Beyond Risks and Resources: The Home-School Relationship for Mexican Immigrant Families Within Two California School Districts

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  In Poster Session: Meeting the Needs of Immigrant Students

Abstract

Drawing on the linguistic anthropology of education, this manuscript offers a nuanced exploration of the interplay between institutional discourse on Latinos in education and the nature of the home-school relationship for four Mexican immigrant families. From eleven months of ethnographic observations and interviews in homes and schools, as well as textual artifact collection within a northern and southern California school district, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the way these families orient towards school and the influence the district and school-wide discourses about Latinos have on home-school interaction opportunities. This work examines how federal policies inform educational discourse and interactions between the home and school, simultaneously facilitating and undermining healthy home-school relationships.

Author

• Sera Jean Hernandez, University of California - Berkeley