Immigration/Migrant Workers…How Do We Teach It?
Given the state that we live in i.e. Washington State,
immigration conversations have the potential to be very touchy. We have an interesting mix of conservative
and liberal political viewpoints, but we are also home to a huge presence of
migrant workers due to the concentration of agriculture. Therefore, given the fact that I plan to
teach in the agriculturally dense Eastern half of Washington, I would want to
scaffold this type of discussion adequately before putting it on the table for
class discussion.
Initially, I would want to know exactly what the composition
of my class was, and whether I had any students who had direct experience with
immigration or seasonal work visas.
Rather than polling this an entirely intrusive way during large group
discussion, I would offer the students a journal prompt asking them for their
personal definitions of “immigrant” and “migrant worker” in order to assess
their interaction with or understanding of the terms. I would personally review
their writings and proceed with the lessons from there.
I would preface any such discussion with a classroom forum
to agree upon rules for discussion of sensitive issues. This will allow the
students to take ownership of the rules and to ensure that the class takes
sensitivity extremely seriously. Respect
is of the highest priority, but in order for a discussion to be beneficial the
students must agree to keep an open mind.
Immigration is an issue that many students’ parents will have strong
opinions on, and their children will follow suit with equally strong but
perhaps less well-informed opinions.
Ideally I would like to structure the lessons in a variety of
ways. Students would have the
opportunity to complete individual work and research, to cooperate in pairs, to
explore multiple opinions in small groups, and finally to discuss as a large
class group. My ultimate goal would be
for students to hear opinions that were different from their own, and to
research the larger issues surrounding migrant working families and immigration
in the United States.
I think The House on
Mango Street would be an excellent literary companion to any such
discussion. Cisneros’s main character,
Esperanza, characterizes her own life in a relatable personal narrative that
interacts with her immigrant background in a subtle but compelling way. Students would be able to empathize with
Esperanza’s experiences as a young adult, and would hopefully be more willing
to understand her experiences as someone who was not born in the United
States.
Perhaps the most important thing I can do as an instructor
in a lesson of this type is keep my own personal bias as far removed as
possible. Students are impressionable, and they have surely developed some of
their own opinions based on the viewpoints of people they respect. While I do want to provide them with useful
information, I hope to train them to form belief systems on their own. Adolescents are constantly interacting with
the world in new ways, my job is to provide them with helpful information and
resources to form an identity and an opinion that they have a sturdy foundation
for.
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