Undocumented Educations

Undocumented educations are those educational practices falling outside of legitimated educational institutions or appearing only in marginalized, liminal ways. Through resisting, conflicting with, or simply not fitting into the grammar of school they do not “count” as education. Those educations, and thus the everyday lives of those who practice them, are routinely placed “at-risk.” Often, policymakers and educators propose reforms to this issue, aiming to more effectively include or ensure stronger academic outcomes for populations of students whose educational lives have been marked in precarious ways. Working with 9 recently immigrated youth in New York City, this project explores such undocumented educations in youth’s everyday lives in order to open new understandings of what counts, who counts, and in what ways, in educational discourses. Rather than joining the chorus of reform efforts, I listen to the rigorous, wild, and ethereal educational practices already present in youth’s lives. This project takes up entangled methods of an affective ethnography and a history of the present. Historical work explores prevalent discourses around the education of “newcomer” youth to int