Remaining and Becoming : Cultural Crosscurrents in an Hispano School

by Roberts, Shelley

• ISBN13: 9780805825213
• ISBN10: 0805825215
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781135686437
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau
• More Book Details

Summary

Remaining and Becoming: Cultural Crosscurrents in an Hispano Schooldeals with the politics of identity and the concept of boundaries during a time of rapid change. It investigates how the role of schooling for Hispanos in the Norteno School District (a pseudonym) in Northern New Mexico--a public school district, not fully consolidated until 1972--has changed significantly over the past three generations. Today, the Hispanos, a minority in the outside world but a majority in their own, are debating how the functions of the school should respond to the changes resulting from the coming of public education to their region. But the contemporary story of education in Norteno has much deeper roots in the political, religious, and cultural history of Northern New Mexico--a region where, over a period of several centuries, Spain, Mexico, and the United States each have claimed sovereignty, with differing goals for and attitudes about the welfare of the people. This study is an analysis of the ambiguity of education, the losses and gains that are its consequences, the lingering doubts about the past, and the questions about what future education can and should serve. It is about asking: Is what the students are learning worth as much as what they are forgetting? How does schooling affect the evolving process of asserting, renegotiating, and defending an Hispano identity? By exploring historical factors and ideologies of a particular school within a particular community, Roberts seeks to understand community expectations for the school as a fitting place for its children. The goal is not to generalize from the particular to the universal, but to join others in suggesting that we move away from discussing students in a generic sense and focus instead on looking at them in relation to the community in which they live. The fascinating and largely unknown story this book tells will be of interest to educators, researchers, and students across a range of fields, including sociology of education, educational anthropology, multicultural education, ethnic studies, Chicano studies, and qualitative research in education.

Table of Contents

Agradecimientos [Acknowledgments]	xi
Issues and Contexts: Place, Time, Identity	1	(22)
Finding My Story	7	(5)
A School Within a Community	12	(5)
Terms of Identity: Self-Labeling and Labeling by Others	17	(6)
Souls and Minds: Norteno's Educational History	23	(27)
A Legacy to Reckon With	28	(6)
Spanish Colonization (1598-1821)	28	(2)
Mexican Rule (1821-1848)	30	(1)
United States Occupation (1848-1912)	31	(3)
The Rise of Sectarian Schools: Religion and Culture	34	(7)
The Dixon Case: A Protestant Secular Challenge to Catholic Public Schools	41	(9)
People Without a Language: Language Without a People	50	(12)
Debate Among Teachers	52	(4)
Debate Among Parents	56	(4)
Debate Epilogue	60	(2)
Caught in the Ebb and Flow of Cultural Crosscurrents	62	(25)
Ethnic Identity Versus Ethnic Identification	69	(3)
Cuentos and Consejos: Stories and Advice	72	(15)
Domains of Individuality: Public and Private	87	(31)
Luisa: The We of Me	88	(4)
Georgeann: The Links of Common Knowledge	92	(2)
Alfonso: La Importancia de Saber Dos Idiomas	94	(3)
Kate: Where Ethnic Pride Ends and Prejudice Begins	97	(2)
Hector: Leave to Make Something of Yourself	99	(5)
Bolivar: Stand and Deliver	104	(5)
A Kaleidoscope of Needs	109	(5)
Teacher Fit	114	(4)
A Fitting School: The Politics of Language and Identity	118	(25)
Language Politics: Language as a Problem, Right, Resource	119	(7)
Legislating Language	119	(2)
Forgotten Students: Educational Inequality	121	(2)
Advocacy for Language-Minority Students	123	(2)
Contested Rights About Language	125	(1)
Affirming Ethnicity	126	(3)
Competing Local and National Interests	129	(4)
Barriers to Local Control	129	(2)
A Community School Concept	131	(2)
Ethnic Boundary Maintenance	133	(4)
A Fitting School for Norteno	137	(6)
References	143	(10)
Appendix Population Decline of Hispano Villages, 1900-1980	153	(2)
Author Index	155	(4)
Subject Index	159