Full Description
Examines policies, norms, and classroom practices of the US and Mexican education systems, with the aim of preparing educators to understand and help transnational children and youth.
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.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Linda Darling-Hammond
Introduction: The Students We Share and the Teachers We Need
Bryant Jensen and Patricia Gándara
Part I: Teacher Preparation Across Borders
1. Contrasting Realities: How Differences Between the Mexican and U.S. Education Systems Affect Transnational Students
Lucrecia Santibañez
2. Binational Teacher Preparation: Constructing Pedagogical Bridges for the Students We Share
Cristina Alfaro and Patricia Gándara
3. Normalista Perspectives on Preparing Mexican Teachers for American Mexican Students
Eric Ruiz Bybee, Bryant Jensen, and Kevin Johnstun
Part II: Transnational Teaching
4. What Educators in Mexico and in the U.S. Need to Know and Acknowledge to Attend to the Educational Needs of Transnational Students
Edmund T. Hamann and Víctor Zúñiga
5. Preparing Educators for Asset-Based Pedagogies: The Case of Recently Arrived Transnational Students in Central Mexico
Sarah Gallo
6. Equitable Teaching Enhances Achievement Opportunity for the Students We Share
Bryant Jensen
7. Mirroring Students' and Teachers' Classroom Experiences to Address the Challenges of Transnationalism in Mexican Schools
Betsabé Román González and Juan Sánchez García
Part III: Bridging Policies
8. Language and Cultural Skills of U.S. Teachers: Informing Policy to Meet the Needs of Transnational Bilingual Students
Francesca López and Lucrecia Santibañez
9. From Plyler to Sanctuary: U.S. Policy on Public School Access and Implications for Educators of Transnational Students
Julie Sugarman
10. Binational Policies for the Students We Share and the Teachers We Need
Patricia Gándara and Bryant Jensen
Contributors
Index
