“The Wall” and ICE: Critical Educators’ Emotion and Narratives as They Grapple With Political Debates Concerning Immigration Matters

Abstract

Immigration debates warrant an analysis that goes beyond the debate itself. On these grounds, in this theoretical essay, we chronicle how critical educators, particularly one teacher-leader and three principals, grapple with political debates on immigration matters. Inspired by critical theoretical methodologies, we bring a novel approach using narrative and emotion theories to bear on political immigration debates, including that of border security (“the wall”) and the role of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in schools. Based on our findings, we suggest that advancing critical education involves a theoretical analysis of critical educators’ narratives on the politics of immigration matters and their emotions about these topics. Emotion analysis enhances new knowledge in education policy advocacy and is a more strategic response to building coalitions and solidarity. We conclude with a discussion focused on how critical educators are community constituents, and their stories about political issues as reflected in these narratives provide innovatively rich perspectives for explicitly addressing politics and emotion as ongoing praxis. This article is a unique presentation of narratives that forefront alternative notions of holistically being/becoming in leadership and a critical educator, and so is a scholarly contribution to all of what is known and unknown about how critical educators’ experiences are impacted by political debates and subjects.