Lack of Mentorship as a Defining Factor of Indigenous Guatemalan Educational Disparities in the U.S.: A Case Study of Palisades Park, New Jersey

• In Event: Minorías y grupos marginalizados en educación

Abstract

The singular role of indigenous identity among Guatemalan immigrants tends to underscore the disparate otherness of Guatemalan-American immigrant identity compared to other Latino identities, a disparity demanding examination through Guatemalan immigrants’ own perspectives on this differentiation. This paper presents an ethnographic study of Palisades Park, New Jersey, where Guatemalan immigrants constitute 20% of the population, examining how social discrimination towards Guatemalan immigrants from other Latino groups, together with Guatemalan adults’ disproportionately lower pre-immigration educational experience, jointly determine lower educational ambitions among Guatemalan adolescents and young adults. Interviews were conducted with 30 first-generation immigrant residents of Palisades Park (25 Guatemalan, 3 Mexican, and 2 Colombian), among whom 10 of the Guatemalan immigrants were adolescents aged 14-18, and the remainder were adults aged 20-50. Each interview was conducted individually, with open-ended questions targeting perceptions and experiences concerning education and identity. Long-form interview data was analyzed to identify repeating narrative tropes in personal accounts, which revealed the inclination of the Guatemalan adolescents and younger adults to prefer work over continuing education, reflecting perceptions of the limited long-term importance of educational attainment. Accordingly, this paper argues that the relative absence of Guatemalan adult mentorship caused by multi-generational inexperience with educational institutions, conveyed by personal accounts of shame over indigenous identity triggering self-awareness in educational deficiency, has led younger Guatemalan-Americans in Palisades Park to develop self-identities as wage workers rather than students.

Author

• Enok Choe