UNDOCUMENTED EDUCATIONS: EVERYDAY EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES OF RECENTLY IMMIGRATED YOUTH BEYOND INCLUSION/EXCLUSION by Jordan Corson Dissertation Committee: Professor Daniel Friedrich, Sponsor Professor Elsie Rockwell Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Education Date 20 May 2020 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Teachers College, Columbia University 2020 ABSTRACT UNDOCUMENTED EDUCATIONS: EVERYDAY EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES OF RECENTLY IMMIGRATED YOUTH BEYOND INCLUSION/EXCLUSION Jordan Corson Undocumented educations are those educational practices falling outside of legitimated educational institutions or appearing only in marginalized, liminal ways. Through resisting, conflicting with, or simply not fitting into the grammar of school they do not “count” as education. Those educations, and thus the everyday lives of those who practice them, are routinely placed “at-risk.” Often, policymakers and educators propose reforms to this issue, aiming to more effectively include or ensure stronger academic outcomes for populations of students whose educational lives have been marked in precarious ways. Working with 9 recently immigrated youth in New York City, this project explores such undocumented educations in youth’s everyday lives in order to open new understandings of what counts, who counts, and in what ways, in educational discourses. Rather than joining the chorus of reform efforts, I listen to the rigorous, wild, and ethereal educational practices already present in youth’s lives. This project takes up entangled methods of an affective ethnography and a history of the present. Historical work explores prevalent discourses around the education of “newcomer” youth to interrogate how this educational truth came to flourish as an intervention for newcomer youth. Affective ethnography, meanwhile, moves through many places exploring sensations, intensities, and encountering everyday educations and their relationship to the educational life of the school. An affective ethnography opens space to work with youth in exploring educations largely illegible to dominant discourses without submitting these educational practices to new forms of control. Results suggest that linguistically and culturally affirmative schools emerge from understandings of how to better include and improve outcomes for newcomer youth. At the same time, political shifts require schools to constantly evolve to continue pursuing these ideas. Youths’ educational practices change and move through spaces like school or afterschool programs but also connect and flow in a borderless curriculum that challenges the supremacy of educational projects built dominantly on inclusion and success. Failure, daydreaming, and experimentation all play critical roles in youth’s everyday lives. The project ultimately concludes that listening to the already-present everyday educational practices of immigrant youth makes a radically different, ungoverned educational otherwise possible. © Copyright Jordan Corson 2020 All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS After so much time and so much work, as I arrive here at the end, I find myself at a loss. I have thought about writing these acknowledgements from the first days of the doctorate, but I cannot seem to conjure or convey a thank you worthy of the people mentioned below. I will only say that nobody does anything alone. This project has been an intellectual adventure shaped and shared by many. First and foremost, thank you to the school that so hospitably welcomed me and to the 9 participants who generously gave their time, shared their ideas, and opened themselves up for a year of their beautiful lives. I feel eternally grateful and hope that we share in intellectual adventures for years to come. QUE LO QUE! To my committee: Pamela Koch offered her kindness and insight from the moment she joined the committee. María Paula Ghiso transitioned with ease from me lurking during office hours to ask her about immigration studies literature to a warm, thoughtful mentor. Thank you for your inspirational work and guidance throughout this process. Elsie Rockwell has long been one of the academics and activists I most admire in the world. It’s still a bit surreal to have you on my committee. Taking a class with you pushed not only my thinking of anthropology and theories of the state but of my entire intellectual perspective. Your feedback and insight on my work routinely opens new modes of thought. Daniel Friedrich, my friend and mentor, I am not sure what to say. Without your inspiration and intellectual joy, I would not have pursued an academic career. Without your support and encouragement, I would have left early on. Without your friendship, I would have had to watch Batman vs. Superman alone. It has been such a pleasure to read, think, and laugh with you. iii I would also like to thank Professor Thomas Hatch for ongoing collaborations and mentorship (and sharing his office for the last 5 years) and Professor Ansley Erickson for supportive and insightful comments on early versions of this project. To so many folks at Teachers College and Columbia University, especially my coauthors and those thinking/feeling through many events with me: Jennifer Dauphinais, Tara Schwitzman-Gerst, Sarah van den Berg, Tran Nguyen Templeton, Jenna Kamrass Morvay, Cath Goulding, Katie Newhouse, and Lauren McCoy, thank you all! A particular thank you to Diana Rodríguez-Gómez and Andrea Lira, with whom I started this whole academia thing. We might be scattered across the world, but our time together in Monisha’s classes and our conversations about Deleuze and Beyoncé on the Low Library steps both set the tone for and remain some of my favorite memories of grad school. Thank you Atenea Rosado-Viurques, a friend in New York City, Mexico City (Tepito existe!), and now Philadelphia. You helped me with Spanish translations many times and welcomed me into so many places in your life. The anarchist pedagogies reading group, particularly Nick Welna, inspired much of the thinking in this work. Nick, you are a political co-conspirator, Spanish practice and running partner, and an honorary truster of the process. I can’t believe we’ve only known each other for 3 years. I would like to thank two friends who I love in many capacities, but who specifically welcomed me into the work of education. Emily Baskin essentially got me my first job as a para and has supported me every moment since. You are an amazing unicorn goddess. iv Paul Shirk is a wonderful friend who introduced me to Freire and showed me that there’s more to this whole thing than kids sitting up straight in desks. To our oldest and closest friends: Tyler Brown and Risheen Brown (and Leela and Simran) as well as Sean Whiteman and Renée Betancourt (and Jude Betman and the memory of Will Pietro Betman, Laran and Uncle Jordan love you so so much). You hosted me during conferences, listened to me ramble about my work, grew with us from lame teenagers to adult-ish people, and cared for us when we most needed it. I love you all forever. Thank you and all of my love to my in-laws the Kaplans who have always eagerly taken an interest in my research and encouraged my intellectual development, listening to summaries and diatribes over many meals and glasses of scotch. My parents Michael Corson and Diana Corson believe in me way more than I believe in myself. It has often felt like the 3 of us against the world and I share every aspect of this work with you both. And to my Bubbe, Idell Corson. We’ll call soon, I promise! One of the people I love most in this world, Stuart Duncan Brown, passed away shortly before I finished the dissertation. Thank you for your wildness, hugs, sense of humor, sincerity (but never earnestness), and compassionate way of living. I miss you so much. Finally, to my spouse and partner of almost 20 years: Laran Kaplan has walked with me on almost every pathway of this journey. Whether debating an idea, providing feedback on writing, or sitting on the couch discussing very unfinished thoughts, you have loved and supported me in this process in ways I could never have imagined. You may routinely roll your eyes at affect theories or ethnography (and how they are not biological v research), but you always push my thinking and radiate care. This dissertation is one small part of our lives together, but I am so happy to share in this intellectual adventure with you. Also, to our cats Minnie Rosalind Franklin and Pinter, for both accompanying me throughout and trying to prevent me from completing this thing. JC vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I - ON WHOSE AND WHICH MARGINS? ........................................................ 1 Prologue, An Ongoing Story .......................................................................................... 1 Framing Research ........................................................................................................... 5 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 10 Statement of Problem.................................................................................................... 14 Purpose of Study ........................................................................................................... 20 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 22 Rationales.....................................................................................................................