Partnering with Immigrant Communities: Action Through Literacy (Language & Literacy)

In a period of increasing economic and social uncertainty, how do immigrant communities come together to advocate for educational access and their rights? This book is based on a 5-year university partnership with members from Indonesian, Vietnamese, Latino, Filipino, African American, and Irish American communities. Sharing rich examples, the authors examine how these diverse groups use language and literacy practices to advocate for greater opportunities. This unique partnership demonstrates how to draw on the knowledge and interests of a multilingual community to inform literacy teaching and learning, both in and out of school. It also provides guidelines for reimagining university/community collaborations and the practice of ethical partnering.

Partnering with Immigrant Communities focuses on:

• Minoritized immigrant populations, including groups with undocumented status and those who came to the United States to flee religious persecution.
• The intellectual and activist legacies that are already present in communities as people come together to take action on matters that directly impact their lives.
• A local cosmopolitanism that serves as a refuge for many immigrants who may otherwise be scapegoated within the dominant culture.
• A coalition of multilingual, multiethnic communities whose experiences are intertwined by overlapping histories of colonization and shared present struggles.
• Ethical and effective community-based research, including concrete and theoretically informed examples.

Gerald Campano is associate professor and chair of the Reading/Writing/Literacy Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. His books include Literacy Tools in the Classroom and Immigrant Students and Literacy. María Paula Ghiso is assistant professor of literacy education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Bethany J. Welch is the founding director of Aquinas Center in South Philadelphia and a nonprofit management consultant.