“You ARE Immigrant…but Not Like Us”: A discourse analysis of immigrant students’ positioning of undocumented immigrants in a CLD classroom

Abstract

Abstract As immigration becomes an ever-more divisive topic in the US, immigrants – particularly undocumented youth – experience unique pressures in classroom settings associated with their statuses. With approximately one million undocumented children in America, it is important for educators and researchers to understand how this population navigates such pressures in these environments. Through a sociocultural understanding of identity and an acknowledgment of the relationship between language and power, we utilize elements of microethnographic and critical discourse analysis to examine how four immigrant students used language to position undocumented immigrants in a diverse and purposefully-inclusive high school history class. Findings reveal that the undocumented students positioned fellow undocumented immigrants in a positive and agentive light, while the documented student was often negative in her positioning of undocumented immigrants – though this position occasionally shifted in response to her undocumented peers’ arguments. We also discuss implications of this work and areas for further inquiry.