Mexican Immigrant Mothers Engaging in Educational Advocacy

• In Event: 44.032 - Bridging Home, Community, and School: Approaches to Family Engagement in Mexican-Origin, Immigrant, Rural Communities

Abstract

This paper examines how parents in a Mexican-origin rural community engage in practices to access educational opportunities. More specifically, this study examines the strategies created by the parents to create extended educational opportunities in their community. This study is nested in a community-based research approach that employs a community-school-university partnership to promote educational opportunities in a farmworking community. The data for this study was collected through ethnographic methods of data collection including observations, recording of field notes, parent workshop discussions, and continuous formal and informal dialogue. Using Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) framework and civic capacity (Stone, 2001), this study seeks to document how parents in the community activated their agency to foster civic capacity and create change within their local school systems. Findings from this study provide evidence to support the emerging body of literature in the field of family engagement and school partnerships that calls for more collaborative models and acknowledge families’ cultural knowledge and values.

Author

• Rosa Manzo, University of California - Davis