As teachers, it is our job to be advocates for our students. This includes teaching diverse perspectives of historical events and contributions to society. We must also research what led to the marginalization and omission of the viewpoint of many groups of people from the dominant curriculum. Our goal should be to create integrated lessons that reflect the diversity in our classroom.
Content Information:
This website is dedicated to filling some of the curricular gaps in Mexican-American history in a creative way. Our goal is to not only get students excited about learning, but to provide teachers information regarding Mexican-American culture that is often underrepresented in common curriculum.
South Carolina Standard:
Standard 2-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of cultural contributions made by people from the various regions in the United States.
Enduring Understanding:Diverse cultures have contributed to our nation’s heritage. To understand cultural differences and appreciate diverse ideals and values within his or her community, the student will utilize the knowledge and skills set forth in the following indicators:
Indicators
2-4.1 Recognize the basic elements that make up a cultural region in the United States,
including language, beliefs, customs, art, and literature.
2-4.2 Compare the historic and cultural traditions of various regions in the United States and recognize the ways that these elements have been and continue to be passed across
generations.
2-4.3 Recognize the cultural contributions of Native American tribal groups, African
Americans, and immigrant groups.
2-4.4 Recall stories and songs that reflect the cultural history of various regions in the United States, including stories of regional folk figures, Native American legends, and African American folktales.
When those who have the power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you, whether you are dark-skinned, old, disabled, female, or speak with a different accent or dialect than theirs, when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing. Yet you know you exist and others like you, that this is a game with mirrors. It takes some strength of soul–and not just individual strength, but collective understanding–to resist this void, this nonbeing, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard.”
– Adrienne Rich
As students in the Elementary Education department at the University of South Carolina, we are dedicated to researching and creating the best way to teach ALL our students. Follow us as we create a website that explores all the often overlooked contributions Mexican-Americans have on America’s society.
How is the Latino culture the fasting growing minority group, yet still underrepresented, and marginalized within our educational system?
Below is an article that seeks first-hand accounts of Latino students, and their struggles as minority students in the US. From reading the five different student accounts, one can see a pattern of negative consequences that comes with being a Latino student in our system.
Some of the main problems that the students say negatively effected their education were:
Being Thrown into the System:
How can we expect that children of so many different backgrounds and cultures all require the same learning needs? Furthermore, how can we place students of different native languages in ELL classes and expect that they will achieve the same as students who were born speaking English? It seems as if Latino students are more often than not, placed into a system that is working against them by failing to acknowledge and cater to their specific needs. This can end up negatively effecting a student educations in the long run, and in turn, their future success.
One of the interviewees from the article states that, Latino students were really just “thrown into the system”, and goes on to say that he wished that schools would have done a better job at integrating diverse students into the classrooms instead of them being seen as, “‘that new kid who can’t really speak your language” (Bauman, 1). Schools often fail to recognize the outside hardships that come into play with culturally diverse student and their schooling, overlooking them and pushing these problems aside.
Schools need to prioritize making Latino students, and students of other minority cultures in general, feel comfortable, accepted, and recognized in the classroom. If teachers explore better ways to integrate new, diverse ideas and viewpoints into their classes, this may possibly give way to positive academic growth for Latinos specifically.
Language Barriers:
Probably one of the biggest issues that Latino students face in school is the English / Spanish language barrier. These students are placed in normal ELL classrooms, and expected to preform at the same level. It seems pretty obvious that it is irrational to expect non-ELL students to be able to comprehend the material in the same depth, although for some reason, schools are still questioning the lower academic statistics throughout this group. One student points
out that he struggled with communicating with other students, which made it difficult for him to succeed in school, or get the help he needed. The student, Oscar Mancilla, states that, “Learning the language, and not being able to talk or con
nect with others” had a big impact on his schooling experience (Bauman, 2). With the growing number of diverse students within our classrooms, teachers must account for the extra time and resources these students may need in their lesson planning. Instead of holding students to unreasonable learning standards, schools need to take time and become more involved in the figuring out the needs of their culturally diverse students.
Teacher Bias:
Diverse students are a product of various situations, backgrounds, and home-lives that some teachers may fail to consider. Each students, regardless of their culture, has different issues they may be facing outside of school, but all of those problems are out of their hands. When dealing with a student who may be struggling, or having problems in school, it is easy for a teacher to assume the worst, and write them off as a bad student. However, many factors go in to a students behavior inside the classroom, and it is a teachers role to look past those behaviors, and dig deeper to find the meaning, and a solution. With Latino students specifically in this case, teacher biases could likely play a roll on the overall lower school achievement numbers, and could be a result of teacher biases, and a failure to understand the students situation.
In the journal Empowering Latino Parents to Transform the Education for their Children, the authors analyze the effects that teacher biases have on Latino students, and their schooling experience. The authors state that, “Smith (2008) posited that research on this topic has to refuse an assimilationist perspective that has historically argued that low school and college achievement of Latinos are based on the students’ inability to accept the values, morals, and ethics of American cul- ture. Differences from the mainstream were construed as a deficit, and under this rubric, Latino parents were labeled “uncaring” or “uninvolved” in the formation of educational aspirations of their children” (655). If teachers view these differences as a “deficit”, as the author states, and place stereotypical name-tags on students and their families, there can be serious consequences for the students education and future.
When teachers assume biases instead of taking the time to read more into the student’s needs, that student does not get help, and can fall even more behind in school. This makes it harder and harder for the student to succeed, especially without the teacher on their side. For example, Latino students who are still learning, and may not speak English as fluently, might need some extra time and help from their teachers with school work. It is a teachers job to provide each student, regardless of culture or race, with the resources and help that they need to succeed.
Sadly, with several odds working against them within our education system, Latino students have struggled with issues, like these discussed, that have negatively effected their education as whole. It seem as though we fail to consider the difficulties that students face when being introduced into a very new, different learning environment, and as teachers, it is our job to provide students with time, resources and opportunities that will help them flourish.
Missing Piece: What is missing in terms of the token representation of individuals who made a difference (historically and today)? Who are the contributors left out of the canon (science, mathematics, history, economics, law, higher education, civil rights, technology, arts, and literature)
“The challenges that minority children, including Latino children, who speak little or no English encounter in their early school years are many and likely to interfere with their school adjustment. This may result in a disadvantage for social and academic success in the future” (Davila, Michaels, pg. 1).
With Latino students being the most rapidly growing minority in the US, these students can make up a large percentage of our classrooms. When we look at education in the US, however, there seems to be some missing pieces involving equity in education of Latino students.
What are some of the possible factors leading to this inequality amongst Latino students in the United States education system, and what can we do about it?
Problem #1: Lack of Latino / Mexican American teachers
The small number of Latino teachers likely plays a negative role in the academic success of Latino students. Teachers who are of the same culture, speak the same language, and might come from a similar background as the student, may be able to provide assistance and an outlook that a teacher outside of their culture might not be able to. Especially with Latino students, having a Latino teacher could be extremely beneficial (for example) in helping the student transition from using solely Spanish, to becoming more accustom to learning and speaking English.
In the ‘Race and Schooling’ section of her article, Martha Lynn Sheffield analyzes the impact that not having Latino teachers has on Latino students in their academics. One of the main issues with the lack of Latino teachers, she points out, is the need for bilingual teachers, and for first-hand culture in schools that students can relate to. She states that, “teachers who are neither bi-lingual nor aware of the needs of Spanish-language dominant or culturally marginalized Mexican-American youth may find it difficult to build relationships with and engage these youth in their academic work” (Sheffield, pg. 18). Latino culture and population, although growing, is still the majority. Some of these students may feel as if their cultures are not prominent, or seen in the classrooms, and may have issues opening up to teachers. If there were a greater number of Latino teachers in schools, students might feel more comfortable in opening up to a teacher who is more like them.
“Conversely, Crosnoe (2005) found that Latino students in schools with a greater percentage of Latino teachers had higher achievement rates than did students attending schools with fewer Latino teachers. The role of the teacher in student achievement is crucial” (Sheffield, pg. 18). That being said, it seems obvious that increasing the number of Latino teachers in our schools could be one possible way to promote academic success of Latino students.
Problem #2: Lack of appreciation for Spanish language and Spanish speakers
Looking at the statistics on the growing number of Spanish speaking people in the U.S., it is shocking that our country downplays the importance of other languages besides English. Leslie Michel Gauna discusses this, using her observations and narratives from several first-year bilingual Spanish / English teachers. Mauna points out that, “There are 34,200,000 Spanish speakers in the U.S., plus 3,900,000 in Puerto Rico, where its population is counted as U.S. citizens. The U.S. is the second country in numbers of Spanish speakers trailing only Mexico” (Gauna, pg. 18). Spanish as a language has been overlooked in the US because English is seen as our countries main language. However, Gauna makes a good point in her article, saying that a single country is filled with peoples of various cultures, backgrounds, and languages, and it is wrong to assume that one culture is more important, or dominant, to the other. The US claims to be a “melting pot”, but how is this the case when we are continually excluding other cultures and languages, singling them out as the minority? She goes on to say that,”People’s language practices are commonly equated to country of origin, as if each country would have one language. This false equation is the result of the construction of nation states that have claimed to be one “imagined” community with one shared language and one shared culture” (Gauna, pg. 18). This is just one of the many problems that Latinos and Mexican Americans face as students in our educational system; it seems as if we are not valuing these cultures as we should be. The culture and language of Spanish people have not been fully appreciated in the US over history, and still in our schools today, Spanish culture is often pushed under the rug, and students are expected to adopt English as their new language. Not only is this robbing the students of their identity, but it makes it harder overall for them to succeed in school with so much on their plate already.
Problem #3: Failure of teachers to recognize the achievement and opportunity gap between Latino students and students of other cultures.
Countless variables come into play when considering a students education, including socioeconomic status, family structure, and beliefs. These factors usually have some correlation between the achievement and opportunity gap of different cultures and their academic standings. Teacher often fail to account for these difference and their impacts on diverse students. In an article analyzing the Latino achievement and opportunity gap Davila and Michaels state that, “In addition to disparities based on race, there are funding disparities between urban and suburban schools that tell a story about the value placed on the education of different groups of students. Latino children from low-income families often attend the most poorly equipped urban schools in the most impoverished school districts” (Davila, Michaels, pg. 1). These students who are already at a disadvantage outside of school, again, are misrepresented which in turn effects their education, and future. The article goes on to discuss that because of these disparities, “Latino students are overrepresented in lower educational outcomes; nationally they tend to have lower grades, lower scores on standardized tests, and higher dropout rates than do students from other ethnic groups” (Davila, Michaels, pg. 1). Schools need to be more equipped to address and solve the impacts of the achievement and opportunity gaps in order to provide equity for all students.
Let's Take a Trip to Mexico! 