Abstract
This dissertation examines education policies and practices centered on Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) in Massachusetts. SLIFE signifies programming for Students with Limited Interrupted Formal Education. The policies and practices are examined through a contextualization of broad political, economic, and socio-historic dynamics. More importantly, they’re considered through the eyes and voices of six former students who immigrated from Guatemala. The voices/retrospective reflections of young people, all of whom have graduated from secondary school, are captured in an oral history/testimonio methodology. This study opens theoretical pathways for deeply imagining culturally relevant policies and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Key findings include the counterproductive, but common practice of remediation. The limitations of the definition of education function to position students as deficient, suggesting a subtractive rather than additive educational experience. Findings suggest that the participants of this study identified by the US school system as SLIFE, experienced marginalization in schools due the lack of bilingual teachers. They experienced a rapid assimilation process that compromised their identities. Most importantly, the dissertation opens a language and praxis of hope by arguing that oppressive policies and practices can be re-contextualized by taking seriously the solutions that young people themselves center. In the end, these solutions help to liberate all students.