Mexican Americans, Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, and Latino(a)s, much like African Americans in this country, may experience a cultural clash between home and school. It is widely accepted that without appropriate intervention of attending to the contribution of culture, educational endeavors for these students will be more difficult. Some students do not succeed because of the difference between school culture and home culture, and this leads to educationally harmful dissonance. The challenge is to find the differences between this group of students and the school community, and then to incorporate new learning into the classroom practice.
Levin (1988) and Snow (1990) suggest that teachers and school professionals have low expectations of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Soto (1997) reports that school personnel reactions to non-English speaking students are often highly negative. Parents are not respected if they do not speak English, and there is a clear dissonance between the cultural transitions of newly arrived Mexican immigrants and the schools they enter. However, Puerto Ricans have been raised in American culture, whether in their country or the United States, since 1898, yet they have the distinction of being one of the most undereducated ethnic groups in this country. Puerto Ricans, on both sides of the water, experience educational systems that often fail them. Puerto Rican children have the greatest risk for living in poverty of any Latino group, and, ironically, less money is spent on their education than any other group of students in this country. Latinos, in general, are significantly more segregated than even African Americans. Ogbu (1986) offers a conceptualization that interprets this country's social approach to immigrants and minority populations as "caste-like." He argues that these populations form a layer of our society not expected to excel academically or economically and therefore are treated as a caste-like population. Puerto Ricans, for example, are often described with terms as "problems," "losers," "culturally deprived," or "disadvantaged." This lack of support for Latinos' academic growth translates into academic underachievement in mathematics and science while promoting social withdrawal.
The role of constructivism may help to alleviate some concerns for how to educate these youngsters. If constructivist theory is correct, then teaching a concept such as negative numbers in mathematics is truncated if the teachers use the analogy of digging a hole: The more soil you take out of the hole, the greater the hole becomes (the more one subtracts from a negative number, the greater the negative number becomes). But if the student has no knowledge of digging holes, then the lesson falls on barren ground. Walker (1987) states that schools in this country lack a fit for Latino students because: (1) they systematically exclude the histories, language experiences, and values of Latino students from curriculum and activities, (2) Latino students are often placed on low tracks and receive inadequate exposure for academic learning, and (3) schools do not give students opportunities to learn in ways other than teacher-led activities.
There is hope for Hispanic/Latino(a) students. An ethnographic study by Maria Torres-Guzman (1992) tells stories of teachers struggling to give hope and create an environment for the empowerment of Latino(a) students. The curriculum consisted of a cleanup project by students in the Brooklyn neighborhood, which instigated the cleanup of a particularly polluted lot. Several Chicago Public Schools in Mexican-American neighborhoods are another example where schools adopted vacant lots and then turned them into school gardens that grow plants native to Mexico. It is documented that including student voices in their own learning does enhance the academic achievement for Latino students.
Return to "Remembering the Child: On Equity and Inclusion in Mathematics and Science Classrooms."