Access and Agency: Family-School Relations in the New Latino Diaspora

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18.
  In Roundtable Session: Home-School Relations in Traditional and New Immigrant Destinations: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, immigration trends have led to a rapid increase in the public school enrollment of Latino students across the country, with the fastest proportional growth in states with little tradition of immigration (Marrow, 2005). These youth and their families constitute what some have defined as a “New Latino Diaspora” (Wortham, Murillo, & Hamann, 2002). As immigrants navigate a new setting, schools serve as critical organizations in the context of reception (Portes & Macleod, 1996). Based on findings from a statewide study of Wisconsin, this paper considers the ways in which schools integrate or marginalize members of the New Latino Diaspora through their family involvement practices, which have the potential to ensure access to and agency in the educational process.
Previous research in immigrant education has emphasized that school practices often lead to the marginalization of immigrant students and a disconnect between home and school (Lopez, 2001; Valdés, 1996; Valenzuela, 1999). Within the context of new immigrant destinations, some scholars identified several barriers to involvement, including a dearth of bilingual staff, as well as an unwillingness to redefine participation in terms appropriate to the changing demographics (Bohon et al., 2005; Wainer, 2006). Others critiqued efforts to reach out to recent immigrant families as motivated by underlying deficit beliefs about newcomers (Hamann, 2003; Villenas, 2002). This paper takes on issues of immigrant families’ agency as framed by Lopez (2001), who highlighted the ways in which common definitions of family involvement marginalize immigrants and promote deficit-oriented perspectives.
Based on a critical analysis of results from an electronic survey of administrators and teachers in schools serving the New Latino Diaspora across Wisconsin, this paper describes family involvement practices in these schools based on results from 100 principal and 150 teacher surveys. In addition to a comparative analysis of differences across geographic locale and school level, the paper also includes findings from a thematic coding of comments about family involvement. Specifically, the discussion focuses on the degree to which immigrant families have access to core school practices through the use of Spanish translation and interpretation, as well as the degree of participation, defined as family engagement and involvement in a range of school activities.
The paper is organized around several key findings. First, efforts to create access for immigrant families through the translation of key school documents and interpretation at parent-teacher conferences were fairly common. Second, efforts to encourage active participation were far more rare. Efforts to include immigrant families focused on providing newcomers with the opportunity to engage in current practices, without encouraging agency in shaping school practice. Participants reported a lack of Spanish interpretation at schoolwide meetings and limited participation of immigrant families in school organizations, key sites of agency for families. Third, textual analysis indicated that personal forms of outreach such as home visits influenced the degree to which families participated.This paper contributes to our understanding of the ways schools are responding to demographic shift and includes previously unexamined comparisons across contexts, locales and school types.

Author

• Rebecca Jane Lowenhaupt, Boston College