This dissertation theorizes that contemporary migrant students who participate in Migrant Education debate tournaments develop a new and specific life narrative that is much more focused than the positive success narratives historically presented by participants in the Migrant Education Program. The data of this ethnographic study were collected over two years of regional and state Migrant Education debate tournaments. More than 50 hours of video records of debates, interviews, and setting shots were collected and analyzed using content analysis and constant comparative method. Data were coded for themes of social justice, literacies, and situated learning.

The findings in this study focus on how students learn and what they learn in the debate tournaments. The findings of how students learned through the Migrant Education debates reveal that participants learn through apprentice relationships with peers and adults, through overcoming fear by participating in the debate tournaments' required acts of public speaking, and through their personal evolution as members in a community of practice. The findings of what is afforded to students in the debates as learning opportunities revealed that participants learned civic skills of a democratic society, oral and written literacies practiced in debates, and the valorization of bilingualism.

Within these findings, a new migrant narrative and a new motivational slogan emerged. These new narrative sequences highlight the specificity of literacy development in the Migrant Education debate tournaments. Based on these findings and the articulation of a new migrant narrative, it is hoped that this study will contribute to a greater understanding of the functions of the Migrant Education debate tournaments. Furthermore, it is hoped that the findings from this study will be used in future determinations of state and federal support for the Migrant Education Program in general and for the Migrant Education debate tournaments specifically.