Ariana Mangual Figueroa, IRT ‘ 00 shares commentary on her first book KNOWING SILENCE: How Children Talk about Immigration Status in School published by the University of Minnesota Press.
There is a persistent assumption in the field of education that children are largely unaware of their immigration status and its implications. In Knowing Silence, Ariana Mangual Figueroa challenges this “myth of ignorance.” By listening carefully to both the speech and significant silences of six Latina students from mixed-immigration-status families, from elementary school into middle school and beyond, she reveals the complex ways young people understand and negotiate immigration status and its impact on their lives.
Combining significant empirical findings with reflections on the ethical questions surrounding research and responsibility, Mangual Figueroa models new ways scholars might collaborate with educators, children, and families. With rigorous and innovative ethnographic methodologies, Knowing Silence makes audible the experiences of immigrant-origin students on their own terms, ultimately offering teachers and researchers a crucial framework for understanding citizenship in the contemporary classroom.
Narrated innovatively and with the utmost of care, with rich analyses of language data and thought-provoking insights drawn from a longitudinal and intimate ethnographic research relationship, Knowing Silence will surely make you think, wonder, laugh, cry—and see and hear young people who are growing up in contexts of immigration in new ways.
Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, UCLA
Using child-centered methodologies, Ariana Mangual Figueroa unveils the critical yet often invisible aspects of students’ lives and highlights unintended chilling effects of school practices. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this is an important and compelling contribution to the field.
Carola Suárez-Orozco, Harvard Graduate School of Education
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A former teacher in New York City public schools, Ariana Mangual Figueroa is an associate professor of urban education and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino cultures at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
For more information on the author visit her webpage.
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