Cultural and Linguistic Experiences of Immigrant Youth: Voices of African Immigrant Youth in United States Urban Schools

This study explores experiences of 50 culturally and linguistically diverse African immigrant students attending public urban middle and high schools in the US. Drawing on in-depth interviews, and through constant comparison analysis, emerging findings highlight pedagogical, linguistic, and curricular variation struggles in the classrooms; transitional contextual challenges; cultural mismatch; miscommunication, and stereotypes. In sight of these experiences, African immigrant urban youth draw on familial, navigational and aspirational capital to resist stereotypical assumptions and to develop resilient skills necessary to navigate the inherent challenges. This study amplifies the voices of students, thus, offering insight into the kinds of experiences adolescent African immigrants' have in school settings and how these influence different aspects of their learning. Findings underscore the importance of appreciating ways of knowing that deviate from the host country knowledges as instrumental to meeting the instructional needs of African immigrant students in the United States schools.