Making Americans: Reimagining Immigrant Education

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What does immigrant education in America look like today? How can educators, policymakers and school systems better nurture a sense of belonging in newcomers and help immigrant students become Americans? Award winning teacher, policy consultant and author, Jessica Lander, explores these critical questions in her book, Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education. In Making Americans, Jessica takes a comprehensive look at immigrant education as told through key historical moments and court decisions, current experiments to improve immigrant education, and profiles of immigrant youth and schools across the country. Join this special book talk and conversation as Jessica shares inspiring stories of her own students' immigrant journeys and those of students across the country and how they created their own American identities.

Cosponsored by the Education Department, the Civic Studies Program, and the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study & Human Development. Copies of Jessica's book, Making Americans, will be available for attendees on a first-come, first-served basis.

An award-winning teacher and author, Jessica Lander has worked with students in middle school, high school, and university in the U.S., Thailand, and Cambodia for more than a decade. Since 2015, she has taught history and civics to immigrants and refugee students from more than 30 countries at Lowell High School in Massachusetts. The author of several books, Jessica writes frequently about education policy and teaching. She was named a Top 50 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2021, a 2023 MA Teacher of the Year Finalist, and the 2023 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year. Read Jessica's full bio.