Handbook of Latinos and Education by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2009-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

Combining a minority or Ethnic Researcher approach with a Socio-Constructivistic framework provides a powerful research and educationally applied strategy. The philosophical and theoretical framework for understanding contemporary research on the interaction between language, cognition, and culture proposed here endorses an ecological and multidimensional view of developmental and learning processes, and academic achievement in low SES Latino students. From an Ethnic Researcher approach, teaching as a social and affective experience is emphasized in mainstream teacher preparation programs, so that educators develop advocacy, commitment, empathy, and rapport for assuming social and moral responsibility when serving Latino at-risk students. From a Socio-Constructivistic theoretical position, the interaction of internal and external factors in development and learning in Latino students is highlighted, with the need to stimulate universal and culturally/linguistically loaded verbal and non-verbal conceptual development as mental tools for thinking and learning. We endorse pedagogical theory, principles, and strategies that all teachers can use to develop high-level critical thinking skills and problem-solving strategies that can actualize Latino students’ potential for learning into academic excellence.

Moreover, within an Ethnic Researcher approach, we celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity as assets that can enrich the developmental and learning potential of ESL students into brighter bi-lingual, bi-cultural, and bi-cognitive minds and spirits. We endorse transculturation, and not assimilation, in order to use education as an enrichment tool that nurtures Latino students’ culturally and linguistically diverse identities. Transculturation allows Latino students to move freely between their minority and mainstream personalities or cultural identities, and thus enjoying the freedom provided by a truly democratic classroom and schooling process. Collaborative partnerships need to be established between schools and minority families and communities; for teachers and parents to act as mentors to support the academic excellence of Latino students. In this way, the American Dream pursued by Latino immigrant families will become a reality for their children.

We need to generate more studies from an Ethnic Researcher perspective on how to integrate national high-academic standards for all students with high-quality education for meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of Latino low SES students. We have learned from minority research that Latino students perform at higher academic achievement levels when their L1 and L2 are used as methods of instruction; and when parents and teachers develop partnerships to value cultural and linguistic diversity as an asset for increasing cognitive, academic, and socio-cultural adaptation and development. In sum, together and while mentoring the next generation of minority scholars, we need to continue advancing Ethnic Research studies to better understand the complex interaction of internal psychological processes and external mediating socio-cultural factors impacting cognitive development in culturally and linguistically diverse children, such as at-risk of underachievement Latino poor students. In addition, we need to apply this gained theoretical and methodological knowledge to systematically improving the effectiveness of pedagogical models for successfully integrating minority students’ real-life cultural and linguistic experiences in their family and community environments with teacher training programs, curriculums, educational methodologies and strategies, and educational materials across content areas in the U.S. public school system.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.