Latino/Chicano/Hispanic Education Essay

In my research I discovered an abundant amount of information on educating Chicanos or Latinos in the coupled States, particulary calcium being that an extremely lavishly population concentrations be in atomic number 20. In this paper I testament list some of the most important cultural diversity facts Ive found regarding educational barriers, communication behaviors, cultural differences, teaching implications, learning styles and tools and insights. First, what is Chicano or Chicana? A Chicano or Chicana is a term used to indicate an identity held by some persons of Mexican descent living in the United States.Often successions, it refers to a first or second generation Mexican American living in an urban, Mexican American immigrant community, where there exists the untroubled ethnic consciousness of being Mexican American. It is considered a term of ethnic pride, though not all Mexican Americans proud of their heritage necessarily consider themselves Chicano. A charr of t his category is usually named by the feminine form Chicana, and, following the usual conventions for Spanish words, the masculine plural form Chicanos is used for groups that include both genders. a great deal attention has been directed to the Chicano or Latino youth in trains today.When looking at a chart provided by the 2000 census (Table 2. 1). It is obvious why Chicano or Latino choose been recognized as a major player in civilizes, workforce and communities. Table 2. 1 Top Ten Countries of Birth and transmittable Backgrounds of California Youth, Ages 13 to 24, 2000 Country of Birth Number Ancestry Number Foreign-Born U. S. -Born 1. Mexico 783,124 1. Mexican 1,228,338 2. Philippines 76,753 2. African American 310,810 3. El Salvador 59,612 3. German 279,195 4. Vietnam 58,701 4. Irish 210,186 5. Guatemala 42,795 5. position 178,050 6. Korea 28,228 6. Italian 161,383 7. Taiwan 25,859 7. American 158,956.8. India 23,576 8. Filipino 107,742 9. Thailand 22,822 9. White 94,380 1 0. China 22,337 10. Chinese 82,943 SOURCE Authors calculations from the 2000 Census. EDUCATIONAL BARRIERS AND TEACHING IMPLICATIONS I feel that educational barriers and teaching implications go hand in hand. I feel this is true since an educational barrier is a direct implication to teaching. Nearly half of all Californians today be first-generation or second-generation immigrants. As that sh argon of the California population continues to grow, it is increasingly important to understand the nature of intergenerational promotion for immigrant groups.( Myers, Dowell, John Pitkin, and Julie Park) Recent research has called into question the intergenerational progress of immigrants, peculiarly educational progress between the second generation and the third generation. When the educational attainment of second and third generations is comp atomic number 18d directly with that of their parents or their parents generation, the authors find strong intergenerational progress for all ma jor immigrant groups. ( Myers, Dowell, John Pitkin, and Julie Park) However, even by the third generation, Mexican Americans in California sire not attained the educational levels that whites consent attained.In other words, there is some progress but even by the third generation only 11 percent of Mexican American adults have get a bachelors degree. In contrast, among third-and-later generation whites, more than a third has a bachelors degree. Also, about 30 percent of Californias children are growing up in families where incomplete parent has completed superior school. One consequence of this low educational attainment is that as many as 95 percent of these children might not earn a bachelors degree the low educational attainment of parents makes it slight likely that their children will attain full(prenominal) levels of education.Among these children at risk of low educational acquisition, Mexican Americans make up a Brobdingnagian percentage. More than half of all Calif ornia youth ages 13 to 24 have a foreign born(p) parent. Because a large number of these immigrant parents have a hold in education, lack of improvement in educational attainment from one generation to the next would have serious implications for the state economically as well as socially. Education is an important determinant of social and economic well-being, such as income, health, home ownership, and civic participation.The concern for educational progress is particularly acute for Mexican Americans who, even by the third generation, have very low levels of educational attainment. It finds that intergenerational progress has not stalled but rather that second- and third-generation immigrants have make substantial educational progress when compared with their parents. Most of Californias Latino youth are of Mexican ancestry (84%) and over 60 percent of them were born in the United States. Overall, one in four youth is a first-generation immigrant (i. e. , born in a foreign co untry). About the same share are second-generation immigrants (i.e. , born in the United States with at least one foreign-born parent). Racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment are strongly influenced by immigration. Of the major racial and ethnic groups in California, young adults of Mexican descent have the lowest levels of education. Of those ages 25 to 29, only 51 percent have earned a high school diploma, compared to 93 percent of non-Hispanic whites. However, the rate for Mexican American youth born in the United States is substantially higher76 percent. Mexican youth who come to the United States as teens often do not attend high school here.The older their age at arrival, the less likely Mexican youth are to attend school in California. Among those ages 16 to 18 and who recently arrived in the United States, less than half are enrolled in school. Among men, many are working among women, substantial numbers are working, married, or raising children. In particul ar, although some research has suggested that educational progress stalls between the second and third generations for Mexican Americans, it has been found that college graduation rates of third-generation immigrants are more than twice those of their parents.Further, although over half of their parents did not graduate from high school, about eight in 10 third-generation Mexican Americans have graduated from high school. Even by the third generation, however, Mexican Americans in California have lower educational attainment than whites have. Despite strong intergenerational progress, less than 85 percent of third and-later-generation Mexican American adults, ages 25 to 34, have blameless high school and only 11 percent have completed a bachelors degree.(Third-and-later generation includes youth with both parents born in the United States but the data do not identify whether their grandparents or great-grandparents were born in the United States. ) In comparison, among third-and-l ater-generation whites, 95 percent earned a high school diploma and over a third has a bachelors degree. Mexican immigrant youth who arrive at age 15 or older are among the least educated Californians. Improving their educational attainment is particularly challenging because many do not enroll in California schools but are working and raising families.Analysis suggests that about 30 percent of Californias children are growing up in families where neither parent has completed high school and that as many as 95 percent of these children might not achieve a bachelors degree. Among these children at risk of low educational achievement, Mexican Americans make up a large share (68%). The success of students in Californias community colleges is of particular importance for improving Latino postsecondary education because almost 80 percent of Latinos who enroll in public higher education enter by dint of community colleges.Of great concern, however, is the low transfer rate to four-year i nstitutions, and transfers are especially low among Latino students. In addition to preparing students for transfers, community colleges provide English language, remedial, and vocational courses. As the value of education and skills in the California economy continues to grow, these courses will become increasingly important to workforce training, especially for those who do not go on to complete a bachelors degree. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES.Because California has such large numbers of immigrants with limited education, a lack of improvement in educational attainment from one generation to the next would have serious implications for the state economically as well as socially. Educational progress is particularly important because education plays a role in determining racial and ethnic differences in other areas of social and economic well-being, such as poverty, health status, employment, home ownership, and civic participation (Reyes, 2001 Reed, 2003a).This information is important to understand why immigrant families rely so much on each other and not on education and opportunity. Hispanic-Americans are united by customs, language, religion, and values. There is, however, an extensive diversity of traits among Hispanic-Americans. One characteristic that is of paramount importance in most Hispanic cultures is family commitment, which involves loyalty, a strong support system, a belief that a childs behavior reflects on the honor of the family, a hierarchical order among siblings, and a debt instrument to care for family members.This strong sense of other-directedness conflicts with the United States mainstream emphasis on individualism (Vasquez, 1990). Stereotyped sex roles tend to exist among many Latinos the male is perceived as dominant and strong, whereas the female is perceived as nurturing and self-sacrificing. Note, however, that in Latino cultures, the term machismo (used by Anglos to refer to male chauvinism) refers to a concept of chivalry that encomp asses gallantry, courtesy, charity, and courage (Baron, 1991).Indeed, Hispanic cultures emphasis on cooperation in the attainment of goals can result in Hispanic students discomfort with this nations conventional schoolroom competition. This cultural difference could play a negative role when the value of education in the California labor market has increased substantially in recent decades and projections suggest that workers without a college education will continue to see their earnings erode. Among youth in immigrant families, there is tremendous variation in family income and maternal education.Among young immigrants ages 13 to 17, about one-third of those from Mexico are living in poor families and only 17 percent have a mother who codaed high school (maternal education is measured only for those living with their mothers). These differences in family characteristics change to racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment for immigrant youth, which, in turn, cont ribute to education differences for their second-generation children.Differences in family characteristics explain most of the lower educational attainment of Mexican Americans. Among Mexican American youth, parental education, parental English language ability, and family income are substantially lower than among white youth. LEARNING boltS An expanding body of research affirms that teaching and counseling students with interventions that are congruent with the students learning-style preferences result in their increased academic achievement and more positive attitudes toward learning.Research on the learning styles of Hispanic-Americans in particular, however, is limited. Within the Latino groups, the majority of studies have focused on the learning styles of Mexican-American elementary school children. Several investigations (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993) have compared various ethnic groups of students in elementary school through college levels using a measure that identifies 2 1 elements of learning style group into five categories. 1. ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING STYLE elements include sound, temperature, design, and light.A cool temperature and formal design were identified as important elements for Mexican-American elementary and diaphragm school students (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993). 2. EMOTIONAL LEARNING STYLE elements include responsibility, structure, persistence, and motivation. Sims (1988) reported that Mexican-American third- and fourth-graders were the least conforming of three ethnic groups studied. Yong and Ewing (1992), however, found that Mexican-American middle-school adolescents were conforming.The disparities between these data may result from subjects age, lifestyle, and urban/rural differences in the two studies. Both of these studies reported that Mexican-Americans required a higher degree of structure than did other groups. 3. SOCIOLOGICAL LEARNING STYLE elements are concerned with the social patterns in which one learns. Learning alone (as opposed to in groups) was preferred more by Caucasian students than by Mexican-American children (Dunn & Dunn, 1992, 1993) and more by Mexican-Americans students than by African-American children (Sims, 1988).Mexican-American students required significantly more sociological variety than either African-Americans or Caucasians (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993). Mexican-American males were authority-oriented and Mexican-American females were strongly peer-oriented (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993). 4. PHYSIOLOGICAL LEARNING STYLE elements relate to time of day, food and drink intake, perception, and mobility. Puerto-Rican college students exhibit a strong preference for learning in the late morning, afternoon, and evening. The time-of-day preferences of Mexican-Americans are less clear.Sims (1988) found that Caucasians preferred drinking or eating snacks while learning significantly more than did Mexican-Americans. Yong and Ewing (1992) reported that Latinos strongest perceptual strength was kinesthetic. Both Caucasians and African-American were significantly more auditory and visual than Mexican-Americans (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993 Sims, 1988).The make by Sims (1988) indicated that Caucasian students exhibited a higher need for mobility than did Mexican-American students. Contrary to findings for the U. S. general population, Mexican-American females had a significantly higher need for mobility than their male counterparts (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993). 5. PSYCHOLOGICAL LEARNING STYLE elements relate to global versus analytical processing. The construct of field dependence/independence is a component of this learning style. Field dependent individuals are more group-oriented and conjunctive and less competitive than field independent individuals. Research generally has indicated that Mexican-American and other minority students are more field dependent than nonminority students.Hudgens (1993) found that Hispanic middle and secondary school students were more f ield dependent than Anglo students Hispanic female (and African-American male) students had a greater internal locus of control than other groups and Hispanic male (and African-American female) students had a greater external locus of control than other groups. INSIGHTS AND TOOLS There are a number of state and local programs intentional to improve the lives of youth as well as to steer them in the direction of positive future outcomes.Youth ages 13 to 24 are of diminutive concern because during these ages youth are preparing for the transition to adulthood with its increased economic challenges and responsibilities and often with new marriage and parenting relationships. During these ages, many potentially life-changing decisions are often made, including the decisions to finish high school, to go to college, and perhaps to start a family. For these youth, adult education programs in school districts and community colleges can provide better schedules for part time, evening, and spend coursework.In addition, as these youth become parents, programs that work with young children can assist parents with parental support and literacy improvement. For second and third generations, and for immigrants who do enter California schools, the quality of the K12 public education system is clearly a key factor in success. Several recent and continuing reforms are improving California schools, particularly in the areas of student achievement, teacher quality, and quality of facilities. In addition, English language learning is of concern for the children of immigrants.For students whose own parents have limited educational experience, programs of educational counseling and tutoring are particularly helpful. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Baron, A. , Jr. , Counseling Chicano College Students. In C. Lee, and B. Richardson (Eds. ), MULTICULTURAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING New Approaches to Diversity (p. 171-184). Alexandria, VA American connective for Counseling and Development. ED 329 861, 19 91. 2. Dunn, R. , and K. Dunn. , TEACHING SECONDARY STUDENTS, 1993. 3. Dunn, R. , S. Griggs, and G. Price. , Learning Styles of Mexican-American and Anglo-American Elementary-School Students.JOURNAL OF MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT 21(4) 237-247. EJ 470 183. 1993. 4. Hudgens, B. , THE RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE STYLE, 1993. 5. Myers, Dowell, John Pitkin, and Julie Park, California Demographic Futures Projections to 2030, by Immigrant Generations, Nativity, and Time of Arrival in U. S. , School of indemnity, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 2005. 6. Neumark, David, Californias Economic Future and Infrastructure Challenges, Occasional Paper, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2005.7. Reed, Deborah, The ontogeny Importance of Education in California, Occasional Paper, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2003a. 8. Reed, Deborah, Racial and Ethnic Wage Gaps in th e California Labor Market, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2003b. 9. Reyes, Belinda I. , ed. , A Portrait of Race and Ethnicity in California An Assessment of Social and Economic Well-Being, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, California, 2001.10. Sims, J., Learning Styles of Black-American, Mexican-American, and White-American Third- and Fourth-Grade Students in traditional Public Schools. Doctoral dissertation, University of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 1988. 11. Vasquez, J. , Teaching to the Distinctive Traits of Minority Students. THE CLEARING HOUSE 63(7) 299-304,1990. 12. Yong, F. , and N. Ewing, A Comparative Study of the Learning-Style Preferences among Gifted African-American, Mexican-American and American Born Chinese Middle-Grade Students. ROEPER reexamination 14(3) 120-123. EJ 447 200, 1992.