Construyendo Puentes: Mexico/California Context of the Students We Share

• In Event: Formadores de Docentes: A Binational Teacher Education Project at the U.S./Mexico Border

Abstract

This paper will discuss the contextual reality of the students that have experienced some part of their young lives in both the US and Mexico, often going to school in both systems. About 1.5 million children under 17 are foreign born Latinos–largely of Mexican descent (Zong, Batalova & Hallock, 2018). Another 600,000 US born and raised children are now in Mexican schools as a result of their families returning to Mexico, often due to deportations (Jensen, Mejía-Arauz & Zepeda, 2017; Jensen & Jacobo, 2019). All of these students are considered “the students we share.” In this paper scholars from both sides of the border focus their attention on the contextual regional reality of the 54,000 U.S. citizen students that are currently in Baja California’s schools. Some have grown up on the Mexican side of the border, but many have been displaced, mostly from California, and have lived part of their lives in the U.S and now part in Mexico. Many intend to come back to the U.S., to study and to live. But their futures depend greatly on how well we are able to educate these students on both sides of the border, especially in the Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana (LASANTI) region (Authors, 2019).

We draw on a “Transnational Education Framework” that integrates four contextual dimensions that the literature suggests shape binational students’ schooling experiences: sociopolitical, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and socioemotional (Authors, 2019), while proposing a multi-dimensional binational education framework that considers these dimensions and their connectedness in the binational educational context.

Creswell (2013) defines a phenomenological study as one that “describes the common meaning of several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon” (p. 76). This study uses a phenomenological embedded case study design (Yin, 2003). Data sources for this study include: (a) analyses of Mexico and California educational systems, (b) juxtaposition of teacher preparation--Mexico & California, (c) ethnographic documentation of team dialogues, and (d) politics that drive education policy (e) binational teacher survey.

Scholars from both countries discussed the binational realities and poignant recommendations to enhance educator preparation to meet pressing curricular political, cultural, linguistic, and emotional needs of students we share. This paper critically analyzes the challenges for Mexican teachers to integrate US-born students, a framework for enhancing equity and inclusive teaching practices, and state policies in the US and Mexico to prepare the teachers we need. Binational scholars navigate complex research literature and institutional dynamics to offer compelling and actionable recommendations to prepare teachers for the students—and for the future—that we share. Additionally, we argue that it is imperative that we attack this phenomenon jointly (across borders) to create a sustainable infrastructure built on the contextual realities of the students and families we share.

Authors

• Cristina Alfaro, San Diego State University

• Yara Amparo Lopez-Lopez, Educación Migrante Probem BC