Education in the New Latino Diaspora

Policy and the Politics of Identity

Stanton E.F. Wortham, Enrique G. Murillo Jr., Edmund T. Hamann, Stanton E.F. Wortham, Enrique G. Murillo Jr., Edmund T. Hamann

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9781567506303
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780313076107
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The authors describe a new demographic phenomenon: the settlement of Latino families in areas of the United States where previously there has been little Latino presence.This New Latino Diaspora places pressures on host communities, both to develop conceptualizations of Latino newcomers and to provide needed services.These pressures are particularly felt in schools; in some New Latino Diaspora locations the percentage of Latino students in local public schools has risen from zero to 30 or even 50 percent in less than a decade.Latino newcomers, of course, bring their own language and their own cultural conceptions of parenting, education,inter-ethnic relations and the like.

Through case studies of Latino Diaspora communities in Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana, the eleven chapters in this volume describe what happens when host community conceptions of and policies toward newcomer Latinos meet Latinos' own conceptions. The chapters focus particularly on the processes of educational policy formation and implementation, processes through which host communities and newcomer Latinos struggle to define themselves and to meet the educational needs and opportunities brought by new Latino students.Most schools in the New Latino Diaspora are unsure about what to do with Latino children, and their emergent responses are alternately cruel, uninformed, contradictory, and inspirational.By describing how the challenges of accommodating the New Latino Diaspora are shared across many sites the authors hope to inspire others to develop more sensitive ways of serving Latino Diaspora children and families.

Table of contents

• Foreword by Bradley A.U. Levinson
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Education and Policy in the New Latino Diaspora Edmund T. Hamann, Stanton Wortham, and Enrique G. Murillo Jr.
• 2. Reinventing Educación in New Latino Communities: Pedagogies of Change and Continuity in North Carolina Sofia Villenas
• 3. Recent Language Minority Education Policy in Georgia: Appropriation, Assimilation, and Americanization Scott A.L. Beck and Martha Allexsaht-Snider
• 4. ¿Un Paso Adelante? The Politics of Bilingual Education, Latino Student Accommodation, and School District Management in Southern Appalachia Edmund T. Hamann
• 5. The New Paths of Mexican Immigrants in the United States: Challenges for Education and the Role of Mexican Universities Víctor Zúñiga, Rubén Hernández-León, Janna L. Shadduck- Hernández, and María Olivia Villarreal
• 6. Gender and School Success in the Latino Diaspora Stanton Wortham
• 7. Fragmented Community, Fragmented Schools: The Implementation of Educational Policy for Latino Immigrants Elias Martinez
• 8. Lowrider Art and Latino Students in the Rural Midwest Karen Grady
• 9. Policy Design as Practice: Changing the Prospects of Hispanic Voices Michael Brunn
• 10. How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: “Disciplining” the Transnational Subject in the American South Enrique G. Murillo Jr.
• 11. The New Latino Diaspora and Educational Policy Margaret A. Gibson
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors