There are certain foundations of effective communication, and all are revealed and explored in this chapter. They are: clarity, brevity, simplicity, authenticity, and – sometimes surprisingly – humility, or the power of listening.

Writing which informs, influences and impresses requires a series of key components. They include the start and end of a piece of content, its style (often known as the voice, or character, of the writing), the critical details of who, what, why, where, when and how, and also an appealing title.

This epilogue explores the multifaceted experiences of migration and mobility among college students of immigrant origin, revealing their intricate journeys through higher education systems. The authors note the various ways this volume documents the processes by which students from immigrant backgrounds navigate oppressive and exclusionary spaces, seeking avenues of belonging and success on their campuses. Closing on a note of audacious hope, the epilogue presents the narratives of two focal participants, Cecilia and Manuela, interviewed as part of a larger study of the effects of membership in a student-led mutual support network among aspiring teachers of color in a historically white institution. These student leaders articulated themes of belonging and exclusion, the necessity of building community, the centrality of their personal and professional identities as women of color, and the importance of creating and maintaining sources of emotional support and encouragement. Through their narratives, we see ways their community-building efforts serve as a form of resistance so that they can thrive in places that were never designed for them.

The children of Afghan refugees provide important insight into the way that universities can be crucial sites of racial formation. This chapter explores how second-generation Afghan American college students navigate their racial and ethnic identities and build community on a college campus. The results are drawn from a qualitative study conducted at George Mason University, located in Northern Virginia, which is home to one of the largest Afghan diaspora populations in the country. Findings revealed the disparate impact that the withdrawal of the US military and subsequent arrival of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into the United States had on students, the role of family and collectivist culture in their decision-making, how ethnic student organizations were a method of ethnic preservation and co-ethnic support, and how attending a university with a large Afghan student population exposed internal conflicts within the community. This chapter provides important insight for universities aiming to create inclusive environments and support the diverse experiences of second-generation immigrants, Muslim, and Afghan American students.

This chapter analyzes the historical legacies of union-founding to establish whether these legacies had enduring consequences for subsequent patterns of teacher mobilization. It examines the development trajectories of teacher organizations, from 1900 to 1979. It analyzes several themes: church–state conflict over mass public schooling in the early twentieth century; contrasts between the political incorporation of industrial workers and teachers; patronage politics in public schools and the education bureaucracy; teacher struggles for labor codes and professional autonomy; and restrictions on political rights under nondemocratic regimes. It is shown that corporatist legacies set unions on different paths, but these legacies do not fully account for contemporary patterns of teacher mobilization.

This chapter provides an overview of the literature on labor politics, social movements, and political parties, and locates the main argument in this literature. It operationalizes the two organizational traits, hierarchical relations and factionalism, to show how they produce three strategies. It concludes by laying out the research methods used to carry out the analysis and reach these conclusions.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for many Hispanic/Latino/x college students, especially for Hispanic/Latino/x college-enrolled men who were undocumented in South Texas. We used an asset-based lens to explore the nuanced educational experiences of these students. Specifically, we relied on Yosso’s theoretical framework of community cultural wealth to describe how these students overcame various institutional barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic (Yosso, 2005). Their voices revealed a complex portrait of how they made courageous decisions to apply and enroll in college and fund their college education to earn a college degree or credential, despite their immigration status, so they may financially contribute to their families and local communities. Additionally, these students also described how they navigated their educational and career options despite the limited options for future employment. These findings provide a positive view of these students’ courage and resilience to improve their lives through education, despite their immigration status and the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This chapter analyzes the organizational prerequisites for the strategy of instrumentalism, by charting changes in the organizational structure of the National Educational Workers Union (SNTE) of Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s. It examines the threats to the corporatist model posed by the dissident movement and the regime response to help the union leadership regain control. President Carlos Salinas sheltered the union from the potentially disruptive effects of education decentralization policies and strengthened SNTE with policies to improve teacher pay. These concessions shaped the union’s internal organization, providing the resources Elba Esther Gordillo needed to build a dominant faction. The consolidation of power in the national union leadership was crucial for the strategy of instrumentalism.

An undocumented individual is a person who entered the United States without inspection or someone who has overstayed their visa (Passel, ). Undocumented individuals and their families face many challenges acclimating to and settling in the United States, including the risk of deportation and not being able to work lawfully.Undocumented youth face additional barriers as they navigate educational settings and enter adulthood. Institutions of higher education must understand the distinct experiences and needs of the undocumented student population toward realizing students’ success in their pursuit and completion of higher education. This chapter explores how postsecondary institutions and personnel can better support undocumented students. We begin by reviewing key federal, state, and local policies impacting undocumented students. Next, we evaluate and synthesize literature on the pre-college, college, and post-college experiences of these students. We subsequently use an ecological framework to summarize good practices at the macro, exo, micro, and individual levels of systems toward undocumented student success. We illustrate specific examples of good practices.

This chapter shows how the bottom-up organization of CTERA was crucial for movementism. The mark of the activist base on protests is reflected in the fact that protests were organized primarily at the provincial and municipal levels, were widespread across provinces, and recurred over time. The chapter then examines the union’s role in electoral politics. While some union leaders became politicians, the union was not beholden to any political party and it lacked a coherent partisan identity. The last section analyzes the policy dynamics that ensued from movementism and the extent to which the creation of a new national institution of collective bargaining for teachers transformed the union’s political repertoire. It is shown that movementism remained largely in place.