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Having Arrived: Dimensions of Educational Success in a Transitional Newcomer School
Abstract
This article examines a program for newly arrived, non-English-speaking immigrant children in a major California city. Focusing on students of Mexican and other Latino origin, I explore the local model of success and ask, How is student success defined and fostered? This study lays the ethnographic foundation for a comparison between settings for first-generation students. The research demonstrates how a nurturing setting, a culturally flexible teaching approach, linguistic and cultural validation, and a valued spatial environment can contribute to newcomer students' success and educational confidence. Further, it addresses both the personal and political tensions that can arise when such programs are physically separate and distant from the “home” or neighborhood school.
... Even before diversity in CS matriculation began to seriously decline after 2000 [15,48], there was substantial concern that the emergent "hacker" culture and similar cliques could alienate others from CS participation [24]. There have been frequent observations of CS classrooms highlighting that the visibility of "nerd" [4] culture might alienate and limit (nerd and non-nerd) participation in CS [5,20,29,33]. ...
... These career choices, in turn, are especially important because they have a substantial impact on students' eventual careers, more so than test scores [28]. Underrepresented students' representation might especially suffer if lacking the necessary supports to promote CS careers as possible or relevant [6,15,33,35]. Furthermore, for many students underrepresented in CS, class and program structures of CS represent greater obstacles than stereotypes, and such students may require additional supports [32][33][34]. ...
... Considering the significant difficulties faced by students attempting to study CS, it becomes apparent that measures must be taken to bolster students along their CS journey. There have been efforts to promote female participation in CS through role models that showed improved perceptions of CS [31] as well as substantive efforts with near-peer modeling that have bolstered Latina/o participation in CS [2,15,24]. This is necessary in order to meet the CS demands of the future including CS that provides software tailored to the needs of all demographics [9,22,30]. ...
This paper discusses two case studies of students observed in an introductory computer science (CS1) course. Observations reinforce notions of the potential benefits of culturally and personally relevant instruction in the computer science (CS) classroom and call into question the stigmatization of 'nerd' culture within the literature of CS education. As this study is qualitative and exploratory in nature, it does not provide definitive, statistically generalizable findings -- however, it does unearth nuanced and potentially beneficial pathways of investigation for CS educators and researchers that many quantitative methods might miss. Specifically, observations highlight potential benefits of supporting students' perceptions of more diverse CS identities including broader understandings of the "CS nerd" identity.
... With respect to connecting the curriculum to the students' cultures-to create a sense of belonging for the immigrant students and to engage them in learning, the school principals would have to create -personal linkages‖ to the students' diverse cultures by connecting the curriculum to the students' needs. For instance, school principals and teachers could adopt books for reading that represent and affirm the immigrant students' cultures (Katz, 1999;Hertzberg, 1998). Certainly, such books may have positive influence on students' self-worth and identity. ...
This paper explored school principals’ responses in addressing the perceived educational needs of Somali immigrant/refugee students; and explored how school principals might seek to create culturally responsive and inclusive schools that build a partnership with Somali families. This qualitative exploratory study combined aspects of convenience and purposeful sampling to learn about how the school principals addressed the needs of the Somali immigrant students; and the extent to which they sought to create inclusive schools and build partnerships with the Somali families. We conducted interviews with a total of three school principals in three different schools who served these students and their families. This study shows that in the initial contact with Somali students, the school principals had very little awareness and experience in dealing with Somali refugee and immigrant students who continue to face challenges in adjusting into their schools. To address the educational needs of Somali students requires an approach that transcends the provision of ESL classes. It also requires a transformative leadership approach that advocates for the needs of both the students and the parents and seeks to establish multicultural and mentoring programs which could play a role in better meeting the educational needs of all students.
... For the most part, students attending these schools appear to have had impressive outcomes (Feinberg, 2000;Hertzberg, 1998;Olsen, 1997;Short, 2002). Hertzberg suggested that one of the factors behind these schools' successes had to do with the safe and welcoming environment for immigrant students these schools created. ...
... One area of research where schools are making a difference is in providing newcomer programs for students and their families (Hertzberg, 1998;Short & Boyson 1998;Short, 2002). Short and Boyson (1998;, who have reviewed numerous programs though case study research, found that newcomer programs generally revolve around a set of common beliefs. ...
... The educational literature shows that whether schools (or daycares in this case) adopt a mosaic (multicultural) approach instead of a melting-pot approach (Entwistle 1999) has important effects on immigrant children's well-being and identity-formation. Multicultural education contributes to the reinforcement of children's self-esteem and self-confidence, which in turn contribute to an improvement in their school achievement (Hertzberg 1998). Learning about their own culture and traditions provides young immigrants with a deep-rooted sense of identity and self-understanding (Hanna 1994). ...
This paper advances the analysis of multiculturalism by examining multiculturalism in a contextualized manner. To understand multiculturalism and assess its effects on the recognition of migrant children, researchers need to analyse multicultural practices in schools by taking into account the social mirrors resulting from different social and structural conditions, such as national ideologies and the ethos of reception. The analysis of multicultural policies in four different types of daycare centres enrolling migrant workers’ children in Israel—community, Catholic, municipal, and those supported by private associations—points to three types of contextualized multicultural models: contextualized misrecognition, contextualized recognition, and de‐contextualized recognition. By juxtaposing recognition or misrecognition appearing at the daycare level with legal and ideological social mirrors, multicultural patterns can acquire a different meaning. Municipal daycares with a few migrant children as well as daycares supported by private associations that adopt a ‘blind‐homogenizing’ approach reflect an absence of recognition that is contextualized in the larger society. Community daycares adopting a survival approach, Catholic daycares applying a ‘business as usual’ approach, and municipal daycares enrolling a large number of migrant children adopting a multicultural approach reflect different degrees of cultural and religious recognition. However, when analysed in the larger local or national context, this recognition results in a de‐contextualized recognition that suppresses the beneficial character of the multicultural education provided.
... In terms of curriculum and instruction, strong newcomer programs focus on initial literacy development and language development through a content-based curriculum, and explicitly address cultural orientation (Lucas et al., 1990;Short, 2002). When feasible, class is taught with the use of the students' native language(s) in order to accelerate learning (Hertzberg, 1998). Evidence suggests that when students' native language(s) are used in classrooms, students have access not only to acquiring English language skills at a faster pace, but also have access to valuable content they might not have had in an English-only learning environment (Lucas, 1992;Thomas & Collier, 2000). ...
When elementary aged Hmong children were resettled in St. Paul Public Schools after the closing of the Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Thailand, their families largely enrolled them in either a Transitional Language Center or a Language Academy program. This study reports on the perceptions teachers and educational assistants had about how well these programs met the needs of this unique population of newcomers. Findings show that the Transitional Language Centers were better able to ease the adjustment to school for the Hmong newcomers because of the safe, bilingual environment they created.
This chapter discusses the interplay between demographic change, language policy, and pedagogic practices, drawing on a year-long institutional ethnographic and discourse analytic study at an adolescent newcomer program in Central Ohio. The focal argument of this chapter, based on this study, is that a “flexible” Ohio language policy that responds to US Supreme Court decisions is, in practice, “English-centric” and does not respond adequately or systematically to students’ languacultural backgrounds.
Secondary newcomer schools vary tremendously in format but share the common characteristic of being comprised of recently arrived adolescent immigrants. These schools, designed to meet the educational and acculturative needs of adolescent immigrants, have been proliferating across the United States for years. Yet little is known about the experiences of the students attending newcomer schools or about how or how well these schools meet their needs. For this article the author conducted in-depth interviews with seven graduates of an urban secondary newcomer school to address this issue. Participants, two in particular, revealed that, although the school met their needs, there were significant gaps in addressing issues of segregation, the needs of disabled students, and multicultural conflict. Recommendations for teachers, administrators, and policy makers are made in light of these findings.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possible merits and difficulties of utilizing participatory augmented reality simulations (PARS) with English learners (ELs) in K‐12 science classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyzed literature of PARS, sheltered English instruction (SEI), and other literature relevant to science instruction for ELs. Though the authors relied primarily on empirical research related to PARS and ELs, other papers were included to increase thoroughness.
Findings
The authors identified elements of PARS that address requirements for effective instruction of ELs including the modality, engagement, collaboration, language use, and identity forming aspects. The findings indicate that future research into the use of PARS in science instruction may benefit ELs.
Research limitations/implications
The literature synthesis was conducted to address a gap in the literature. Additional research specifically examining the impact of PARS on ELs is necessary.
Originality/value
Despite increased focus of PARS and instruction for ELs within educational literature, there has been little examination of the relationship between the two elements. Therefore, this paper highlights parallels in PARS research with documented best practices for sheltered English instruction (SEI). No other paper was found that explicitly evaluates PARS for science instruction with ELs.
Various explanations for low school achievement of minority students include those of cultural differences between teacher and student and low motivation of students because of cynicism regarding their chances in the labor market. These explanations are compared, critiqued, and reconsidered in terms of critical social theory, more especially resistance theory. The article considers the perceived legitimacy of the school and its teachers and the development of oppositional culture by students. Transformation of routine educational practice is necessary, and culturally responsive pedagogy is one means of transformation. CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY, MINORITY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, RESISTANCE THEORY, OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE
Cultural analysis of differential minority achievement can create stereotypes and restrict expectations of child performance if group-level cultural generalizations are misapplied to individuals. Observational and interview studies of sibling caretaking and peer assistance in Native Hawaiian contexts illustrate the appropriate comparative analysis of natal and school activity settings. Results indicate Native Hawaiian sibling caretaking varies widely across households and individual child experience. Parents' beliefs about sibcare show a mix of shared acceptance and ambivalence. In natal settings, child-generated activities, carried on without adult intervention, produce most literacy-related behaviors (such as school-like tasks and increased language use). Among the classroom learning activities that are successful with Native Hawaiian children are child-generated interactions, in which children are able to use scripts similar to those observed in natal settings. Other features of natal activity settings (such as personnel, goals and motives, and everyday tasks) are discontinuous with those of the classroom centers. To reduce home/school discontinuities, these data suggest that classrooms need to be accommodated to selected features of natal culture activity settings, rather than be isomorphic in all aspects. Identification of which cultural features these are depends on “unpackaging” cultural effects on individuals by analysis of both natal and school activity settings.
Ethnographic studies in the interpretive tradition have made three interrelated contributions to theories that attempt to account for social inequality: (1) cultural elements have been introduced into highly deterministic macrotheories, (2) human agency has been interjected into theories accounting for social inequality, and (3) the black box of schooling has been opened to reveal the reflexive relations between institutional practices and students' careers. These developments provide a more robust sense of social life. Culture is not merely a pale reflection of structural forces; it is a system of meaning that mediates social structure and human action. Social actors no longer function as passive role players, shaped exclusively by structural forces beyond their control; they become active sense makers, choosing among alternatives in often contradictory circumstances. Schools are not black boxes through which students pass on their way to predetermined slots in the capitalist order; they have a vibrant life, composed of processes and practices that respond to competing demands that often unwittingly contribute to inequality.
Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the United States. Although research on the educational functioning of Hispanics has gained increasing attention in the last decades, some areas of the Hispanic experience are virtually unknown. This study explores the motivational dynamics of a group of recent arrivals from Central America. The specific issues facing this population are framed in the context of a psychosocial model for understanding minority status and educational functioning in plural society. ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION, PSYCHOCULTURAL THEORY, HISPANICS IN THE UNITED STATES
Here we present two cases in which indigenous teacher groups are transforming the culture of schooling. Working within a community school and on the margins of schooling, Navajo teachers at Rough Rock and Yup'ik teachers and elders in southwestern Alaska are finding creative ways to use their culture, their knowledge, and their language in the construction of curriculum and pedagogy. These teacher groups have created zones of safety in which resistance to conventional practices can be expressed and innovative approaches to schooling investigated and practiced. The work of these teacher groups has theoretical implications for community-based teacher preparation. The challenge remains in transferring these cultural creations to the wider institution of schooling.
This article discusses teaching practices that foster student involvement. It highlights one marginalized child's transformation into a participant in a Spanish classroom in an urban, multiethnic school setting. Selected student experiences as well as the Spanish teacher's practices and beliefs are described and analyzed within a Freirean framework.
Although the classic Saussurean conception of language segregates the linguistic sign from the material world, this paper shows linguistic phenomena playing many roles in political economy. Linguistic signs may refer to aspects of an exchange system; differentiated ways of speaking may index social groups in a social division of labor; and linguistic “goods” may enter the marketplace as objects of exchange. These aspects of language are not mutually exclusive, but (instead) may coincide in the same stretch of discourse. Illustrations are drawn primarily from a rural Wolof community in Senegal. It is argued that linguistic signs are part of a political economy, not just vehicles for thinking about it. Only a conception of language as multifunctional can give an adequate view of the relations between language and the material world, and evade a false dichotomy between “idealists” and “materialists.”[language, political economy, sociolinguistics, semiotic theory, Senegal]
This ethnographic study investigated one English-as-a-second-language (ESL) program for elementary students with as many as 20 native languages represented. The article outlines different dimensions of this language program that are conducive to language-minority students learning how to succeed in schools. Segments of conversations and narrative vignettes collected during a year-long ethnographic study illustrate the pedagogical assumptions, instructional goals, and organizational arrangements of this ESL program.
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