The Students We Share

Preparing US and Mexican Educators for Our Transnational Future

Patricia Gándara, Bryant Jensen, Patricia Gándara, Bryant Jensen

• Editorial: SUNY Press
• Año: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781438483245
• Categoría: Education
• Categoría: Education Theory & Practice

Millions of students in the US and Mexico begin their educations in one country and find themselves trying to integrate into the school system of the other. As global migration increases, their numbers are expected to grow and more and more teachers will find these transnational students in their classrooms. The goal of The Students We Share is to prepare educators for this present and future reality. While the US has been developing English as a Second Language programs for decades, Mexican schools do not offer such programs in Spanish and neither the US nor Mexico has prepared its teachers to address the educational, social-psychological, or other personal needs of transnational students. Teachers know little about the circumstances of transnational students' lives or histories and have little to no knowledge of the school systems of the country from which they or their family come. As such, they are fundamentally unprepared to equitably educate the "students we share, " who often fall through the cracks and end their educations prematurely. Written by both Mexican and US pioneers in the field, chapters in this volume aim to prepare educators on both sides of the US-Mexico border to better understand the circumstances, strengths, and needs of the transnational students we teach. With recommendations for policymakers, administrators, teacher educators, teachers, and researchers in both countries, The Students We Share shows how preparing teachers is our shared responsibility and opportunity. It describes policies, classroom practices, and norms of both systems, as well as examples of ongoing partnerships across borders to prepare the teachers we need for our shared students to thrive.

Part I

Teacher Preparation Across Borders

Chapter 1

Contrasting Realities

How Differences Between the Mexican and U.S. Education Systems Affect Transnational Students

Lucrecia Santibañez

There are currently more than 6 million children in the United States born to at least one Mexican parent (Urban Instituute, 2016). Population movements between Mexico and the United States flow in both directions. Between 2010 and 2015, U.S. immigration officials repatriated (either by deportation or voluntary repatriation) 1.4 million Mexicans back to Mexico (Lakhani & Jacobo, 2016). Since then, many more have been deported or left the country voluntarily. Many of those returning to Mexico take their families with them, including U.S.-born children. Estimates of 2015 census data suggest that close to 500,000 children, most of them U.S. citizens with prior experience in U.S. schools, had enrolled in Mexican schools (Giorguli & Gutierrez, 2011; Lakhani & Jacobo, 2016; Zúñiga & Hamann, 2015). An additional 800,000 children in Mexico have at least one parent living in the United States, further cementing the deep ties between families on both sides of the border (Jensen, Mejía Arauz, & Aguilar Zepeda, 2017).

In the journey between the two countries, children’s lives are deeply disrupted. After spending the majority of their lives in the United States, U.S.-born children moving to Mexico face enormous cultural and language challenges (Lakhani & Jacobo, 2016). Three-quarters of U.S.-born children who moved to the Mexican state of Nuevo León because their parents were deported wanted to return to school in the United States (Zúñiga & Hamann, 2008). Mexican children who migrate with their parents to the United States face similar difficulties. Navigating schools presents unique trials on both sides of the border. Both in the United States and Mexico, teachers face the exceptional task of helping these transnational students learn academic content, master a second language, and adapt to their new surroundings.

Several chapters in this book discuss teacher preparation both in Mexico and the United States and what teachers need to know to teach transnational students (see Chapter 2 on binational teacher preparation; Chapters 4, 5, and 8 on what educators need to know to teach transnational students). This chapter makes the central argument that the Mexican education system is different from the United States’ in ways that fundamentally shape teacher practice and parental involvement and fail to meet transnational students’ needs. To develop this argument, I describe three key aspects of the Mexican education systems that will determine how teachers on both sides of the border meet and address transnational student needs. First, I describe some of the system’s main features, such as its organization and curriculum standards, as well as key policies around student assessment and accountability. Second, I discuss how teachers are prepared and selected in Mexico. Third, I describe how parents engage with schools in Mexico in ways that are uniquely different from the way parents interact with schools (or are expected to interact with schools) in the United States. The discussion seeks to illustrate why Mexican parents and their children may encounter difficulties navigating the U.S. school system and why children who return to Mexico with their parents after a deportation face a similar “culture clash.” The chapter concludes with a summary discussion and recommendations for improvements in teacher preparation and support that take account of these contextual factors affecting education in Mexico. It is my hope that this discussion can lead to a better understanding of transnational students and their families and help eradicate deficit notions about this student population that unfortunately still pervade schools on both sides of the border.

Overview of the Education System in Mexico

Mexican children attend compulsory basic education from first to ninth grade. Preschool and kindergarten enroll children ages 3 to 5. Elementary school is composed of grades 1 to 6 and enrolls children ages 6 to 12. Middle school comprises grades 7 to 9 and enrolls children ages 12 to 15. High school is grades 10 to 12, serving youth ages 15 to 18. High school was made compulsory in 2012. Almost 90% of basic education students attend public schools in Mexico. This is similar to the percentage of students enrolled in public schools in the United States. Twenty percent of high school students attend private schools, considerably higher than in the United States (INEE, 2018). This is mostly due to capacity (access) restrictions to public high schools in Mexico.

There are three types of public elementary schools: First, “general” schools are traditional schools akin to elementary and middle schools in the United States. Second, “Indigenous-intercultural and bilingual” schools exist in indigenous communities and teach using a bilingual curriculum. Some indigenous schools operate as “multi-grade” schools, i.e., the same teacher instructs two grades or more. A third mode of public elementary school provision is “community” schools. These schools exist in small rural and isolated areas and operate as multi-grade, one-room schoolhouses. Ninety-four percent of student enrollment at the public elementary level attends a “general” school.

At the Secundaria or lower secondary level, schools can be general, technical, or “Telesecundaria.” Technical and general schools are basically the same type of school, except for some differences in school equipment and offerings (e.g., labs). They resemble U.S. middle schools. Telesecundarias are distance education schools where one teacher serves as a facilitator for all subjects, and students receive all or part of their education via videotaped content or televised broadcasts. Most Telesecundarias operate in rural areas and small towns. Almost 80% of students at the lower secondary level attend either a “general” or a “technical” middle school. The rest attend Telesecundarias.

Upper secondary, or high school, operates in a more fragmented way, with school types varying by governance (i.e., federal or state schools), autonomy (autonomous university-affiliated high schools or state-run schools), and topic (i.e., technical-professional programs or general, academic programs). Although high school is now technically compulsory, brick and mortar schools are not yet available throughout the country to meet the demand. Only 7 of 10 within the relevant age population (15–17 years old) are in school. This proportion is lower in rural and indigenous areas (6 of 10) (INEE, 2017). Many students drop out of high school after their first year, and only about half of Mexican youth graduate (INEE, 2018; Kattan & Szekely, 2015; OECD, 2018).

Students in Mexican elementary schools are taught by multiple-subject credentialed teachers; in secondary school, children are taught by single-subject credentialed teachers (middle school) or teachers with a subject matter specialization in their college degree (high school).

Brief Historical Background of the Mexican Education System

The modern Mexican education system was formally established in the early 20th century with the creation by President Porfirio Díaz of the Secretaría de Instrucción Pública (SIP). The year was 1905, and at that time, only about 10% of the Mexican population was literate. In those years, Mexico was mostly a rural country, with poor communications and infrastructure to cover a wide territory. Indigenous groups speaking dozens of languages concentrated in isolated rural areas, particularly in the southern states. The population was generally poor. An ambitious plan to modernize the country was implemented after the Mexican Revolution ended. In 1921, the SIP was rebranded as the Secretaría de Educación Pública.

The federal government’s goal throughout most of the 20th century was to increase Mexicans’ literacy levels. This was no small feat in a country devastated by civil war. Even though it took many decades to accomplish, Mexico ultimately succeeded. In 1895, more than 80% of the country’s population of 16 years and older was illiterate, but by 1950 the illiteracy rate had fallen to 43%, and by 2010 it was 7% (INEGI, 2012). By contrast, in the late 19th century, only 20% of the White population of the United States aged 14 and over was illiterate—although close to 80% of the Black population was illiterate.1

Beginning in the 1970s, Mexican education began to look beyond basic literacy to developing higher-order skills in its population and improving learning outcomes. Three major reforms shaped the new vision, significantly altering how education in Mexico was delivered as well as strengthening the teaching profession. The first reform was implemented in the 1970s and involved “double-shifting” schools. The program added an afternoon shift to the majority of public schools in the country as a way to accommodate significant population growth as well as migration from rural to urban areas. Double-shift schools would operate in two 4.5-hour blocks, with a morning and an afternoon shift. In some cases, schools would operate a third night shift. Teachers at these schools could teach in the second shift under a newly created teaching position. This meant that almost overnight, teachers working two shifts doubled their salaries, and the school system doubled its capacity—without the need to build any new schools—or increase teacher hourly salaries. Double-shifting schools solved the short-term demand problem (and brought huge political gains to the ruling PRI party) but also brought its own set of complications. The reduced time-on-task and capacity constraints meant that students could not receive more than 4.5 hours of schooling per day. Moreover, double-shift schools generated inequities. The less preferred afternoon-shift schools enrolled more low-income children and reported worse learning outcomes and higher dropout rates than the morning-shift schools operating in the same school building (Cárdenas, 2011; Jensen, 2005). Double-shift schools continue to be the norm in most large towns and urban centers in Mexico, but slowed population growth has meant that many school buildings now have begun to operate as full-day schools.

The second important reform was decentralization. It happened in 1993 with the passage of the Acuerdo Nacional para la Modernización de la Educación Básica or ANMEB by the more technocratic, neoliberal administration of President Salinas de Gortari. This agreement was signed by all 32 states in Mexico, the national teachers’ union (SNTE), and the federal government. This reform sought to give more power to the states. Scholars agree that while the reform decentralized some operational aspects of schooling (facilities, professional development), the federal government retained power over major matters such as curriculum, collective bargaining, and funding (Ornelas, 2004). To this day, the more than two-thirds of the education budget that is used to fund schools across the country still comes from the federal government. The federal government continues to set the national curriculum, develop and publish (free) textbooks, and set teacher credentialing requirements. Importantly, collective bargaining continued to take place between SNTE and the federal government—although after 1993 SNTE took advantage of being able to hold a second negotiation with state authorities.

The third key reform in Mexico was a controversial, large-scale teacher accountability reform known as “Reforma Educativa.” It was enacted in in 2013, and even though it touched on almost all aspects of education, from curriculum to school-based management, the most controversial aspect had to do with teacher contracts and evaluation. Two of its provisions fundamentally changed how teachers were recruited and promoted. The first provision instituted competitive selection, via a standardized screening test, for all teaching positions at the entry level and for all promotions into administrative positions. New teacher positions could no longer be sold or inherited. Principal or other administrator positions would no longer be handed out at the discretion of educational authorities or union officials, but would now be open to all who wished to apply. The new process made teacher promotion and selection transparent and more meritocratic, but there were doubts among some academics and teachers that screening exams were a good way to select teachers (Gil Antón, 2018). The single published study of the effects of the new form of teacher selection on students found that this kind of screening led to higher student test scores (Estrada, 2019).

The second key element of this reform was and remains the most controversial. Teachers in Mexico, by law, receive tenure after six months on the job. Under the new law, teachers were required to take a performance evaluation test at least once every four years. Failure to pass the test after three attempts would lead to loss of the position. This effectively would have eliminated teacher tenure, although in practice fewer than 1,000 teachers lost their jobs (from more than 200,000 who were evaluated since 2015).

In 2019, to fulfill a campaign promise, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador revoked the Reforma Educativa. Most of its evaluation provisions, including both teacher and student evaluations, were canceled. Although there’s little hard data to support these claims, the generalized sentiment on the part of teachers was that the performance evaluation component of the Reforma was not well implemented and was generally unfair. Even though very few teachers lost their jobs, they felt that losing tenure protections was contrary to the labor agreement that had sustained the teaching profession throughout its history.

The Teachers’ Union

The Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación en México or SNTE is the largest union in Latin America, with more than 1 milli...