Theoretically framed by cultural and transnational citizenship, this narrative inquiry study engages with the lived experiences and teaching practice of an Arab migrant social studies teacher named Mr. Ahmad (pseudonym). More specifically, we examined Mr. Ahmad’s understanding of his positions and sense of place as an Arab migrant in the United States and his active involvement in transnational politics and teaching endeavors across the borders to navigate his immigration status and racially minoritized position as an Arab migrant in the United States. This study further elucidates how Mr. Ahmad’s transnational engagement, along with his racialized experiences, served as a foundation for his teaching philosophy and pedagogy centering on cultivating students’ critical consciousness and action toward social justice and equity. By shedding lights on Mr. Ahmad’s narratives and agencies in claiming and exercising his belongingness and teaching and how they are informed by his distinctive racial and migratory backgrounds and complex life stories as an Arab migrant, this study will contribute to offering a more nuanced, multifaceted, and authentic portrayal of Arab and Arab American communities that transcends the existing, simplistic, essentialist, deficit-oriented, and Orientalist narratives against Arab and Arab American communities. The study will also contribute to an important yet significantly under-researched area of Arab and Arab American teachers, offering valuable and vital insights into future research and teacher education.
AbowitzK. K.HarnishJ. (2006). Contemporary discourses of citizenship. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 653–690.
2.
Abu El-HajT. R. (2007). “ I was born here, but my home, it’s not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an era of transnational migration and global conflict. Harvard Educational Review, 77(3), 285–316.
3.
Abu El-HajT. R. (2009). Becoming citizens in an era of globalization and transnational migration: Re-imagining citizenship as critical practice. Theory into Practice, 48(4), 274–282.
4.
Abu El-HajT. R. (2015). Unsettled belonging: Educating Palestinian American youth after 9/11. University of Chicago Press.
5.
Al-HazzaT.BucherK. (2010). Bridging a cultural divide with literature about Arabs and Arab Americans. Middle School Journal, 41(3), 4–11.
BaileyE. K. (2013). From cultural dissonance to diasporic affinity: The experience of Jamaican teachers in New York City schools. The Urban Review, 45, 232–249.
9.
BauböckR. (2003). Towards a political theory of migrant transnationalism. International Migration Review, 37(3), 700–723.
10.
BauböckR. (2006). Stakeholder citizenship and transnational political participation: A normative evaluation of external voting. Fordham Law Review, 75, 2393–2447.
11.
BayoumiM. (2009). How does it feel to be a problem?: Being young and Arab in America. Penguin.
12.
BoeijeH. (2010). Analysis in qualitative research. Sage.
13.
BonetS. W. (2018). “So where are the promises of this America? Where is the democracy and where are the human rights?”: Refugee youth, citizenship education, and exclusion from public schooling. Curriculum Inquiry, 48(1), 53–69.
14.
BoosahdaE. (2003). Arab-American faces and voices: The origins of an immigrant community. University of Texas Press. https://doi.org/10.7560/709195
15.
CainkarL. (2016). Race and racialization: Demographic trends and the process of reckoning social place. In AmerM. M.AwadG. H. (Eds.), Handbook of Arab American psychology (pp. 19–33). Routledge.
16.
CainkarL. A. (2009). Homeland insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American experience after 9/11. Russell Sage Foundation.
17.
CainkarL.MairaS. (2005). Targeting Arab/Muslim/South Asian Americans: Criminalization and cultural citizenship. Amerasia Journal, 31(3), 1–28.
18.
CastlesS.DavidsonA. (2000). Citizenship and migration: Globalization and the politics of belonging. Routledge.
19.
ChaseS. E. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 651–679). Sage.
20.
DuncanK. E. (2020). “That’s my job”: Black teachers’ perspectives on helping Black students navigate white supremacy. Race Ethnicity and Education, 25(7), 978–996. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2020.1798377
JamalA.NaberN. (Eds.). (2008). Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible citizens to visible subjects. Syracuse University Press.
25.
KimY. (2020). Troubling and re-imagining citizenship: Narrative inquiries into immigrant teachers’ positionalities and citizenship education. Columbia University.
26.
KimY. (2021). Imagining and teaching citizenship as non-citizens: Migrant social studies teachers’ positionalities and citizenship education in turbulent times. Theory & Research in Social Education, 49(2), 176–200.
27.
KimY. (2024a). Belonging, caring, and community building across the borders: Transnational feminist citizenship pedagogies of a migrant teacher. Gender and Education, 36(2), 148–166.
28.
KimY. (2024b). Maneuvering through undocumented and documented status: Liminal legality and civic education of a migrant social studies teacher. Theory & Research in Social Education, 52(2), 190–211.
29.
KimY. (2025). Documenting resiliencies, aspirations, and cultural assets of migrant teachers with undocumented backgrounds. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2025.2455573
30.
KimY.AnS. (2024). Leveraging community assets and carving out the anti-racist futures: Asian American teachers’ pedagogies and praxis in urban schools. Urban Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085924129312
31.
KimY.AnS. (2025). “We are stronger than fear of hate”: A longitudinal study amplifying the voices of Asian American and migrant teachers amidst COVID-19. Race Ethnicity and Education, 28(2), 265–281.
32.
KohliR. (2021). Teachers of color: Resisting racism and reclaiming education. Harvard Education Press.
33.
LevittP.JaworskyB. N. (2007). Transnational migration studies: Past developments and future trends. Annual Review of Sociology, 33(1), 129–156.
34.
McDevittS. E. (2021). Teaching immigrant children: Learning from the experiences of immigrant early childhood teachers. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 42(2), 123–142.
35.
NaberN. (2008a). Introduction. In AmaneyJ.NaberN. (Eds.), Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible citizens to visible subjects (pp. 1–45). Syracuse University Press.
36.
NaberN. (2008b). “Look, Mohammed the terrorist is coming!”: Cultural racism, nation-based racism, and the intersectionality of oppressions after 9/11. In AmaneyJ.NaberN. (Eds.), Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible citizens to visible subjects (pp. 276–304). Syracuse University Press.
37.
NaberN. (2012). Arab America: Gender, cultural politics, and activism. New York University Press.
38.
NewtonR. M. (2005). Learning to teach in the shadows of 9/11: A portrait of two Arab American preservice teachers. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(1), 81–94.
39.
NgaiM. M. (2014). Impossible subjects: Illegal aliens and the making of modern America. Princeton University Press.
40.
OngA. (1996). Cultural citizenship as subject-making: Immigrants negotiate racial and cultural boundaries in the United States. Current Anthropology, 37(5), 737–762.
41.
OngA. (1999). Flexible citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Duke University Press.
42.
PhilipT. M. (2013). Experience as college student activists: A strength and liability for prospective teachers of Color in urban schools. Urban Education, 48(1), 44–68.
43.
QutamiL. (2020). Censusless: Arab/Muslim interpolation into whiteness and the war on terror. Journal of Asian American Studies, 23(2), 161–200.
44.
RiessmanC. K. (1993). Narrative analysis. Sage.
45.
RodríguezN. N. (2018). From margins to center: Developing cultural citizenship education through the teaching of Asian American history. Theory & Research in Social Education, 46(4), 528–573. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2018.1432432
46.
RosaldoR. (1997). Cultural citizenship, inequality, and multiculturalism. In FloresW. V.BenmayorR. (Eds.), Latino cultural citizenship: Claiming identity, space, and rights (pp. 27–38). Beacon Press.
47.
RosaldoR.FloresW. V. (1997). Identity, conflict, and evolving Latino communities: Cultural citizenship in San Jose, California. In FloresW. V.BenmajorR. (Eds.), Latino cultural citizenship: Claiming identity, space, and rights (pp. 57–96). Beacon Press.
48.
SaidE. (1978). Orientalism: Western concepts of the Orient. Pantheon.
49.
SelodS. (2018). Forever suspect: Racialized surveillance of Muslim Americans in the war on terror. Rutgers University Press.
50.
ShaheenJ. (2001). Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people. Olive Branch Press.
51.
ShataraH. (2023). Critical political consciousness within nepantla as transformative: The experiences and pedagogy of a Palestinian world history teacher. Curriculum Inquiry, 53(1), 28–48.
52.
TabbahR. (2016). The perils of Arab American adolescents post 9/11. Journal for Multicultural Education, 10(4), 449–464.
VickeryA. E. (2017). “You excluded us for so long and now you want us to be patriotic?”: African American women teachers navigating the quandary of citizenship. Theory & Research in Social Education, 45(3), 318–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2017.1282387
56.
VickeryA. E. (2021). “Still I rise”: A Black feminist teacher’s journey to (re)member her journey to teach. Race Ethnicity and Education, 24(4), 485–502.
57.
WingfieldM. (2006). Arab Americans: Into the multicultural mainstream. Equity and Excellence in Education, 39(3), 253–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788453
