Teaching Transborder Students: Perspectives From Educators in Mexico

• In Event: Con Respeto y Cariño: Sociopolitical Consciousness and Practices in the Education of Latino Students

Abstract

The rates of immigrants in the US returning to Mexico due to deportation or difficult circumstances related to being undocumented have been increasing (González-Barrera, 2015). Children and youth who are born in Mexico the US to Mexican parents are finding themselves in Mexico, a country they barely know or remember. This is not a new phenomenon (Hamann, & Zúñiga, 2011 & 2009), but one that is receiving more attention given the elevated numbers of US-raised students who are in Mexican schools and the discourse and actions of the Trump administration, which has promised to deport an unprecedented number of undocumented immigrants (Fox, 2015).

Transborder students literally and metaphorically traverse international and national borders, school systems, cultures, language borders and policies (Stephen, 2007). This adjustment to a different nation-state is not only one that students and their families must make, but it is also one educators in Mexico must adapt to as well, albeit in a different manner. The best approaches to educating students who are Mexican citizens (or dual citizens) who were born, raised and/or educated in another country is not a reality most educators have been prepared to address.

The findings presented here are part of a larger qualitative study that looks at how transborder students acclimate to being (back) in Mexico (Maxwell, 1996). The study focused on nine students at the elementary, secondary and tertiary levels, with three at each level. In addition to focusing on the students and their families, semi-structured interviews with at least one of their teachers/professors were conducted and they were also observed teaching (Silverman, 2000). The questions addressed how they understood the experiences of their transborder students, the approaches they have taken to make the students’ transition to a new country and new school system easier and the types of supports the educators need to do better by this subgroup.

Initial analysis of the data reveals that transborder students are often invisible to teachers and are perceived as struggling students. Teachers lack formal training or professional development about transborder students or ways to adapt their teaching to support them. Teachers of English generally view these students as a threat to their expertise while some try to have them serve as language role models for their peers. At the tertiary level, the transborder students who make it to college often apply to the English language education programs. There professors see these students as leaders and a resource to a nation that can build on the bilingual and multicultural strengths they bring to Mexico.

With the cyclical movement of students across borders, it is imperative that they receive a quality education that integrates their realities and resources and prepares them to live global lives. The goal of this study is to contribute to this growing body of literature to improve the education of transborder students in Mexico and beyond so they can be educated “con respecto” regardless of where they are in the world (Valdés, 1996).

Author

• Tatyana Kleyn, City College of New York - CUNY