Jennifer M. Bondy

Hybrid Citizenship: Latina Youth and the Politics of Belonging

Drawing from interview data collected from high school students in Broward County, Florida, this article explores how eight adolescent Latinas understand citizenship and belonging vis-à-vis circulating images and discourses on Latina/o immigration, immigrant, and Latina. The author examines Latina youths’ citizenship identities and belonging using the conceptual frameworks of transnationalism, cultural citizenship, and hyphenated selves. The author demonstrates how first-, second-, and third-generation Latina youths’ citizenship identities and belonging are continuously shaped by dominant discourses and stereotypical images while at the same time are responses that modify, resist, or echo these discourses and images. The insights of the adolescent Latinas point to theoretical and practical implications that could improve citizenship education in the context of globalization and transnational migration.

“Why Do I Have to Pledge the U.S. Flag? It's Not My Country!”: Latina Youths Rearticulating Citizenship and National Belonging

Using interview data collected from high school students who attended school in Broward County, Florida, this article focuses on how first- and second-generation adolescent Latinas understand citizenship. The author explores participants’ citizenship formations using the conceptual frameworks of transnationalism and cultural dimensions of citizenship. Drawing richly from their voices, the author sheds light on the paradoxes of citizenship and national belonging by illuminating how Latina youth are positioned as ambiguous U.S. residents and citizens. She concludes with an exploration of the practical implications of attending to youths’ re-articulations of citizenship and national belonging.

Latina Youth, Education, and Citizenship: A Feminist Transnational Analysis

Abstract This article explores adolescent Latinas’ citizenship identities in school from a feminist transnational perspective. Data were drawn from qualitative research studies on Latina youths’ educational experiences and from a qualitative project conducted by the author. Cultural citizenship theories were used to analyze the data. The analysis revealed that adolescent Latinas experience their citizenship identities’ being-made through two strategies: (i) stereotypical images and (ii) language ideologies. The analysis also revealed that Latina youth self-make their citizenship identities through three strategies: (i) embracing education, (ii) cultural practices, and (iii) new citizenship identities in transnational spaces. Analyses suggest the need for more transnational approaches in educational research and practice on citizenship education. A feminist transnational approach highlights how discourses and images on Latinas, Latina/o immigration, and citizens materialize in school and provide the conditions in which adolescent Latinas negotiate their citizenship identities.

Negotiating domination and resistance: English language learners and Foucault’s Care of the Self in the context of English-only education

This article explores the basis for resistance to the normalizing technologies associated with English-only legislation and resulting educational practices. The dominance of English-only education in US public schools has normalized English first language speakers and English language learning by appropriating the technology of language in order to become ‘Americanized.’ Because of the growing number of English language learners (ELL) in US public schools, it is important to understand how the normalizing educational practices and disciplinary power associated with English-only education also cultivate possibilities for resistance. I draw upon Foucault’s analytic care of the self to explore the space of English-only education by asking: ‘What alternatives to the normalization of ELL students might be mobilized for resistance?’ This analysis suggests that to shift from a normalized ‘American’ identity requires questioning the racist and nativist discourse on English-only education, and focusing attention on contradictory and multilayered notions of ‘American’. The article concludes with recommendations for teacher education on how to cultivate prospective teachers’ resistance to English-only education.

Social Bonds Across Immigrant Generations Bonding to School and Examining the Relevance of Assimilation

The focus of this study is to investigate school bonding among adolescents in immigrant families using a segmented assimilation theoretical framework. Data are drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative sample of 10th graders. We focus on a subsample consisting of 9,870 first- (N = 1,170, 12 %), second- (N = 1,540, 16 %), and third-plus-generation (N = 7,160, 73%) students in 580 public schools. Our findings suggest that adolescents’ school bond seems to diminish or “decline” as the children of immigrants assimilate. Implications for research on racial/ethnic and immigrant generational disparities in adolescent social bonds to school are also discussed.

The Importance of Immigration With Future Research About School Safety

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has stressed that school violence is a top public health concern due to long-lasting detrimental effects on students’ physical health and emotional well-being. Thus, funding and the implementation of school safety policies and programs have increased over the years because schools are contexts of socialization that directly influence development, educational progress, and life-course trajectories. It is also evident that vulnerable and marginalized youth, such as the children of immigrants, are more likely to attend disadvantaged, violent, and disorderly schools. There is some question, however, if a “one-size-fits-all” approach toward making schools safe can be realized without considering the distinct vulnerabilities that the children of immigrants face in school. In this article, we present, depict, and discuss how immigration could matter in school safety efforts. We also make an argument for future criminological research to assess if school policy efforts are indeed providing healthy and safe learning environments for all students, including the children of immigrants.

Punishing Latina/o Youth School Justice, Fairness, Order, Dropping Out, and Gender Disparities

Although Latina/o youth are one the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population, they face a number of educational hurdles, such as disproportionate school punishment and increased risk of dropping out of high school. This topic is particularly relevant today in the midst of the current social, political, and economic debate over the “school-to-prison pipeline.” This study draws from the Educational Longitudinal Study and utilizes multilevel modeling to analyze the relationships between school justice, fairness, order, dropping out, and gender disparities for 1,800 Latina/o and 6,300 White public school students. Findings suggest that school punishment is contributing to Latina/o youth dropping out; however, it is also evident that improving school justice and fairness can ameliorate the risk of dropping out for Latina/o youth. The significance and implications of justice, fairness, and order for Latina/o youth within the United States school system are discussed more generally.

The Children of Immigrants’ Academic Self-Efficacy The Significance of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Segmented Assimilation

Academic self-efficacy reflects an adolescent’s level of confidence or belief that she or he can successfully accomplish educational assignments and tasks, which are also argued to be a fundamental factor in educational progress and success. Little is known, however, about the academic self-efficacy that the children of immigrants have, which is particularly relevant today in the midst of the current social, political, and economic debate over the influence of immigration in U.S. public schools. Segmented assimilation theory guides this study’s understanding of the children of immigrants’ academic self-efficacy. Analyses, which draw from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and multilevel analyses, indeed reveal imperative findings. Most notably, the association between academic self-efficacy and assimilation is moderated by gender, race, and ethnicity. This article also discusses the importance of understanding the schooling of the children of immigrants in the educational system.

The Children of Immigrants’ Bonding to School Examining the Roles of Assimilation, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Social Bonds

Social bonds to school (i.e., attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief) can influence educational progress and success for students; however, the children of immigrants’ bonding to school remain unclear. This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel analysis to examine straight-line assimilation, segmented assimilation, and immigrant optimism theories in relationship to the children of immigrants’ school bonds. Findings suggest that bonds to school are moderated by gender, race, ethnicity, and immigrant generation. The implications of the evident disparities in the children of immigrants’ bonds to U.S. public schools are discussed more broadly.

Latinas, Heterotopia, and Home: Pedagogies of Gender and Sexuality in Quinceañera

In this article the author discusses Foucaults heterotopia analytic and applies it to a film analysis of Quinceañera. Engaging in feminist and critical media scholarship, the author outlines U.S. discourses on girlhood and their collusion with patriarchal and heteronormative discourses on Latino cultural nationalism in the regulation, control, and representation of Latina youth living in the United States. Heterotopia is used as a critical tool to explore two scenes in Quinceañera that push conceptual boundaries of gender and sexuality. The author suggests that heterotopia is a useful pedagogical tool and that Quinceañera is a useful pedagogical source in conceptualizing girls’ agency and resistance. Ultimately, this analysis traces some of the ways that the films Latina youth protagonist regulates and transgresses gender and sexuality norms that are upheld by U.S. discourses on girlhood and patriarchal and heteronormative discourses on Latino cultural nationalism.