Bridging can feel threatening to immigrant parents, however. Recently arrived immigrant parents have reported retaining aspects of the home culture as a protective mechanism, perceiving a correlation between loss of home culture and negative social and educational outcomes for youth. Other studies have documented the ways in which immigrant families make explicit efforts to shape their children’s experiences in U.S. schools. Trueba (1998) found that Mexican families did not hesitate to send youth back to their countries of origin if their educational (and behavioral) trajectories were taking a turn that parents found unacceptable. – Doucet (2011)

The article tile captures my attention in terms of immigrant parents. I am student teaching in a local public high school in Brooklyn now. All my 34 students are immigrants from China or South American countries. Technically, some of them are not immigrants based on the definition of immigrant because they were born in the United States. For example, in Brooklyn China town, you can see one of categories on immigrant advertisements is sending kids back to China. Continue reading Fears of “losing children” to Americanization →

All physical settings were equally contaminated, equally problematic. “It like I go online,” Raymond admits, “because there is no where else I can go.”

Continue reading Digital Space, Extra Space →

“The teacher might not behave toward the White child the way she behaves toward the black child, toward my child.” -Doucet, 2011 , P. 2723

I found this article on bridge building between family and school culture particularly relevant. I have come across a lot of literature lately about a “cultural mismatch” between teachers and students. As a white female, I am in a majority but am teaching minority students. According to a recent NYU study, “For example, in New York City, over 85% of public school students are racial/ethnic minorities, but only 40% of teachers are non-White—a difference of 45 percentage points (New York City Department of Education, 2015)”(Cherng & Halpin, 2016,p. 1). The difference in race between teachers and students in urban schools is important to be aware of. This NYU study ultimately found that student perceptions of teachers does vary by race, “Specifically, we find consistent evidence that students have more positive ratings of Latino and Black teachers than White teachers after controlling for student demographic and academic characteristics,other teacher characteristics, work conditions, and teacher efficacy” (Cherng & Halpin, 2016, p.6). Continue reading Black or White →

“…recalibrate the relationship between home and school in a way that allows them to maintain a sense of control over the influence of the outside world on their children.” (Doucet, pg. 2706)

Reading this article was in many regards like reading an account of my own childhood and evoked an array of emotions. My own parents (and the parents of most of my childhood friends) actively worked to shield me from what they referred to as “worldly views” that did not coincide with their own beliefs regarding my education and upbringing. Although I am of the third generation on both sides of my family to be born in this great country, Continue reading It’s undesirable for citizens too →