Mobilizing Resources for Immigrant Learners through Community Technology Programs

Before the rise and spread of information and communication technologies, immigrant communities actively created and maintained affiliations between their sending and receiving nations. Currents of information, remittances, and practices allowed them to traverse nation-state boundaries. More recently, these exchanges have been studied in digital spaces; specifically, the ways in which technology supports diasporic and immigrant communities’ efforts to construct identities, share resources, and reach audiences in multiple geographical locations (Alonso & Oiarzabal, Diasporas in the New Media Age, 2010). However, in order to realize the potential of new tools for these purposes, access to physical equipment and training to engage in technology use is necessary. In this essay, I describe the mobilization of resources across nation-states and online/offline spaces in a community technology program for adult immigrants in the US Southwest. The practices in this site showcase the potential of collaboration beyond national boundaries, which can result in the creation of hybrid learning spaces for learners with transnational affiliations.

Reshaping Educational Spaces across Nation-states

Community programs for immigrant learners have become crucial spaces for network-building, adult education courses, and access to resources in their native languages. However, recent legislation in the US Southwest—specifically, in Arizona—has resulted in the restriction of primary language support in educating linguistic minorities in K–12 levels.

Community programs for immigrant learners have become crucial spaces for network-building, adult education courses, and access to resources in their native languages. However, recent legislation in the US Southwest—specifically, in Arizona—has resulted in the restriction of primary language support in educating linguistic minorities in K–12 levels. With the passage of Proposition 203 in November 2000, English was established as the main language of instruction, with strict limitations on the implementation of bilingual education programs. Although these restrictions do not directly affect adult education programs, they reflect the larger ideological forces against cultural and linguistic diversity in the state. These forces are also evident in the passage of Senate Bill 1070, during the spring of 2010, which would have allowed local law enforcement to request proof of legal status to any individuals who seemed reasonably suspicious to be undocumented. Within this contested space, and during the time period that SB 1070 became law, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in a community center where technology courses in Spanish were available for adult learners.

In order to provide curricular resources and materials in the students’ dominant language, the center partnered with a Mexican higher education institution. As part of an institutional agreement, an online platform designed, created and maintained in Mexico was made available at the center’s facilities in Arizona. Through this macro-level partnership between institutions, adult learners in the US had access to curriculum materials in topics related to English language education, Spanish literacy, basic computer skills, and other technology-related topics. The local community center not only provided the necessary technology infrastructure (computer equipment and internet connectivity) to make the online content accessible, but also created other pathways to access. Under the leadership of a local director, the program was promoted in Spanish through local media. Local bilingual tutors were also recruited to facilitate the content of the courses, and courses were scheduled for students to receive face-to-face instruction to access the content of the modules. Hence, this center became a hybrid space that relied on transnational flows of information across institutions, as well as on already existing transnational networks and practices in the Latino community in the area.

Negotiating Instruction in Online and Offline Spaces

In addition to creating a space where educational resources in students’ native language were accessible, the director and local tutors also supported students in their everyday boundary-crossing between online and offline spaces for instructional purposes. Since most of the students attending classes at the center were newcomers to the use of the computers, tutors provided step-by-step instruction to facilitate their understanding of online platforms as learning sites. In this platform, a content management system, learning modules, presentations and assignments were available to enrolled students. The platform also provided them with a communication tool to receive online support from a remote tutor in Mexico. Since participation in an online classroom was a new practice for most students, local tutors provided face-to-face orientations about the expectations and practices in online learning.

Local tutors’ support was also instrumental for guiding students in the navigation of an operating system, toolbars, windows and the various interfaces that mediate the use of software and Internet-based tools. It is worth noting that even when the content of the courses was available in Spanish, most of the commands in interfaces in the installed software were in English. As a result, the role of local tutors was expanded to function as brokers across linguistic systems and digital spaces, socializing students into the specialized discourse of information technology in Spanish and in English. Multiple languages mediated students’ interactions in both online and offline spaces, resulting in the development of linguistic repertoires where switching across language boundaries was acceptable and necessary. It is notable that within the instructional practices at this site, making online resources available in students’ primary language was insufficient for engaging them in self-directed learning. It was the combination of online and face-to-face tutoring that made it possible for students to make sense of computer-mediated communication and instruction.

Rethinking Boundaries in Transnational Learning Contexts

While the social worlds of immigrant learners have relied on flows of information and practices across multiple localities, our views of teaching and learning are still limited by fixed binaries separating nation-states, educational systems, online and offline, and distinct linguistic systems. Evidence from this community technology program highlights the potential of learning in what Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller define as “transnational social fields” (Conceptualizing Simultaneity 2004): networks of relationships that connect immigrants with ideas, practices, and people across national borders. In these fields, it is possible for immigrant learners to benefit from educational resources created in their nations of origin. By drawing on flexible views of learning spaces in the ethnographic study of learning practices, the role of actors, institutions, new technologies, and community resources in hybrid zones becomes visible and valuable. As we venture in the exploration of digital spaces as sites of opportunity for further transnational activity, we should also consider how such spaces are constructed and accessed by immigrant users, as one more tool to maintain connections across geographical boundaries.

Silvia Noguerón-Liu is assistant professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia. She currently serves as webmaster for the Council on Anthropology and Education. Her research centers on access to technology for culturally and linguistically diverse students, and the incorporation of digital tools in family literacy practices.