- School climate significantly impacts students’ sense of belonging, academic achievement, and overall well-being.
- Standardized school climate assessments rarely ask about immigrant generation or origin, overlooking the perspectives of these students.
- Qualitative research reveals that immigrant students often report feeling unsafe, excluded, or invisible in their schools.
- Growing xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments are increasingly affecting school environments, making this issue even more pressing.
- The Immigration Initiative at Harvard is currently focusing research efforts on understanding and improving school climate for immigrant origin students.
To create truly inclusive and supportive schools, educators must consider the diverse experiences of all students, including those from immigrant backgrounds. By incorporating immigrant perspectives into school climate assessments and improvement efforts, schools can better foster belonging, safety, and academic success for this growing student population.
- While several school climate reviews exist, to our knowledge, no systematic review had synthesized school climate research that solicited immigrant-origin students’ perspectives of their school climate. We applied a conceptual model synthesizing global scholarship that addressed: (1) culturally responsive expanded safety domains in school – racial-cultural, gender-queer identity, academic, social-emotional, interpersonal, physical, linguistic, documentation, and religious, and (2) related student-level outcomes – belonging, psychosocial wellbeing, prosocial behaviors, mental health issues, and risk behaviors. Across three decades, we identified only 59 school climate articles that explicitly asked immigrant origin students about their perspectives. This compelling finding showcases the relative invisibility of this large global population. In this soon to be released article, we provide recommendations for how future school climate research can center key intersections of IOS experiences and characteristics to promote their wellbeing.
Karras, J., Suárez-Orozco, C., Sreekala, R., Quintero Davalos, A., Emuka, C., Loperena, M., & Bramy, K. Immigrant Origin Students’ Perceptions of their School Climate: A Systematic Review of What Matters and Why.
- In an article currently under review, we articulate a comprehensive conceptual framework for why and how school climate matters for students of immigrant origin. We then test a simplified version of the model based upon data that includes immigrant generation drawn from 8 schools using structural equation modeling. Our findings suggests that the first-generation students report more negative school climates (less positive teacher relationships and less safety) with implications for school belonging, mediating academic motivation and emotional wellbeing outcomes. This emerging evidence suggests important avenues for future research and practice.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Cruz, J. & Karras, J. Why and How School Climate Matters for Students of Immigrant Origin: Emerging Evidence & Future Directions.
- Research Underway: School Climate Perceptions: Inclusive Assessment of School Climate for Immigrant Origin Students
Anti-immigrant prejudice is on the rise, but there is a lack of research providing insights into the extent and nature of this problem in schools. To create learning environments that allow immigrant origin students to thrive, it is crucial to understand how these students are experiences of safety and belonging across various educational contexts.
While collecting data in recent years, we have found resistances to disaggregating data about immigrant origins. To unpack resistances and facilitate engagement of immigrant-origin students in school climate assessment, we intend to conduct a qualitative study triangulating perspectives of immigrant-origin students, immigrant parents, and district and school administrators.
Through this research, we aim to inform inclusive approaches for engaging immigrant youth and families in school climate research and improvement initiatives. By understanding and addressing the unique experiences and needs of immigrant students, schools can better foster educational equity and well-being for this growing population.
