Research

Research Overview

As a student in the field of the social and cultural foundations of education, my work has been heavily influenced by the historical, philosophical, and sociological dimensions of education. It is premised upon the intersection of immigration policy, education, and student identity. I examine how undocumented and mixed status youth perceive and experience restrictive immigration policies in North Carolina and how nested contexts (historical, socio-cultural and political) influence how these policies are perceived and experienced. In my research, I draw on Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) concept of the rhizome to theorize mixed status families as multiplicitous, heterogeneous yet indivisible assemblages who experience the effects of illegality in unison regardless of their variation in immigration status. Conceptualizing mixed status families in this way combats reductionist frameworks relying on the discursive dichotomy between legal and illegal immigrants by demonstrating that U.S. born children with undocumented parents or siblings are not shielded from the effects of illegality. Highlighting the existence of mixed status households demonstrates that young people do not exist in isolation from their parents, siblings, or other family members and that their experiences and challenges are organically interconnected in ways that current policy does not reflect. Rhizomatic concepts of migrant youths' identity formation processes also underscore that illegality does not exist in a hierarchical relationship vis-a-vis other identity markers (race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, abiity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc) but rather intersects and interacts with them in dynamic and fluid ways. 

Important tenets of critical pedagogy also feature in my work. For instance, I grapple with the significance of context when analyzing policy and its effects on youth. Cognizance of the ways in which context shapes one’s perception of social reality is key to understanding that just as contexts shape our views of reality, our own actions also lend meaning to them (Freire, 2005). In other words, we have agency, as social and policy actors, to contest, negotiate, and recreate meanings produced within and by particular contexts (Mansfield & Thachik, 2016). Additionally, highlighting student perspectives and responses to policies will help amplify student voice and lend a recognition of the capacity of youth to understand and remake policy on the basis of their particular interpretations. Importantly, it will demonstrate to youth that they have the power and understanding necessary to contest and change current policy meanings and contexts. 

I view my work as an act of radical love to the immigrant community in the United States and around the globe. Being an immigrant was a seminal part of my life’s journey and it is an important piece of my identity and how I position myself within the world. Beyond my own positionality, I want my work to serve as an act of love to the immigrant young people I had the privilege of teaching and mentoring but who taught me more about the “teachable heart” (Kincheloe, 2008, p. 3). Influenced by my experiences with these young immigrants and my immersion in the field of critical pedagogy, my work will not reduce itself to the theoretical but will have an eye toward transforming policy and education for migrant and undocumented youth. Guided by critical inquiry, I view the intersection of policy analysis, youth identity and education both as a field for scholarship and as a form of activism pregnant with possibility. Using scholarship to uplift student voices and elevate student perspectives is paramount to ensuring that the students most affected by these policies can lead the way toward transformational change. 

My work is primarily qualitative, honoring participants as co-equals in the construction of knowledge. The process-oriented nature of the qualitative paradigm allows for ongoing self-reflexivity and examination while also illustrating the hows and whys of the problem under investigation, rather than just fixating on pre-determined outcomes. I draw from interpretive policy analysis (Yanow, 2000), which emphasizes the role of meaning-making and interpretation when analyzing research generated data and views policy not as value neutral, but intrinsically laden with human meaning on the basis of lived experience and social positionality. I also employ critical policy analysis to more closely examine policy’s role in reproducing inequities and perpetuating power imbalances and social stratification.

Publications 

Lambrinou, M. & Mansfield, K.C. (in progress). Sticks and Stones and Names That Hurt Us: A CRT Analysis of Policy Discourses in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia. 

Rodriguez, S., Lambrinou, M., & Acree, J. (2022). Normalization, Problematization, and Racialization: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Latinx Immigrant Youth Experiences in the U.S.. In S. Rodriguez & G. Conchas (Eds). Race Frames: Structuring Inequality and Opportunity in a Changing Educational Landscape. Teachers College Press. 

Mansfield, K.C. & Lambrinou, M. (2021). “This is not who we are”: Students leading for  anti-racist policy changes in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia. Educational Policy. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08959048211059214

Kout, Y. &  Lambrinou, M. (2021). Video games as free speech: Reproducing inequalities and pushing justice to the margins. In S. Jovanovic (Ed.), Finding Expression in Contested Spaces. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793630940/Expression-in-Contested-Public-Spaces-Free-Speech-and-Civic-Engagement

Lambrinou, M. (2020). Book Review of  “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail” by Jason De Leon for Journal for Leadership, Equity, and Research, 6(1). https://journals.sfu.ca/cvj/index.php/cvj/article/view/85