Countering the Silencing of Latina/o Children in the New South: Testimonios of Mexican Immigrant Mothers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Issues and Possibilities in New Immigrant Gateway States: The Case of North Carolina

Abstract

Drawing on theories of schools as sites of cultural production (Levinson, Foley, & Holland, 1996) and reproduction (Apple & King, 1977), and subtractive schooling, (Valenzuela, 1999) we explore the gradual but insipient process of “silencing” Latina/o children despite their participation in a Spanish/English two-way dual language program in North Carolina. By silencing we refer to the subjugation of students’ participation and of the use of their native language that is either self-induced or indirectly fostered within classroom discourse. Secondly, in light of the general belief that Latina/o parents were the main contributors to the suppression of their children’s voice, we attempt to unpack parental and cultural views about children’s voice, participation, bilingualism, and agency through the narratives of Mexican immigrant mothers. We use testimonios (Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Carmona, 2012) as a theory and method to reveal and analyze the ways in which Mexican immigrant mothers’ experiences counter dominant social constructions of Latina/o children.

This qualitative research draws from our critical ethnographic (Foley, 2002) work in the Spring of 2012 at Roberts Elementary School. The data collected includes participant observations of dual language classrooms and parent workshops offered by the school. It also includes semi-structured interviews with nine dual language teachers and seven Mexican mothers. Initial analyses indicate that intersectionalities of race and class in dual language classrooms played an important role in the manifestation of voice in the classroom. We also posit that public discourse that portrays Latino immigrants as having deficits and as subservient to their White counterparts infiltrated into the classroom in a variety of ways, resulting in the literal silence of Latina/o children. Moreover, we found that the silencing of children went unquestioned, in part, due to a general belief that Latina/o parents contribute to their children’s silence in school through a culture of obedience that discourages children’s expression of opinions, questions, or ideas in an adult context. However, this belief was challenged by the mothers’ narratives, revealing deliberate efforts to defy the silencing they experienced in their own childhood through consejos of agency and voice, through their example and life histories, and through their emphasis on the value of their home language and culture.

As dual language programs grow in popularity in North Carolina as a potential “solution” to the achievement gap between language majority and language minority students, it is important to explore the inequalities and dangers that can emerge in a context with a limited history and presence of bilingual education and where Latina/os remain at the lowest levels of the social strata. Bringing to light not only the issue of silencing, but also the voices and perspectives of Latina/o parents is crucial in the process of identifying the cultural production of minority students and the real factors that contribute to the subjugation of Latina/o children’s voices and languages.

Authors

• Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Alison McGlinn Turner, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill