This article examines the tensions inherent in the relationship between Latino immigrant youth and their teachers at a desegregated urban middle school in Northern California, exploring these tensions from both the students’ and teachers’ perspectives. It is based upon data from a year-long ethnographic study of the school experiences of eight immigrant students from Central America and Mexico, all of whom had older siblings or close friends involved in neighborhood gangs. It also includes interviews with the students’ teachers regarding their perceptions of the students. Significantly, students named teachers’ discrimination against them as Latinos as the primary cause of their disengagement from school, refusing to invest in learning from these teachers. At the same time, these teachers felt they were trying their best to do a good job, responding to the school administration's mandate to invest in other students who were considered most likely to keep standardized test scores high. Thus this article explores how teachers’ attitudes and practices perceived by students as racist may be actually linked to structural conditions within the school, such as tracking and high teacher turnover, that preclude caring relationships with students.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ByrdG. (1993, July). Youth summit gives hope and direction. Las Palmas News, pp. 1–5.
2.
CarewJ. V., & LightfootS. L. (1979). Beyond bias: Perspectives on classrooms.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
3.
Chávez-ChávezR. (1996). A curriculum discourse for achieving equity: Implications for teachers when engaged with Latino/Latina students.Paper written for the Hispanic Dropout Project. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary.
4.
Cochran-SmithM. (1991). Teaching against the grain. Harvard Educational Review, 61 (3), 279–310.
5.
ColemanJ. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
6.
DelpitL. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom.New York: New Press.
7.
DonatoR., MenchacaM., & ValenciaR. R. (1991). Segregation, desegregation, and integration of Chicano students: Problems and prospects. In ValenciaR.R. (Ed.), Chicano school failure and success: Research and policy agendas for the 1990s (pp. 27–63). New York: Falmer Press.
8.
FasholaO. S., SlavinR. E., CalderónM., & DuránR. (1996). Effective programs for the Latino students in elementary and middle schools.Paper written for Hispanic Dropout Project. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary.
9.
FineM. (1991). Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of an urban public high school.Albany: State University of New York Press.
10.
FineM., WeissL., & PowellL. (1997). Communities of difference: A critical look at desegregated spaces created for and by youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67 (2), 247–284.
11.
FordhamS., & OgbuJ. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of “acting white.” The Urban Review, 18 (3), 176–206.
12.
FullanM. G. (1991). The new meaning of educational change.New York: Teachers College Press.
13.
Hispanic Dropout Project. (1996). Data book.Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary.
14.
KatzS. (1997). Presumed guilty: How schools criminalize Latino youth. Social Justice, 24 (4), 77–95.
15.
KingJ. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity and the miseducation of teachers. Journal of Negro Education, 69 (2), 1–14.
16.
KohlH. (1994). “I won't learn from you” and other thoughts on creative maladjustment.New York: New Press.
17.
KozolJ. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools.New York: Crown Publishers.
18.
LevyD. (1997, March 18). Outbreak of swastika worsens tensions in Parkside. Chronicle, pp. A1, A13.
19.
LockwoodA. T. (1996). Caring, community, and personalization: Strategies to combat the Hispanic dropout problem. Advances in Hispanic Education.Paper written for the Hispanic Dropout Project. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary.
20.
MartínezE. (1997). “Unite and overcome!” Teaching Tolerance, 6 (1), 11–15.
21.
McDermottR. (1977). Social relations as contexts for learning in schools. Harvard Educational Review47 (2), 198–213.
22.
MehanH. (1996). Contextual factors surrounding Hispanic dropouts.Paper written for the Hispanic Dropout Project. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of the Undersecretary.
23.
MullerC. (1998). The minimum competency exam requirement: Teachers’ and students’ expectations and academic performance. Social Psychology of Education, 2 (2), 199–216.
24.
National Center for Education Statistics. (1993). Dropout rates in the United States: 1993.Washington, DC: United States Department of Education.
25.
NietoS. (1994). Lessons from students on creating a chance to dream. Harvard Educational Review, 64 (4), 392–426.
26.
NietoS. (1996). Affirming diversity (2nd ed.). New York: Longman Publishers.
27.
NoddingsN. (1992). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education.New York: Teachers College Press.
28.
NogueraP. A. (1995). Preventing and promoting violence: A critical analyses of responses to school violence. Harvard Educational Review, 65 (2), 189–212.
29.
OakesJ. (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality.New Haven: Yale University Press.
30.
OakesJ. (1997). Detracking: The social construction of ability, cultural politics, and resistance to reform. Teachers College Record, 93 (3), 482–510.
31.
OgbuJ. U., & Matute-BianchiM. E. (1986). Understanding sociocultural factors: Knowledge, identity, and school adjustment. In California State Department of Education (Ed.), Beyond language: Social and cultural factors in schooling language minority students (pp. 73–142). Los Angeles: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University.
32.
OlsenL. (1988). Crossing the schoolhouse border: Immigrant students and the California public schools.San Francisco: California Tomorrow.
33.
OlsenL. (1997). Made in America: Immigrant students in our public schools.New York: The New Press.
34.
RistR. (1970). Student social class and student expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (3), 411–451.
35.
RodríguezL. J. (1993). Always running: La vida loca. Gang days in L.A.Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press.
36.
RomoH. D., & FalboT. (1996). Latino high school graduation: Defying the odds.Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
37.
RumbautR. G. (1994). A crucible within: Ethnic identity, self-esteem, and segmented assimilation among children of immigrants. International Migration Review, 28 (28), 748–794.
38.
RumbergerR. W. (1987). High school dropouts: A review of issues and evidence. Review of Educational Research, 57 (2), 101–121.
39.
RumbergerR. W. (1995). Dropping out of middle school: A multilevel analysis of students and schools. American Educational Research Journal, 32 (3), 583–625.
40.
ShorrisE. (1992). Latinos: A biography of the people.New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
41.
SleeterC. E. (1993). How white teachers construct race. In McCarthyC., & CrichlowW. (Eds.), Race, identity and representation in education (pp. 157–171). New York: Routledge.
42.
Stanton-SalazarR. D. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial minority children and youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67 (1), 1–40.
43.
Suarez-OrozcoM. (1989). Central American refugees and U.S. high schools: A psychosocial study of motivation and achievement.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
44.
ValdésG. (1997). Dual-language immersion programs: A cautionary note concerning the education of language-minority students. Harvard Educational Review, 67 (3), 391–429.
45.
WeinbergS. K. (1988). A critique of the program for language minority students at Coolidge Middle School. Unpublished manuscript, University of California at Berkeley.
46.
WeinbergS. K. (1994). Where the streets cross the classroom: A study of Latino students’ perspectives on cultural identity in city schools and neighborhood gangs. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California at Berkeley.
