Table Of ContentNavigating Precarity in
Educational Contexts
This volume ofers a timely collection of research-based studies that engage
with contemporary conditions of precarity across an array of locations,
exploring how it is understood, experienced, and acted upon by educators
in schools, universities, and nonformal educational spaces. Precarity presents
as layered, unpredictable, destabilizing, and rapidly shifting sociopolitical
and economic dynamics, shown here in various forms, including the global
pandemic, divisive populist politics, displacement of refugees and the landless,
race and gender injustices, and neoliberal policies that constrain educational
and social possibilities. Grouped around refection, educational practice, and
social activism, the authors show how educators engage these precarious
conditions as they work toward a more interconnected, humane, and just
society.
This text will beneft researchers, academics, and educators with an interest
in social foundations of education, multicultural and social justice education,
educational policy, and international and comparative education, sociology
and anthropology of education, and cultural studies within education, among
other felds.
Karen Monkman is Professor Emerita of Education at DePaul University,
USA.
Ann Frkovich is Associate Professor in the Department of Research at
Concordia University, USA.
Amira Proweller is Associate Professor and Program Director in the
Department of Teacher Education at DePaul University, USA.
Routledge Research in Education
This series aims to present the latest research from right across the feld of
education. It is not confned to any particular area or school of thought and
seeks to provide coverage of a broad range of topics, theories and issues from
around the world.
Multimodal Signs of Learning
Tracking semiosis in the classroom
Shirley Palframan
A Retrospective Study of a Dialogic Elementary Classroom
Understanding Long-Term Impacts of Discursive Pedagogies
Lynn Astarita Gatto
Thinking with Stephen J. Ball
Lines of Flight in Education
Maria Tamboukou
A History of Inspiration through Metaphors of Learning
The Height of Teaching
Robert Nelson
Relational Aspects of Parental Involvement to Support
Educational Outcomes
Parental Communication, Expectations, and Participation
for Student Success
Edited by William Jeynes
Navigating Precarity in Educational Contexts
Refection, Pedagogy, and Activism for Change
Edited by Karen Monkman, Ann Frkovich, and Amira Proweller
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Education/book-series/SE0393
Navigating Precarity in
Educational Contexts
Refection, Pedagogy, and Activism
for Change
Edited by Karen Monkman, Ann
Frkovich, and Amira Proweller
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Karen Monkman, Ann Frkovich, and
Amira Proweller; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Karen Monkman, Ann Frkovich, and Amira Proweller to be
identifed as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-19223-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-19224-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-25822-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003258223
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Contents
List of Contributors viii
Acknowledgements xiv
1 Navigating Education in Precarious Times 1
ANN FRKOVICH, AMIRA PROWELLER & KAREN MONKMAN
PART I
Precarious Entanglements: Situating the Self 15
2 No Hablo Español: Contributions to the Loss of the
Spanish Language Among Latinxs in the United States 17
ERICA ZUNIGA FUENTES
3 Invisibility and Hypervisibility of Arab American
Female Students in Times of Heightened Anti-Arab
and Anti-Islamic Sentiment 34
SAWSAN JABER
4 Searching for Belonging: How Transnationalism
Infuences Chinese American College Students’ Ethnic
Identity Construction 50
YAN WANG & BETH L. GOLDSTEIN
5 Refections on Privilege, Oppression, and Possibilities
in Times of Radical Change 68
BETH S. CATLETT & AMIRA PROWELLER
vi Contents
PART II
Educational Practice in Precarious Spaces 85
6 Shifting Fields: Japanese University Students’ Habitus
During the COVID-19 Pandemic 87
RICHARD H. DERRAH, PHILLIP M. CLARK & KEVIN BALLOU
7 The Classroom as a Space for Power and Healing:
Examining the Case of New York City After Trump’s
Election 103
SALMA WALY
8 Vignettes From the Underground: The Difculty of
Challenging Educational Spaces 120
ANN FRKOVICH & TAMEKA CARTER-RICHARDSON
9 Fleeing Home, Finding Home, and Chasing Dreams:
Refugee Journeys to New Spaces for Belonging 136
YACOUB ALJAFFERY
PART III
Pushing Back Against Precarity 153
10 From Embodied to Spectral: Teaching Transnational
Feminisms in Times of Protest and Pandemic 155
SABRINA GONZÁLEZ & CARA K. SNYDER
11 Activists’ Use of Trauma-Informed Frameworks:
Insights From Popular Education Spaces in
Buenos Aires, Argentina 172
JENNIFER LEE O’DONNELL, REBECCA JOHN &
GUADALUPE VALDIVIA
12 “Stones One Day, Flowers the Next”: The Struggle
for Itinerant Schools in the Landless Workers
Movement (MST), Brazil 191
NISHA THAPLIYAL
Contents vii
13 Radical Consciousness and Movements in Defense
of Black Lives: The Lineage of Detroit’s League of
Revolutionary Black Workers and the Promise of
Education for Liberation 208
BIANCA AYANNA SUÁREZ
Conclusion 223
14 Precarity in Educational Spaces: Refecting Back and
Moving Forward 225
AMIRA PROWELLER, ANN FRKOVICH & KAREN MONKMAN
Index 233
Contributors
Yacoub Aljafery holds a PhD degree in education (curriculum studies) from
DePaul University, and a master’s degree in teaching English as a second
language (ESL). He has been teaching in the feld of ESL for 17 years.
He has taught regionally (within the United States) and internationally
(Kuwait, South Korea, Costa Rica, and Saudi Arabia). He has also trained
teachers in diferent countries as a volunteer. His research interests include
ESL teaching methodologies and refugee and immigrant students. Aljaf-
fery is trilingual in Arabic, English, and Spanish. Traveling and learning
about people’s cultures and traditions are two of his favorite hobbies.
Kevin Ballou is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture at Kindai University
in Japan. He holds an MA in English as a Second Language from the Uni-
versity of Hawaii and has been teaching English in the Asia-Pacifc region
for over 20 years. His research interests include curriculum and materials
design, project-based language learning, study abroad, and computer-
assisted language learning.
Tameka Carter-Richardson is a high school Spanish teacher and Assistant
Dean of Pluralism and Multicultural Afairs at Lake Forest Academy in
Lake Forest, Illinois. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and
Political Science from Stetson University, where she was also a member
of the NCAA women’s basketball team. In 2009, she received her MA in
Teaching from National-Louis University and is currently completing her
doctorate in Education at DePaul University. Her research interests and
studies include intellectual emancipation, experiential learning, diversity
in study abroad programming, teaching intercultural competencies in high
school, and the construction of predominantly black education in the
United States.
Beth S. Catlett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s and
Gender Studies at DePaul University, and the Director of the Faculty
Scholarship Collaborative in DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences. Beth also co-founded and directs the Beck Research Initiative for
Women, Gender, and Community that specializes in community-based
Contributors ix
research involving gendered violence and social movements to create
community change. Her areas of scholarly interest include development
of youth critical consciousness, community-based participatory action
research, violence in intimate relationships, feminist research methodolo-
gies, and the uses of contemplative practices to inspire social justice.
Phillip M. Clark is an adjunct instructor at the School of International
Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. His research interests include
returnees in Japan and elsewhere in the world, bilinguals and bicultural-
ism, and second language acquisition. He received his doctorate from
Temple University, Japan, where he wrote his dissertation on Japanese
returnee students studying at a foreign language university. Prior to
attending Temple, he received his master’s degree in TESOL and bach-
elor’s degree in English from the University of Alabama.
Richard H. Derrah is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Applied Sociol-
ogy at Kindai University in Japan. He holds a PhD degree in Education
from Temple University, a master’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard
University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and an MEd from Bos-
ton College. He has held secondary teaching licenses in the United States
and Japan and has worked as a high school teacher in both countries. His
research focuses on secondary education and teacher licensing in Japan as
well as the wider area of East Asia.
Ann Frkovich is Associate Professor of Research and Doctoral Studies at
Concordia University Chicago. She teaches courses related to research
epistemologies and qualitative methods. Her scholarship explores the glo-
balized educational experiences of teachers and students, with work to
date related to China and the United States. Recent publications include
the edited book from Routledge: Belonging in Changing Educational Spaces:
Negotiating Global, Transnational, and Neoliberal Dynamics (2022, with Karen
Monkman). A high school English teacher and administrator for 18 years,
she consults widely in the United States, China, and West Africa around
English and international education.
Beth L. Goldstein is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Pol-
icy Studies & Evaluation at the University of Kentucky (UK). With exper-
tise in comparative and international education and in anthropology, her
research, teaching, and program development activities have focused on East
and Southeast Asia regions and on Kentucky. Her research revolves around
empirical study, participatory action research, and formative evaluation of
educational border crossing, adult and family literacy, and internationaliza-
tion of education in Asia and the United States. Projects have included
implementation of a Malaysian twinning program with US universities, a
nationwide higher education development project with Indonesian col-
leagues, expansion of Asian Studies at UK, and currently research as an adult
ally with the Prichard Committee’s Student Voice Team.
