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Chapter 12
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6433-3.ch012
Students on the Rise:
Learning with Immigrant Youth in Out-
of-School Spaces of Community Activism
ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the recent fndings of the Drop Knowledge Project in New York City (DKPNYC).
The DKPNYC is a cultural studies research project designed to excavate the discourses of urban youth
activism and organizing in relation to critical literacy learning. In this chapter, the authors look at the
work of the DKPNYC youth activists around issues related to immigrant rights and educational justice in
out-of-school spaces. Amongst the interconnected issues surrounding this work, the youth participants in
the DKPNYC all organize around issues related to the struggle of undocumented youth to access quality
education in the United States. Data collected from the study is decidedly cross-cultural, with partici-
pants articulating visions of themselves and their future in relation to their cultural heritage and their
inter-subjective ethical learning. Implications from the study provide insight to educators, researchers,
and community-based organizations about educating immigrant youth and others on pressing issues
around immigrant learning.
INTRODUCTION
The study explored in this chapter, the Drop
Knowledge Project in New York City (DKPNYC),
was inspired by many hours of work with youth
activists in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of
Brooklyn. At that time, I was co-facilitating the
Human Rights Activist Project (HRAP), the social
action program of the youth development work
designed by Global Kids (GK) at an after-school
program housed at a local public high school. I
had spent time teaching in the New York City
Department of Education previously, and had not
anticipated the level of shared intellectualism and
inquiry the youth and adults involved brought to
this after school program. As they worked together
to build consensus for their unified human rights
campaign, they advocated for the importance of
organizing around topics from global poverty to
the genocide in Darfur and access to education
for urban youth of all backgrounds.
Elizabeth Bishop
University of Pittsburgh, USA