Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard Educational Review

  1. News >

    Call for Proposals: Special Issue on Diverse Experiences of Immigrant Children and Youth in Education

    Aug 18, 2010

    Proposal Submission Deadline: September 15, 2010

    The Harvard Educational Review (HER) is planning to publish a special issue on Diverse Experiences of Immigrant Children and Youth in Education in order to extend and reframe the dialogue on immigration issues in the United States by bringing multiple voices and perspectives of researchers, practitioners, families, and students in conversation. We envision a vigorous generation of unconventional intellectual exchange that will illuminate rich portraits of diverse immigrant children—in PreK-12 pipeline—who are too often characterized as “disadvantaged,” and even “culturally deprived.” We further hope that a collection of these voices will celebrate the strengths, resilience, contributions, and humanity of a population often characterized as a threatening nuisance in U.S. society. [To read the call for writing from children and youth, click here.]

    While the topic of immigration is always relevant, the recent enactment of new immigration laws in Arizona and the surrounding protests, debates, and legal battles, have once again thrust this ongoing theme into the forefront of our collective consciousness. Unfortunately, the discourses surrounding this and other immigration-related news stories tend towards simplified understandings of immigration and the immigrant experience, and often portray immigrants and their children as a national crisis, or burden that must be managed, rather than as a complex, rich, and growing part of our national fabric. Contrary to such ideological approaches, we as the editorial board of HER summon other immigrant stories left untold, and at times, silenced.

    As the tenth anniversary of our 2001 special issue on immigration and education, the scope of this new issue will encompass the complexities of navigation pathways and social processes within and across multiple linguistic and cultural contexts that shape the lived experiences of immigrant children and adolescents. Within this framework, we aim to explore multiple contexts of immigrant childhood and adolescence—parents, families, schools, neighborhoods, ethnic community centers, weekend language schools, churches, and civic institutions that collectively present support and challenges—and how these students draw upon their experiences in these complex environments to thrive in the current education system. We encourage authors to consider, when relevant, cross-cultural perspectives across immigrant groups and highlight processes and mechanisms by which different immigrant groups build bridges across cultural contexts. In particular, we encourage proposals for manuscript that address one or more of these following contextual themes:
    1. Children in Immigrant Homes—(e.g., family dynamic, parenting role, documentation status, family literacy practice, concept of home, role of siblings)
    2. Children in Ethnic Communities or Immigrant Neighborhoods—(e.g., language schools, cultural education centers, informal childcare, relative support, housing, playground, park)
    3. Children of Immigrants in Schools, Community-Based, Religious, and/or Civic Institutions—(e.g., youth culture, peer relationships, ESL tracking, faith-based institutions and community organizing institutions serving immigrant groups, healthcare centers, workplace)
    HER invites authors to submit proposals for manuscripts that address the educational experiences of immigrant children and youth, from early childhood through late adolescence, Pre-K through 12th grade. HER has historically defined "education" broadly, as education takes place in many locations other than schools. We are looking for three types of manuscripts:
    • Scholarly articles from researchers including, but not limited to, original research, theoretical manuscripts, and essays.
    • Reflective essays and narratives from practitioners (teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, program directors, community organizers, religious leaders, coaches, etc.)
    • Stories from children, and youth who are growing up in immigrant homes and communities (We have a separate process for this type of manuscript – if you know young people who might be interested, please contact us)
    HER is a scholarly journal of opinion and research in education. Its mission is to provide an interdisciplinary forum for vigorous discussion and debate about educational issues of serious consequence. Our subscribers and contributors represent fields as diverse as education, public policy, psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, philosophy, economics, and government.

    Proposals should be no more than two pages in length, of 500 words, double-spaced, 12 font size, 1-inch border (not including the references) should be submitted in .doc or .pdf form only, and should include the following:
    1. Proposed manuscript title
    2. A brief description of the topic of your proposed manuscript and rationale for publication
    3. A brief description of the theoretical and empirical research that informs your proposed article/essay (only if applicable)
    4. A brief discussion of the methods used to conduct your study and analyze your results (only if applicable)
    5. A brief discussion of how this proposed article will contribute to the field of education
    6. The proposed manuscript length. Authors are encouraged to discuss the suitability of papers prior to submission with HER editors.
    7. Author information including name, institutional affiliation, email, phone and mailing address.
    For information about the types of manuscripts HER generally publishes, please see our Guidelines for Authors. Direct all other inquiries to HER_SI_submissions@gse.harvard.edu. Please note that this Special Issue will include some pieces that are not generally represented on HER's pages including personal stories from youth.

    Please send your proposal to HER_SI_submissions@gse.harvard.edu by September 15, 2010. If selected, the Commission will officially invite those authors to submit their manuscripts by February 1st, 2011.

  2. Voices in
    Education Blog

    News & Features

    Call for Proposals for Special Issue of Harvard Educational Review: “Expanding Our Vision for the Arts in Education.” …Read More

    Subscribe via RSS »
    Sign up for our eNewsletter »