School-Based Personnel Advocacy for Undocumented Students Through Collective Leadership in Urban Schools: A Comparative Case Study

Abstract

This study examines how school-based personnel (i.e., principals, assistant principals, and school social workers) defined and engaged in collective leadership to support undocumented students. This instrumental, comparative case study explores their roles, relational processes, and the extent to which school-based personnel’s relationships expanded or inhibited advocacy and equity work. Findings showcase a continuum of collective leadership, role management, and boundary work that influence advocacy for immigrant students. This research expands understandings of collective leadership, decision-making, and engagement with immigrant students. Implications for a social justice-oriented collective leadership model are discussed.

Keywords

collective leadership undocumented students comparative case study educational leadership school social workers immigration

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akosa

Asare

B. E.

(2017). Street-level bureaucrats and the exercise of discretion. In Farazmand

(Ed.), Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3353-1

Armenta

(2017). Protect, serve, and deport: The rise of policing as immigration enforcement. University of California Press.

Bajaj

Suresh

(2018). The “warm embrace” of newcomer school for immigrant & refugee youth. Theory Into Practice, 57(2), 91–98.

Bartlett

García

(2011). Additive schooling in subtractive times: Bilingual education and dominican immigrant youth in the heights. Vanderbilt University Press.

Bartlett

Vavrus

(2016). Rethinking case study research: A comparative approach. Routledge.

Bartlett

Vavrus

(2017). Comparative case studies: An innovative approach. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 1(1), 5–17.

Beckett

L. O.

(2018). Predictors of urban principal turnover. Urban Education, 56(10), 1695–1718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918772629

Callero

P. L.

(1994). From role-playing to role-using: Understanding role as resource. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57(3), 228–243.

Cambron-McCabe

McCarthy

M. M.

(2005). Educating school leaders for social justice. Educational Policy, 19, 201–222.

10.

Capps

Cardoso

J. B.

Brabeck

Fix

Soto Ruiz

A. G.

(2020). Immigration enforcement and the mental health of Latino high school students. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/immigration-enforcement-mental-health-latino-students_final.pdf

11.

Capps

Fix

M. E.

Ost

Reardon-Anderson

Passel

J. S.

(2005). The health and well being of young children of immigrants. The Urban Institute.

12.

Castañeda v. Pickard, 648. F.2d 989 (5th Cir. 1981).

13.

Center for Mental Health in Schools. (2006). Current status of mental health in schools: A policy and practice analysis. Center for Mental Health in Schools.

14.

Colórin Colorado.(2019). What are “newcomer” programs? What are their pros and cons? https://www.colorincolorado.org/faq/what-are-newcomer-programs-what-are-their-pros-and-cons

15.

Crawford

E. R.

(2017). The ethic of community and incorporating undocumented immigrant concerns into ethical school leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 53(2), 147–179.

16.

Crawford

E. R.

Aguayo

Valle

(2019). Counselors as leaders in advocating for undocumented students’ education. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 14(2), 119–150.

17.

Crawford

E. R.

Hairston

S. L.

(2020). (Mis)recognizing undocumented students & families in a rural school community. Leadership and Policy in Schools. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2020.1827268

18.

Crawford

E. R.

Valle

(2016). Educational justice for undocumented students: How school counselors encourage student persistence in schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24(98). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.2427

19.

Dabach

D. B.

(2015). “My student was apprehended by immigration”: A civics teacher’s breach of silence in a mixed-citizenship classroom. Harvard Educational Review, 85(3), 383–412.

20.

Dabach

D. B.

Suárez-Orozco

Hernandez

S. J.

Brooks

M. D.

(2018). Future perfect? Teachers’ expectations and explanations of their Latino immigrant students’ postsecondary futures. Journal of Latinos and Education, 17(1), 38–52.

21.

Dee

Murphy

(2018, September). Vanished classmates: The effects of local immigration enforcement on student enrollment (NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper number 25080). https://www.nber.org/papers/w25080

22.

DeMatthews

Izquierdo

(2018). The importance of principals supporting dual language education: A social justice leadership framework. Journal of Latinos and Education, 17(1), 53–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2017.1282365

23.

DeMatthews

Mawhinney

(2014). Social justice leadership and inclusion: Exploring challenges in an urban district struggling to address inequities. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(5), 844–881. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X13514440

24.

Dreby

(2012). The burden of deportation on children in Mexican immigrant families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, 829–845.

25.

Eckert

(2018). Collective Leadership Development: Emerging Themes from Urban, Suburban, and Rural High Schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(3), 477–509.

26.

Gándara

(2019). The impact of immigration enforcement on the nation’s schools. American Educational Research Journal, 57(2), 840–71.

27.

Friedrich

T. L.

Vessey

W. B.

Schuelke

M. J.

Ruark

G. A.

Mumford

M. D.

(2009). A framework for understanding collective leadership: The selective utilization of leader and team expertise within networks. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 933–958.

28.

Gándara

(2016). Policy report: The students we share-L@s estudiantes que compartimos. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 32(2), 357–378.

29.

Gelatt

Zong

(2018, November). Settling in: A profile of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States. Migration Policy Institute.

30.

Golash-Boza

Valdez

(2018). Nested contexts of reception: Undocumented students at the University of California, central. Sociological Perspectives, 61(4), 535–552. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121417743728

31.

Gonzales

R. G.

(2009). Young lives on hold: The college dreams of undocumented students. The College Board.

32.

Gonzales

R. G.

(2010). On the wrong side of the tracks: Understanding the effects of school structure and social capital in the educational pursuits of undocumented immigrant students. Peabody Journal of Education, 85(4), 469–485.

33.

Gonzales

R. G.

Ruiz

A. G.

(2014). Dreaming beyond the fields: Undocumented youth, rural realities and a constellation of disadvantage. Latino Studies, 12, 194–216.

34.

Gronn

(2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 423–451.

35.

Hackman

R. J.

Oldham

G. R.

(1980). Work redesign. Addison-Wesley.

36.

Hallett

R. E.

(2013). Undocumented student success: Navigating restraints related to retention. Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies Journal, 5(2), 99–112.

37.

Hernandez

D. J.

Denton

N. A.

Macartney

(2009). School-age children in immigrant families: Challenges and opportunities for america’s schools. Teachers College Record, 111(3), 616–658. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810911100306

38.

Hiller

N. J.

Day

D. V.

Vance

R. J.

(2006). Enactment of leadership roles and team effectiveness: A field study. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 387–397.

39.

Hunt

J. G.

Ropo

(1997). Leadership and faculty motivation. In Bess

J. L.

(Ed.), Teaching well and liking it: Motivating faculty to teach effectively (pp. 219–247). Johns Hopkins.

40.

Jaffe-Walter

(2018). Leading in the context of immigration: Cultivative collective responsibility for recently arrived immigrant students. Theory into Practice, 57, 147–153.

41.

Jefferies

. (2014). Fear of deportation in high school: Implications for breaking the circle of silence surrounding migration status. Journal of Latinos and Education, 13, 278–295.

42.

Jeffries

Dabach

D. B.

(2014). Breaking the silence: Facing undocumented issues in teacher practice. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 8(1), 83–93.

43.

Johns

(2001). In praise of context. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 31–42.

44.

Kam

J. A.

Gasiorek

Pines

Steuber Fazio

(2018). Latina/o adolescents’ family undocumented-status disclosures directed at school counselors: A latent transition analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(3), 267–279.

45.

Kirksey

J. J.

Sattin-Bajaj

Gottfried

M. A.

Freeman

Ozuna

C. S.

(2019). Deportations near the schoolyard: Examining immigration enforcement and racial/ethnic gaps in educational outcomes. AERA Open. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419899074

46.

Koller

J. R.

Bertel

J. M.

(2006). Responding to today’s mental health needs of children, families and schools: Revisiting the preserve training and preparation of school-based personnel. Education and Treatment of Children, 29(2), 197–217.

47.

Krogstad

J. M.

Passel

J. S.

Cohn

(2019, June 12). 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

48.

Lau V. Nichols, 414. U.S.. 563 (1974).

49.

LeCompte

M. D.

Schensul

J. J.

(2010). Designing and conducting ethnographic research: An introduction. Rowman.

50.

Leithwood

Mascall

Strauss

Sacks

Memon

Yashkina

(2007). Distributing Leadership to make schools smarter: Taking the ego out of the system. Leadership & Policy in Schools, 6(1), 37–67.

51.

Leithwood

Mascall

(2008). Collective leadership effects on student achievement. Educational Administrative Quarterly, 44(4), 529–561.

52.

Lipsky

(1980). Street-level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

53.

Lipsky

(2010). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. Russell Sage Foundation.

54.

Louis

K. S.

Leithwood

Wahlstrom

K. L.

Anderson

S. E.

(2010). Learning from Leadership; Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement/University of Minnesota.

55.

Lowenhaupt

Dabach

D. B.

Mangual Figueroa

(2021). Safety and belonging in immigrant-serving districts: Domains of educator practice in a charged political landscape. AERA Open. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211040084

56.

Lowenhaupt

Hopkins

(2020). Considerations for school leaders serving US immigrant communities in the global pandemic. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5(3/4), 375–380.

57.

Lowenhaupt

Reeves

(2015). Toward a theory of school capacity in new immigrant destinations: Instructional and organizational considerations. Leadership & Policy in Schools, 14, 308–340.

58.

McCarley

T. A.

Peters

M. L.

Decman

J. M.

(2016). Transformational leadership related to school climate: A multi-level analysis. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(2), 322–342.

59.

Mangual Figueroa

(2011). Citizenship and education in the homework completion routine. Anthropology of Education Quarterly, 4(3), 263–280.

60.

Mangual Figueroa

. (2017). Speech or silence: Undocumented students’ decisions to reveal their citizenship status in school. American Educational Research Journal, 54(3), 485–523.

61.

Massey

D. S.

Sánchez

(2010). Brokered boundaries: Creating immigrant identity in anti-immigrant times. Russell Sage Foundation.

62.

Menjivar

Abrego

(2012). Legal violence: Immigration law and the lives of Central American immigrants. American Journal of Sociology, 117(5), 1380–1421.

63.

Neuman

S. B.

Moland

(2016). Book deserts: The consequences of income segregation on children’s access to print. Urban Education, 54(1), 126–147.

64.

Yan

Pounder

(2018). Collective leadership: Principals’ decision influence and the supportive or inhibiting decision influence of other stakeholders. Educational Administration Quarterly, 54(2), 216–248.

65.

Noe-Bustamente

Mora

Lopez

M. H.

(2020, August 11). About one-in-four U.S. Hispanices have heard of Latinx, but just 3% use it. Pew Research Center Hispanic Trends. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/

66.

Ogawa

R. T.

Bossert

S. T.

(1995). Leadership as an Organizational Quality. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31(2), 224–243.

67.

Orfield

Frankenberg

(2014). Increasingly segregated and unequal schools as courts reverse policy. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(5), 718–734.

68.

Orfield

Lee

(2005). Why segregation matters: Poverty and educational inequality. The Civil Rights Project. https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/why-segregation-matters-poverty-and-educational-inequality

69.

Plyler v. Doe , 457 U.S. 202 1982.

70.

Portes

Fernandez-Kelly

Haller

(2009). The adaptation of the immigrant second generation in America: A theoretical overview and recent evidence. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(7), 1077–1104.

71.

Portes

Rumbaut

R. G.

(2001). Legacies: The story of the second generation. University of California Press.

72.

Potochnick

Chen

J. H.

Perreira

(2017). Local-level immigration enforcement and food insecurity risk among Hispanic immigrant families with children: National-level evidence. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 19(5), 1042–1049.

73.

Pounder

D. G.

Ogawa

R. T.

Adams

E. A.

(1995). Leadership as an organization-wide phenomena: Its impact on school peformance. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31(4), 564–588.

74.

Reyes

(2006). Reculturing principals as leaders for cultural and linguistic diversity. In Tellez

Waxman

H. C.

(Eds.), Preparing quality educators for English language learnres: Research, policy, and practice (pp. 145–166). Lawrence Erlbaum.

75.

Rodriguez

(2015). The dangers of compassion: The positioning of refugee students in policy and education research and implications for teacher education. Knowledge Cultures, 3(2), 112–126.

76.

Rodriguez

(2018). ‘Good, deserving immigrants’ join the tea party: How South Carolina policy excludes Latinx and undocumented immigrants from educational opportunity and social mobility. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26(103), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3636

77.

Rodriguez

McCorkle

(2020). On the educational rights of undocumented students: A call to expand teachers’ awareness of policies impacting undocumented students and strategic empathy. Teachers College Record, 122(12), 1–34.

78.

Rodriguez

Monreal

(2017). “This state is racist . . . ”: Policy problematization and undocumented youth experiences in the New Latino South. Educational Policy, 31(6), 764–800. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904817719525

79.

Rodriguez

Monreal

Howard

(2020). “It’s about hearing and understanding their stories”: Teacher empathy and socio-political awareness toward newcomer undocumented students in the new Latino south. Journal of Latinos and Education, 19(2), 181–198.

80.

Rodriguez

Roth

Villarreal Sosa

(2020). “Sometimes, it’s about breaking rules.”: School social workers’ role as nepantleras and equity for undocumented students. Social Service Review, 94(4), 748–780. https://doi.org/10.1086/712044

81.

Rodriguez

Roth

Villarreal Sosa

(2021). Knocking down barriers to inclusion: School social workers, advocacy, and equity for immigrant students (Immigration Initiative at Harvard Issue Brief Series no. 8). Harvard University.

82.

Roth

(2017). When college is illegal: Undocumented Latino/a youth and mobilizing social support for educational attainment in South Carolina. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 8(4), 539–561.

83.

Sattin-Bajaj

Jennings

J. L.

Corcoran

S. P.

Baker-Smith

E. C.

Hailey

(2018). Surviving at the street level: How counselors’ implementation of school choice policy shapes students’ high school destinations. Sociology of Education, 91(1), 46–71.

84.

Spillane

J. P.

Halverson

Diamond

J. B.

(2001). Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30, 23–28.

85.

Spillane

J. P.

Camburn

(2006). The practice of leading and managing: The distribution of responsibility for leadership and management in the schoolhouse. American Educational Research Association, 22, 1–38.

86.

Spillane

J. S.

Lowenhaupt

(2019). Navigating the principalship: Key insights for new and aspiring leaders. ASCD.

87.

Suárez-Orozco

Pimentel

Martin

(2009). The significance of relationships: Academic engagement and achievement among newcomer immigrant youth. Teachers College Record, 111(3), 712–749.

88.

Suárez-Orozco

(2001). Children of immigration. Harvard University Press.

89.

Sugarman

(2018). Legal protections for K-12 English learner and immigrant-background students. Migration Policy Institute.

90.

U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education. (2014, May 8). Dear colleague letter. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201405.pdf

91.

Wiemelt

Welton

(2015). Challenging the dominant narrative: Critical bilingual leadership (Liderazgo) for emergent bilingual Latin@ students. International Journal for Multicultural Education, 17(1), 82–101.

92.

Yin

R. K.

(2014). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage.