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Latina/o American

August 8, 2005

Valenzuela, Angela. Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

August 08th 2005 Posted to Race and the Academic Institution, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Latina/o American, The Academy

This groundbreaking book reports the findings of Valenzuela’s three year ethnographic study of immigrant Mexican and Mexican-American students at Juan Seguín High School (a pseudonym) in Houston, Texas. According to Valenzuela, the much-studied achievement gap between first generation Mexican immigrants (who tend to have a pro-school attitude and perform well) and second or third generation immigrants (who typically have an antischool attitude and perform poorly) can be traced directly back to the schools themselves. Valenzuela argues that, “For the majority of Seguín High School’s regular (non college-bound) track, schooling is a subtractive process. It divests these youth of important social and cultural resources, leaving them progressively vulnerable to academic failure” (3). (Read the article)

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August 3, 2005

Portes, Alejandro and Dag McLeod, “Educational Progress of Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Class, Ethnicity and School Context,” Sociology of Education, 69.4 (1996): 255-75.

August 03rd 2005 Posted to Race and Globalization, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American, Asian American

This article addresses two major factors that contribute to the success or failure of students from immigrant families: socioeconomic status and the social influence exerted by ethnic communities on students. As Portes and McLeod write in their abstract,

“Recent immigration to the United States has spawned a rapidly growing second generation, most of whom are of school age. This article reports the findings of a study of 5,255 second-generation high school students in Florida and California, who were children of Cuban and Vietnamese immigrants (representative of relatively advantaged groups) and of Haitian and Mexican immigrants (representative of relatively disadvantaged groups). The study found that parents’ socioeconomic status (SES), length of U.S. residence, and hours spent on homework significantly affected the students’ academic performance, but did not eliminate the effects of ethnic community. Attendance at higher-SES schools increased the average academic performance and the positive effect of parents’ SES, whereas attendance at inner-city schools flattened the negative effect of ethnic disadvantage. However, school context had no appreciable effect on children from advantaged ethnic backgrounds” (255). (Read the article)

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Ogbu, John U. “Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning,” Educational Researcher, 21.8 (1992): 5-14.

August 03rd 2005 Posted to Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Latina/o American, African American

In this article Ogbu argues that two major approaches in the current school reform movement, core curriculum and multicultural education, are inadequate methods of dealing with the struggles faced by minority students in public schools. He suggests that the main reason these methods have failed is that they ignore the often oppositional nature of minority cultures to American mainstream culture. As Ogbu writes, “the crucial issue in cultural diversity and learning is the relationship between the minority cultures and the American mainstream culture. Minorities whose cultural frames of reference are oppositional to the cultural frame of reference of American mainstream culture have greater difficulty crossing cultural boundaries at school to learn” (5). (Read the article)

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August 1, 2005

Flores-González, Nilda. School Kids/Street Kids: Identity Development in Latino Students. New York: Teachers College Press, 2002.

August 01st 2005 Posted to Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2000), 28% of all 16-24 year old Hispanics are high school drop-outs, as compared to 7.3% of whites, 12.6% of blacks and 4.3% of Asians (Flores-González 2). In School Kids/Street Kids Flores-González addresses the high drop-out rate of Latino high school students by conducting a study of thirty three Puerto Rican students at Hernández High School in Chicago, a school whose student body is comprised mostly of low income Hispanic students. Flores-González divides the students in her study up into what she calls “school kids,” or students who adopt an identity based on participation and achievement and “street kids,” or students who form an identity in opposition to school and authority. According to Flores-González, there are several specific steps schools can take to reinforce “school kid” identity formation among Latino students, thus lowering drop-out rates. (Read the article)

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July 25, 2005

Pérez Sonia and Denise De La Rosa Salazar. “Economic, Labor Force and Social Implications of Latino Educational and Population Trends,” Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader, Eds. Antonia Darder, Rodolfo D. Torres and Henry Gutíerrez. New York: Routledge, 1997, 47-79.

July 25th 2005 Posted to Race, Literacy and Pedagogy, Race and Globalization, Race, Class and Pedagogy, Latina/o American

Pérez and Salazar’s analysis of socio-economic and educational trends in Latino populations uses a variety of data from studies conducted throughout the 1980s and 1990s to understand why the rapid increase in the Latino population has not been accompanied by a proportionate increase in educational attainment. Their analysis not only highlights the historic and self-perpetuating connection between the low socioeconomic status of Latino populations and low levels of educational attainment; it also points to specific problems contributing to these problems and suggests possible changes in educational policy. (Read the article)

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Darder, Antonia. “Creating the Conditions for Cultural Democracy in the Classroom,” Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader. Eds. Antonia Darder, Rodolfo D. Torres and Henry Gutierrez. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp.331-350.

July 25th 2005 Posted to Critical Race Theory and Pedagogy, Pedagogy and Mixed Race, Latina/o American

In this article Darder addresses the challenges faced by teachers in bicultural teaching environments. Basing much of her analysis on the theories of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, Darder argues that in order to create cultural democracy in the classroom (and, by extension, in society at large), teachers must do more than blindly implement a “multicultural” curriculum; they must also be made aware of the theoretical and political issues with which they are engaged. “…this critical view suggests that, prior to any engagement with instrumental questions of practice, educators must delve rigorously into those specific theoretical issues that are fundamental to the establishment of a culturally democratic foundation for a critical bicultural pedagogy,” writes Darder (331).< (Read the article)

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