Gender and Education Committee Highlighted Session: Educación and transnational motherhood in New York City

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

Objectives and main questions to be addressed in the panel

In this panel we look at how a transnational orientation shapes Dominican and Mexican mothers’ attitudes towards education in New York City. We will argue that Dominican mothers struggle with contradictory values; on the one hand, they embrace the idea of schooling for individual advancement, integration in the U.S., and critical thinking, while on the other they regret the diminution of familism and respect for family and parents. Moreover, we will describe the way the migration of Mexican mothers to New York City influences the education experiences of their children. Challenges such as legal status, ethnicity and language shape much of the interactions between mothers and school staff. Thus, even though mothers from both the Dominican Republic and Mexico value the education of their children, they face different challenges when supporting the academic achievement of their offspring. We use these findings to reflect on the limits of the home-school mismatch hypothesis, as well the common grounds that Latino immigrant mothers share in terms of education in New York City.

Main perspectives and/or theoretical/conceptual frameworks

Parents shape the educational paths of their children (Hoover-Dempsey and Sander, 1995). In the case of transnational families, their expectations and emotions can play an important role as the children adapt to the new country. According to Van Ecke (2005), many immigrants who arrive in the US have not considered the emotional costs of being in a country where they were not raised. These emotional costs can influence the way parents relate to their children, and by consequence affect the children’s educational journey. This influence is especially seen in Latino immigrant mothers, who define themselves as central to the cohesion and success of their families in new contexts (Valdes, 1996). This perception underlies the need to understand transnational motherhood not just as a migratory phenomenon, but also as a lifestyle in which children are socialized in an environment that includes care, advice, love and systems of power (Rodriguez, 2009).

One example is language. Immigrant parents sometimes actively seek to maintain the mother tongue at home as an identity resource. Some scholars argue that the retention of mother tongue languages in immigrant families is beneficial for academic achievement in large urban districts, like New York City (Conger, Schwartz and Stiefel, 2011). However, lack of English proficiency may prevent parents from helping children with homework or even engaging in schools, given their “restricted knowledge of the U.S. educational system, or incompatible work schedules” (Bang, Suarez-Orozco and O’Connor, 2011, p. 27). Further, parents may not have the time or habit of engaging strategies that foster early learning, such as participating in literacy activities or language games with their children (Martinez and Owens, 2006 in Pong and Landale, 2012). Hence, the importance of understanding the reasoning and attitudes towards these issues is crucial in order to provide better educational services for these populations.

Finally, not only are parents’ characteristics important for immigrant students’ educational achievements, but their perceptions about education have an influence as well, which is particularly relevant among Latino parents. For this population, the term educación is broader than schooling, including not only formal academic training, but also manners and moral values (Rodríguez, 2011; Valdés, 1996). In this panel we posit that transnational orientation influences decisions and perceptions about schooling and educación. Moreover, we describe how some schooling practices and structures vary between Mexican and Dominican mothers in NYC, and how some forms better align with discourse structures in schools than others. Overall, this panel contributes to the home-school mismatch debate by showing how the transnational mothers interviewed held contradictory goals for schooling. These mothers pursued a type of schooling that would promote “critical thinking” and more individualistic action, even while insisting on educación that would maintain respect for authority and familial orientations. To do this, the panel will analyze (a) how a transnational frame of comparison shapes Dominican mothers’ perception towards schooling and education in New York City, (b) how a transnational frame of comparison shapes immigrant Mexican mothers’ perception towards the education of their children, (c) the challenges, interactions and negotiations of transnational migration and education (d) the role of notions of independence and respeto as central elements in the transnational orientation in Dominican and Mexican mothers in NYC, (e) implications, future research, and methodological challenges and a (f) discussant’s feedback.

Sub Unit

• Committee: Gender & Education

Chair

• Lesley Bartlett, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Individual Presentations

• Educación and the Home-School Mismatch Hypothesis among Dominican Mothers in New York - Aldo Anzures-Tapia, GSE, UPENN

• : Mexican mothers’ perception towards the education of their children - Gabrielle Oliveira, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Transnational Migration and Education: challenges and interactions - Rodrigo Mayorga, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Cultural Negotiation in Education: Educación and Independence - Chelsea Kallery, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Implications and Future Research - Cynthia Carvajal, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Lesley Bartlett, University of Wisconsin-Madison