NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

You are in: Subject —>

Mexican Americans

• "I Want My Teachers To Like Me": Multiculturalism and School Dropout Rates among Mexican Americans
  Investigated Mexican American high school students' perceptions of multiculturalism, noting whether perceptions affected academic achievement, intention to graduate, and postsecondary educational aspirations. Surveyed, interviewed, and observed students and staff at schools with low and high Hispanic dropout rates.
• "Our Own Voice": The Necessity of Chicano Literature in Mainstream Curriculum
  Discusses the importance of Chicano literature in mainstream curriculum for higher educational attainment and personal fulfillment, providing historical background on the education of Chicanos, describing Chicano literature, and making recommendations for implementing Chicano literature at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Notes the importance of teaching Chicano students how their culture differs from other Hispanic cultures.
• A Student's Guide to Mexican American Genealogy. Oryx American Family Tree Series
  This book provides a step-by-step guide to genealogical research in the United States and Mexico for Mexican Americans. The book also contains information on the history of Mexico and its relationship with the United States.
• Anglo-American and Mexican American University Students' Estimation of Value Placed on Higher Educational Attainments by Significant Persons in Their Lives
  Determined the degree of value placed on higher educational attainments by academically successful fourth-year university students (N=81) from two cultural populations in American society. Results indicate that participants from both groups received a similar degree of encouragement from parents to pursue and complete university studies.
• Effect of a Multi-Ethnic, Multicultural Program on Student Participants
  Describes the impact of a multi-ethnic, multicultural program, designed to immerse students in Mexican culture as a means of combating ignorance of and violence against members of ethnic groups at Fairfield University. Interviews, pretests and post-tests, and participant observations are used to determine whether the training program was responsible for changes in student perceptions and judgments.
• Examining Multicultural Picture Books for the Early Childhood Classroom: Possibilities and Pitfalls
  Picture books that depict the variety of ethnic, racial, and cultural groups within U.S. society (known generally as multicultural picture books) allow young children opportunities to develop their understanding of others, while affirming children of diverse backgrounds.
• Exploring the Relationships between Racial/Cultural Identity and Ego Identity among African Americans and Mexican Americans
  Relationships between collective identity and ego identity were examined among 229 African American and Mexican American university students. Participants completed scales measuring racial or cultural identity and ego identity.
• Lessons Learned: Exploring Past Cultural Experiences of the Chicano/Mexican American Ambience To Strengthen Contemporary Multicultural Education
  Explored the use of phenomenology research to explore lessons learned and their potential for inclusion in multicultural education, focusing on the Chicano/Mexicano experience as farmworkers in northern Colorado. Interview data indicated that respondents maintained a high context and connection with their primary culture.
• Mexican American Children's Ethnic Pride and Internalized Racism. JSRI Occasional Paper No. 41. Latino Studies Series
  Nearly 100 Mexican American children and adolescents in grades 2-12 were interviewed in central Texas to determine their understanding of ethnicity and their attitudes toward their own ethnicity. Their responses were interpreted in relation to a developmental model with five stages or "perspectives" in reasoning about ethnicity.
• Mexican Immigrants in Middle Schools: Diversity, Organizational Structure and Effectiveness
  The Spanish speaking Mexican immigrant population accounts for the fastest growing population in California, where one in six students is an immigrant. This study utilized organizational theory to relate school characteristics such as interdependence, coordination, and information processing to working with immigrant students.
• Mexican-American Preservice Teachers and the Intransigency of the Elementary School Curriculum
  Investigated how Mexican-American student teachers expressed their cultural knowledge in lesson planning and implementation. Semistructured interviews with Mexican-American student teachers working in elementary Professional Development Schools revealed little ethnic expression, even when teaching Mexican-American children.
• Milagros in the Mid-Columbia: An Integrated Lesson Plan. Sixth Grade Social Studies Unit on Mexican Migrant Workers
  Since the early 1950s, several programs have enticed thousands of rural Mexicans to migrate to California and the Northwest to be agricultural workers. The resultant demographic and cultural impacts have been immense.
• Moving Marginalized Students Inside the Lines: Cultural Differences in Classrooms
  Discusses what the author has learned in her job at an elementary school in Northeast Mississippi as liaison between English-speaking school personnel and Spanish-speaking students and parents, most of whom are recent immigrants from Mexico. Discusses what the author learned, through extensive talking and questioning of students and parents, about how cultural differences affect classroom activities and interaction.
• Of Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo, and Whispering: The Need for Intercultural Education
  Multicultural education can improve understandings among students of different ethnic groups only if it is implemented systematically. Research with 75 adolescent mothers in an inner-city California high school shows how the celebration of Kwanzaa leads to exclusion and isolation and the speaking of Spanish results in conflict and resentments.
• On the Border of Opportunity: Education, Community, and Language at the U.S.-Mexico Line. Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education
  The U.S.-Mexican border is an extensive geographical region that is socially and economically distinct from either the United States or Mexico. It has always been a multilingual and multicultural place.
• Perceptions of Multiculturalism, Academic Achievement, and Intent To Stay in School among Mexican American Students
  Examined the relationship between perceived multiculturalism of schools, ease of learning, academic achievement, and intent to stay in school among eighth and eleventh graders. Surveys of Mexican-American and European-American students indicated that Mexican-American students who considered their environment multicultural also perceived that school was easier, that they received good grades, and that they would stay in school.
• Prevalence of Disordered Eating Behaviors and Bulimia Nervosa in a Sample of Mexican American Female College Students
  Disordered eating behaviors and bulimia nervosa were examined in a sample of female Mexican Americans. Results showed that 1.45% to 4.3% could be classified with bulimia.
• Promoting Additive Acculturation in Schools
  A study focusing on 113 ninth graders of Mexican descent indicates that most students and their parents adhere to a strategy of additive acculturation (incorporating skills of the new culture and language), but that the school curriculum and general school climate devalue Mexican culture. (SLD).
• Reclaiming the Borderlands: Chicana/o Identity, Difference, and Critical Pedagogy
  Argues that "Borderlands" discourse has served, and continues to serve, as a theoretical framework to advance educational theory by accounting for multiple subjectivity and difference. Provides historical background of Chicana/o Studies and its contribution to Borderlands theories.
• Respect in the Classroom: Reflections of a Mexican-American Educator
  Praises the rare teacher who respected his native culture when growing up. Deplores negative attitudes of some future second-language teachers toward Mexican-American culture.
• The Language and Literacy Spectrum, 1996. A Journal of the New York State Reading Association
  Sharing concerns and interests of New York State educators in the improvement of literacy, this annual journal raises educational issues such as current thoughts about literacy instruction, educators' roles, literacy in its many forms, college-community literacy partnerships, and recommended reading materials.
• Viva Mexico!
  This curriculum presentation outlines how to celebrate five Mexican holidays in the classroom: Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los Muertos, Fiesta, Las Posados, and Three Kings Day. The goal is to help children learn through hands-on activities and real-life experiences.