Nurturing the Psychosocial Assets of Indigenous Mexican Students in U.S. Schools

• In Event: 72.024 - The Multiple Contexts of Indigenous Mexican Students and Their Families: Knowledge, Praxis, and Educational Opportunity

Abstract

Indigenous Mexican students face cultural discontinuities between home and school that greatly affect their indigenous identity and academic engagement (Brittain, 2002; Crawford 1992; Cummins 1996, 2003; Skutnabb-Kangas, 1995). In addition, the historical marginalization and discrimination of indigenous groups in Mexican society remains significantly relevant to the experiences of Mexican indigenous immigrants now living in the United States (Kovats, 2010). In this study we examined the relationship between and academic engagement and psychosocial assets such as indigenous identity and language among Mexican indigenous students in the U.S.

We used three theoretical perspectives to inform our conceptualization of psychosocial assets: Social Mirroring framework (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001), Integrative Model of Developmental Competencies (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), and the Bridging Multiple Worlds model (Cooper et al., 1998). According to the Social Mirroring framework, immigrant adolescents not only face structural barriers, but also prejudice and discrimination or “negative social mirroring.” As a result, immigrant youth have to forge an identity that enables them to withstand and overcome these barriers. The Integrative Model of Developmental Competencies suggests that schools and neighborhood contexts can either inhibit or promote their linguistic, social, and academic development. The Bridging Multiple Worlds model posits that youth forge identities that coordinate their cultural and family traditions with those of their peers, schools, and communities. Their relationships across these multiple worlds can either enhance or impede developmental pathways.

Our findings are based on a two-year study of Mexican high school students from two different indigenous backgrounds—Zapotec and Mixtec drawing from in-depth interview data from 50 indigenous students who attended school in Southern California. We conducted field observations and informal interviews with teachers and members of indigenous community-based and student organizations to gather multiple perspectives. Our findings suggest that the pre-migration demographic, linguistic, and socioeconomic context for Mexican indigenous immigrants is significantly different than their non-indigenous counterparts, many originate from hometowns with high proportions of indigenous language speakers that operate using the indigenous municipal governance system known as Usos y Costumbres. Claiming an indigenous identity was often tied to speaking their indigenous language and participation in indigenous cultural activities. Their family’s transnational involvement in hometown associations or indigenous municipal governance system also served to reinforce students’ indigenous identity. For many students the first language they learned was Mixtec or Zapotec and those who spoke them during childhood were more likely to self-identify as indigenous. Whereas being identified as indigenous was a source for shaming and for being seen as inferior, the students that had well-developed psychosocial assets of multilingualism and high indigenous identity were not necessarily ashamed of being indigenous (Barillas-Chon, 2010). Their decision to identify as indigenous was contingent on whether others were viewed as accepting or discriminatory (Lopez-Gopar, 2009). Their situational identity strategy allowed them to manage the negative social encounters they face inside and outside of the classroom (Machado-Casas, 2006, 2012; Sanchez, 2007). Academically, students who preferred an indigenous identity label were more likely to be excelling academically while those who did not self-identify as indigenous were more likely to be struggling. Results can assist educators improve school success.

Authors

• William Perez, Claremont University - Claremont Graduate University

• Rafael Vasquez, University of California - Davis