campus institution and academic/mental health success of said students organization’s constituents.
Finally, I sought for an academic paper that would serve to contextualize the previous frameworks in a recent action plan. Undocumented Students at the Community College: Creating Institutional Capacity was written by undocumented Pomona graduates, introduced a framework called Institutional Undocu-Competence (IUC), “an institutional capacity framework, to assess how well community colleges are serving this student population” (87). This framework emerged from social justice frameworks which demand actions from institutions, holding them accountable for the promotion of diversity and equity of underserved populations. Training of faculty and staff as well as providing appropriate health and psychological services were a few of the action steps mentioned to build an IUC. Once specific recommendation was the statement that, “institutions should make their position in support of undocumented students clear and visible through written policy so as to prevent stigmatization of undocumented students by deeming their presence a secret” as a form of combatting a history of marginalization and “living in the shadows” as mentioned ins Source 2. This framework was particularly intriguing, because it provided tangible action steps for institutions to implement specific to the undocumented community in institutions of higher education.
Using these sources, I hope to use contextualize what has Harvard done historically for undocumented students according to both students and administrators, using that to build a Harvard-specific plan on how to promote its IUC and further its’ partnership with Act on a Dream to better serve the greater undoc+ community.
Sources Cited:
- Understanding and Supporting Undocumented Students; Precollege Contexts of Undocumented Students: Implications for Student Affairs Professionals byJerry Price (p. 19-33)
- Learning to Be Illegal Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood by Roberto G. Gonzales (p. 602-619)
- No Undocumented Child Left Behind, Plyler v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren by Michael Olivas(p. 7-33)
- Undocumented Students at the Community College: Creating Institutional Capacity by Jessica I. Valenzuela, William Perez, Iliana Perez, Gloria Itzel Montiel, Gabriel Chaparro (pp. 87-96)