Parent-School Relationships With Transnational Families: Lessons for Mexican Teachers From a U.S. Family Literacy Program

• In Event: Equity Across the Border: Reimagining Mexican Teacher Preparation to Meet the Needs of Transnational Students

Abstract

In the U.S. Mexican migrant families encounter a neoliberal society that economically values immigrants but often views them through a deficit lens as “problems” that need to be “fixed” (Cuban & Stromquist, 2009; Santa Ana, 2002). U.S. schools mediate broader social, political, and economic ideologies, shaping experiences of newcomers (Lamphere, 1992). Not surprisingly, schools’ parent-outreach initiatives often draw upon deficit perspectives to “help” parents (Villenas, 2002), as opposed to first learning about their community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) and then centering that in engagement (Baquedano-Lopez et al., 2013). Still, many newcomer parents view said outreach efforts, like family literacy programs, as valuable resources. The landscape of parent outreach in U.S. schools is contradictory. Schools aim to provide resources for and welcome parents, but also change them. Mexican migrant parents’ navigation of this terrain informs how they make sense of school and how they advocate for themselves and their families while resisting deficit ideologies. They then bring this understanding with them to Mexico if/when they move there, making it relevant for Mexican educators to understand these lived tensions. This might permit both empathy and an understanding of U.S. schools’ shortcomings. This sets up centering transnational families’ funds of knowledge in engagement initiatives.

My non-fiction fiction chapter presents a portrait of Yolanda, a mother from Jalisco, Mexico, who was enrolled in a family literacy program at her daughter’s public elementary school in Nebraska. Undergirding ethnographic data (observations, interviews, artifacts) of multiple newcomer parents in a US family literacy program were collected over eighteen months. Yolanda’s experiences highlight common aspects of parent outreach in U.S. schools, including practices like connecting newcomer parents to a bilingual liaison to facilitate integration into the school to encourage parents to become “involved” in specific ways. A close look at Yolanda’s experience in family literacy sheds light on the tensions that transnational adults navigate within U.S. schools. While Yolanda wanted to learn English to gain a better sense of belonging in Nebraska, she also recognized that her children were beginning to lose their Spanish skills. The adult English classes offered in family literacy were reputable but came with stipulations that were untenable for many: parents had to make a daily, two-hour commitment, attend parenting classes, and spend time learning (often in infantilizing ways) in their child’s classroom. Ethnic and linguistic diversities were rich within the program and Yolanda formed relationships with other parents, including other Mexican mothers. Still, an English-only ideology dominated the adult class and limited the depth and quality of interaction. Weekly access to bilingual liaisons allowed parents to troubleshoot pertinent topics that arose at home and school, yet these same personnel served as interpreters for the program’s broader neoliberal and assimilatory goals.

Yolanda’s story illustrates how parents understand that school is – and should be – a resource for them. Schools’ pervasive deficit ideologies about transnational families inhibit authentic, mutualistic relationships from forming. Equitable parent-school relationships must center families’ realities, cultural capital, linguistic skills, and goals as they navigate schools as a part of their transnational lives.

Author

• Jennifer Stacy, California State University - Dominguez Hills