Expanding Understandings of Ways of Knowing: Sobrevivencia Knowing Among Mexican Transnational Students and Families

• In Event: Roundtable Session 57
  In Roundtable Session: Transnational Youth, Families, and Educational Experiences

Abstract

Drawing upon multi-sited ethnographic case studies in the U.S. and Mexico, the author demonstrates sobrevivencia, a survivalist way of knowing of Mexican-origin families. Through an underdog mentality and engaging matters of life and death, family members persisted and sometimes thrived. However, unlike recent research on “grit,” the grittiness of the underdog mentality did not always work toward the success to which families aspired. By understanding sobrevivencia, educators can better engage transnational families and links toward the K-12 curriculum. Researchers can further explore transnational ways of knowing with continuing multi-sited research.

Author

• G. Sue Kasun, Utah State University