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Herbert, Joanne M., Ed.; McNergney, Robert F., Ed.The Case of Deming, New Mexico: International PublicEducation. Multicultural Videocase Series.American Association of Colleges for TeacherEducation, Washington, D.C.; ERIC Clearinghouse onTeaching and Teacher Education, Washington, DC.Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),Washington, DC.ISBN-0-89333-139-296RR9300201560p.; For related document, see SP 036 622. Videotapenot available from EDRS.AACTE Publications, One Dupont Circle, Suite 610,Washington, DC 20036-1186 (Each video with one guide$75, both videos and guides $120; extra guides $10each, $5 handling and shipping).Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (ForTeacher) (052) Audiovisual/Non-Print Materials(100) Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays,etc.) (120)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Bilingual Education; *Case Studies; Higher

Education; *Instructional Improvement; InstructionalMaterials; *Multicultural Education; *PreserviceTeacher Education; Secondary Education; SecondarySchool Teachers; Teacher Educators; VideotapeCassettes

IDENTIFIERS *Deming School District NM; Mexico; New Mexico

ABSTRACTThis guide accompanies one of a pair of videocases

depicting educational life in Deming, New Mexico. The videocaseincludes 28 minutes of unstaged but edited videotape footage ofteaching and learning in and around junior high and mid-high schoolsin Deming. The first section of the guide, "Teaching Note" (ToddKent) contains a transcript of the videotape and questions designedto help instructors engage people in case-based discussions. In theteaching note section the videotape is divided into five segments:(1) Hank Dominguez, director of personnel for the Deming Schools,provides background on the district's practice of educating studentsfrom Mexico; (2) Paulette Quarrell, a teacher of junior-high schoolEnglish, teaches a class on descriptive writing and reflects on herlife as a teacher; (3) Ray Trejo conducts a bilingual class at themid-high school for students from Palomas, Mexico, and describes hisreasons for teaching; (4) students who live in Palomas, Mexico, andattend Trejo's class share some thoughts about going to school inDeming; and (5) Dominguez reflects on the complexity of the issue ofeducating students from Mexico in the Deming Schools--the public'sattitudes, bureaucratic wrangles, and reasons for persisting despitethe opposition. The second section, which comprises about threequarters of the guide, presents three critical perspectives on thevideo written by Mary E. Dilworth, Lisa Sparaco, and RobertaMaldonado. Each of these essays presents its author's own perspectivein terms of her own experience, both personal and professional. Eachessay addresses the issues, questions of professional knowledge, andsuggested actions and possible consequences. (LL)

THE CASE OF DEMING, NEW MEXICO:International Public Education

Edited byJoanne M. Herbert

Robert F. McNergneyU S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Once of Educalona, Resoarcn and nninoverne,EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

CENTER (ERIC)This document has been reproduce. asreceived (loin the person or organ, nonoriginating it.

Minor chances have been madeimprove reproduction quality

Points of view or opinions slated in thisdocument do not necessarily representofficial OERI position or policy

MULTICULTURAL VIDEOCASE SERIES

A Joint Project of AACTEERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching & Teacher

Education University of Virginia

1111AACTEAMERICANASSOCIATIONOF COIIEGESFOR TEACHEREDUCATION ERIC

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THE CASE OF DEMING, NEW MEXICO:.International Public Education

Edited byJoanne M. Herbert

Robert F. McNergney

MULTICULTURAL VIDEOCASE SERIES

A Joint Project of AACTE AERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching & Teacher

Education A University of Virginia

1111AACTEAMERICANASSOCIATIONOF C01.11(iFSFOR TFACIILItEDUCATION ERIC

THE CASE. OF DEMING, NEW MEXICO:

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC EDUCATION

Edited by

Joanne M. HerbertUniversity of Virginia

Robert F. McNergneyUniversity of Virginia

American Association of Colleges for Teacher EducationOne Dupont Circle A Suite 610

Washington, DC 20036TEL: 202/293-2450 A FAX: 202/457-8095

This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Depart-ment of Education, under contract number RR93002015. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarilyreflect the positions or policies of OERI or the Department.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is a national, voluntary association of colleges and uni-versities with undergraduate or graduate programs to prepare professional educators. The Association supportsprograms in data gathering, equity, leadership development, networking, policy analysis, professional issues, andscholarship.

The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this monograph do not necessarily reflect the views oropinions of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The AACTE does not endorse or warrantthis information. The AACTE is publishing this document to stimulate discussion, study, and experimentationamong educators. The reader must evaluate this information in light of the unique circumstances of any particular sit-uation and must determine independently the applicability of this information thereto.

Copies of The Case of Deming, New Mexico: International Public Education may be ordered from:AACTE PublicationsOne Dupont Circle, Suite 610Washington, DC 20036-1186

Single copy for AACTE members/nonmembers: $10Please add $5 for shipping and handling

Copyright © 1996 American Association of Colleges for Teacher EducationAll rights reservedPrinted in the United States of America

International Standard Book Number 0-89333-139.2

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

TEACHING NOTE

by Todd Kent (University of Virginia) 1

Case Summary 1

Transcript of Introductory Comments 1

Hank Dominguez, Central Office 1

Paulette Quarrell, Middle School English 3

Ray Trejo, Mid High School Bilingual Education 7

Students in Ray Trejo's Class 9

Challenges and Opportunities 10

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE CASE:

by Mary E. Dilworth (AACTE) 15

by Lisa Sparaco (Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, New Mexico ) 25

by Roberta Maldonado (Boulder Public Schools, Boulder, Colorado) 35

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We have been fortunate to work with many talented and charitable people on this project. We owethem our gratitude.

Laurie Regelbrugge, director of programs for The Hitachi Foundation, has been a superb colleague. Shehas supported and challenged us from beginning to end. The Foundation has helped shape not only thisparticular project, but our entire line of work on videocases.

David Imig and Elizabeth Foxwell of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education sawenough merit in this project to risk publishing a somewhat unusual projectthe videocase, which is com-posed of a videotape and this accompanying guide.

Ernest Skinner, videographer, and Edward Damerel, sound technician, performed the technical work onthe videotape. If memory serves, Ernest was the first to mention that Deming, New Mexico, might be agood place to do a videocase.

Most of all we thank the students, parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members of Dem-ing, New Mexico, Public Schools. They let us take a slice of their lives and present it so others might thinkcritically about teaching and learning. We are humbled by their generosity.

If there are errors or shortcomings in this work, they should be attributed to us.

Joanne M. HerbertRobert E McNergney

ry

ntroductionWe suspect people often imagine life on the bor-

der between the United States and Mexico inexaggerated terms. In their mind's eye, some seethe stark beauty of a Georgia O'Keefe painting or ascene out of a movie with a peaceful little missionand a flock of smiling,singing children. Otherscall up images of theevening news report onthe cat-and-mouse sagaof illegal immigrationand U.S. federal crack-down or a televisiondocumentary on drugsmuggling. If you do notlive on the border, haveany ties there, or possessany particular knowledge of the area, you might betempted to think the environment is either hope-lessly romantic or socially toxicrarely anythingin between. In either case, you would be wrong.

Literally hundreds of children cross the interna-tional border from Mexico into the Deming, NewMexico, School District to attend public schooleach morning, and return home again each night.The Deming Schools bear the cost of educatingthese children. People on both sides of the bordersanction the activitythey are even working toestablish the first international school district.Perhaps nowhere else in the country could onefind more sharply defined questions about con-cepts of public education and the maintenanceand diffusion of culture.

Before we visited Deming, we imagined theschools to be at least in some ways among theclearest examples of "multicultural education" wewere ever likely to encounter. We knew we wouldfind two cultures separated distinctly by a border,where people moved back-and-forth across theline to influence one another informally and tolive their educational lives together in the schools

on the U.S. side. But we did not know what formsthese interactions might take. The thrust of formal"multicultural education" might be to integrateand assimilate youngsters into the predominantculture on the U.S. side; or it might be to preserve

and protect youngsters'identities as they andtheir parents definedthem. Conceivably wewould find that "multi-cultural education" wasjust an empty slogan.

Maybe the ebb andflow of people across theborder would be so con-stant, so much a familiarpart of daily life, that

those who lived there would barely notice whathappened around them in general, and particularlyin the schools. Or maybe they would notice, butthey would not perceive how different they werefrom people in other placesto behave otherwise,they might think, just wouldn't make sense. Wouldthis be a place where culture was defined largely oronly in terms of the language spoken? Or wouldSpanish and English simply be the more obviousindications of cultural influence? We did not knowwhat to expect, but we were eager to investigate.

From the start, we worried that our physical andcultural distance from Deming might turn us intoeducational voyeursprying observers seeking the"offbeat," the "strange," the "unnatural" in thisunusual situation. We try to focus here on the"ordinary" life in this place. We do so for two rea-sons. First, we think that what is often dismissed as"ordinary" or "humdrum" rarely is. When we arealert, the routines are much less likely to obscureour view of educational possibilities. Second, notuntil educators perceive educational 1; as it is,from others' points of view as well as ..r own,will they be able to imagine with any realistic

The videotape showseducational life as it is in thisplace, or at least as we foundit when we were there.

sense of possibility how round and rich that lifecan be.

This videocase accompanies another, "The Caseof Columbus, New Mexico: Educational Life onthe Border." Columbus, a village three miles northof the border, supports one of the elementaryschools in the district. When they are old enough,students leave Columbus Elementary for the junkhigh, mid-high, and high schools in Deming about30 miles up the road. We have designed the pair ofvideocases to try to convey at least some sense ofactivity across the district. Make no mistake, how-everthe videocases are a thin substitute for beingthere, looking, and listening for oneself.

The Elements of a Videocase

These videocases are typically composed of threecomponents: a videotape of unstaged, but editedteaching and learning in a multicultural setting, ateaching note for an instructor using the video-tape, and a written set of critical perspectives onthe video (Herbert & McNergney, 1995). Thisparticular case conforms to the general model byincluding: ( 1) 28 minutes of unstaged videofootage of teaching and learning in and around thejunior high and mid-high schools in Deming, NewMexico; (2) a teaching note containing a tran-script of the videotape and questions designed tohelp instructors engage people in case-based dis-cussions about educational life in Deming; and (3)a set of three critical perspectives on the videowritten by knowledgeable professionalscrediblepeople who compel us to think seriously aboutwhat they have say.

After a brief introduction, the videotape is divid-ed into five segments. First, Hank Dominguez,director of personnel for the Deming Schools, pro-vides background on the district's practice ofeducating students from Mexico. Second, PauletteQuarrell, a teacher of junior-high school English,teaches a class on descriptive writing and reflectson her life as a teacher. Third, Ray Trejo conductsa bilingual class at the mid-high school for stu-dents from Palomas, Mexico, and describes hisreasons for teaching. Fourth, students who live inPalomas, Mexico, and attend Trejo's class sharesome thoughts about going to school in Deming.Finally, Dominguez reflects on the complexity of

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the issue of educating students from Mexico in theDeining Schoolsthe public attitudes, bureaucrat-ic wrangles, and reasons for persisting despite theopposition.

The teaching note contains many specific ques-tions about the videotape. The questions areorganized into five general categories that encour-age people: (1) to perceive problems andopportunities for teaching as they present them-selves on the video; (2) to recognize values thatdrive people's actions on the tape; (3) to call uppersonal, empirical, and/or theoretical knowledgerelevant to teaching practice as it might occur inthis situation or a similar one; (4) to speculate onwhat actions might reasonably be taken in the sit-uation; and (5) to forecast likely consequences ofsuch actions. We think these five types of ques-tions trigger people to reflect or to thinkprofessionally about educational practice.

The teaching note was written by Todd Kent, agraduate student at the University of Virginia'sCurry School of Education. Kent is pursuing a doc-torate in educational evaluation and specializing inthe use of technology in teacher education and inclassroom instruction. He currently teaches acourse on the use of computers and other media topreservice teachers in the Curry School's five-yearteacher education program. Kent has also beeninvolved in several projects combining case-basedinstruction with telecommunication technology.Before coming to Virginia, Kent worked at theBullis School, an independent school in Potomac,Maryland. During his career at Bullis, he headedthe science department, taught middle- and high-school science, directed the summer school, andcoached soccer, wrestling, and lacrosse. Kent alsoserved as director of the upper school and servedon the board of trustees for an independent ele-mentary school in Barnsville, Maryland. Kent hasa bachelor's degree in economics from PrincetonUniversity and a master's degree in social founda-tions of education from the University of Virginia.

Three professional educators wrote critical per-spectives. Each is, in her own right, eminentlyqualified to comment on the content of this video-tape.

Mary E. Dilworth is the senior director forResearch and Information Services for the Ameri-can Association of Colleges for Teacher Education(AACTE) and also serves as director of the ERIC

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Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Educa-tion. Dilworth received a B.A. in ElementaryEducation and a M.A. in Student PersonnelAdministration in Higher Education from HowardUniversity. She received an Ed.D. in Higher Edu-cation Administration from the CatholicUniversity of America. She serves on numerouseducation advisory boards including the U.S.Department of Education's National Center forResearch on Teacher Learning, the NAACP, theNational Urban League, and the National Councilof Negro Women. She has written many articlesand reports, most notably, Teachers' Totter: AReport on Teacher Certification Issues, ReadingBetween the Lines: Teachers and Their Racial /EthnicCultures, and edited the AACTE/Jossey-Bass pub-lication, Diversity in Teacher Education: NewExpectations.

Lisa Sparaco, a graduate student in language, lit-eracy, and cultural studies, College of Education,University of New Mexico, serves as a researchassistant with a project called TEAMS (TeacherExcellence Appropriate for a Multicultural Soci-ety). She helps coordinate the inservice,preservice, and faculty development componentsof the program. Sparaco taught five years of specialeducation in a Texas junior high school and threeyears of bilingual education and Spanish immer-sion in San Diego, California. Sparaco has servedas a special education consultant for the PeaceCorps in Ecuador, as a research associate for theInter-American Indian Institute (a program of theOrganization of American States), and as an acad-emic liaison for the University of New Mexico inMexico City.

Presently a member of a team that teaches abilingual block at Casey Middle School in Boulder,Colorado, Roberta Maldonado teaches seventh-grade language arts. Maldonado has a bachelor'sdegree in art education and a master's in English;she is also a doctoral student at the University ofColorado in curriculum with an emphasis in litera-cy. She taught in traditional and alternative highschools for eight years, offering classes in art, lan-guage arts, jlurnalism, and AP English.Maldonado also spent one year in Boulder workingas an outreach specialist in early childhood educa-tion for a family resource schoola school thatlinks services to schools in geographical areas ofhigh need.

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Some Instructional Options

We have designed this videocase to be used indifferent ways. Participants' needs, pressures oftime and instructors' personal styles make instruc-tional flexibility desirable. We have used all theoptions below and do not necessarily prefer oneover another. The audience and instructionalobjectives should dictate instructional strategy.

Teach One or Two Segments in a Session

The most common strategy for teaching a video-case in the context of a typical college oruniversity course is to break it into segments andto teach it over two class sessions. The segmentsare denoted by codes in the lower right corner ofthe screen and by text slides interspersed amongthe video footage. On this videotape, there is abrief introduction followed by five such slides:

(1) "Hank Dominguez, Central Office"Dominguez describes the controversy surroundingthe education of students from Mexico in U.S.public schools, drawing particular attention tofinancial matters.

(2) "Paulette Quarrell, Middle School English"Quarrell opens her class with the Pledge ofAllegiance in both English and Spanish. Studentscontinue the descriptive writing assignment on afamily member which rhey began the previous day.Quarrell describes the nature of her job, her expec-tations for students, her beliefs about discipline,and what life is like as a beginning teacher in asmall town.

(3) "Ray Trejo, Mid-High School, Bilingual Educa-tion"Trejo talks about his reasons for becominga teacher. He takes roll and opens the instructionalsession by asking students (all of whom have Span-ish as their first language) to explain why they goto school. Trejo reflects on the need to help stu-dents develop socially and the importance ofmaintaining their native tongue.

(4) "Students in Ray Trejo's Class"Students fromPalomas talk about why they want to go to school

in Deming, what they want to do when they growup, and what they like about school and aboutTrejo.

(5) "Challenges and Opportunities"HankDominguez speculates about the influence of racein the debate about schooling. He describes thebureaucratic procedures required of Mexican stu-dents to come to Deming schools. He foreseesmore cooperation, not less, in the future.

Time required for instruction. To teach theentire case, we usually allot 1 hour for each of twosessions. The time required, however, dependsgreatly on the maturity and experience of the classmembers and on their willingness to share theirthoughts. Rich discussion emanates from goodquestions and is sustained in an environmentwhere people feel safe to speak their minds. Gener-ally experienced educators have more to say thando beginners.

Group size. We have taught groups varying insize from 6 to 80. A group needs to be largeenough to generate a discussion among membersbut not so large that people fail to have a chanceto speak if they wish to do so. Usually we use acombination of whole-group and small-group dis-cussions. We establish small groups of four to sixpeople, assign a recorder to each group, and havethe small groups report back to the whole group atvarious points in the session.

Instructional procedures. Although the order ofthe steps below might vary somewhat on occasion,as we note, each represents an important part of acase-based lesson.

(1) Post five large sheets of newsprint around theclassroom, each labeled with one of the key words:FACTS/ISSUES, PERSPECTIVES, KNOWL-EDGE, ACTIONS, CONSEQUENCES. (It is agood idea to have a couple of extra sheets ready incase you need the extra writing space.)

(2) Provide an overview of the case and explain tostudents that after they view a portion of thevideo, they will analyze what they have seen andheard by responding to some questions. Review the

viii

meanings of the key words that will guide the dis-cussion.

(3) Show the introductory portion of the video-tape and the first segment ("Dominguez, CentralOffice").

(4) Begin discussion of the first segment by askingstudents to describe what they saw occurring(FACTS /ISSUES). Ask students to addressremaining questions represented by key words.Record students' comments on the sheets or assigna recorder to do so. (If you are concerned abouthaving too little time, to keep discussion moving,do not record students' oral responses; merely usekey words to guide discussion.)

(5) Show a second segment. Ask students toaddress each of the five questions. Record respons-es on newsprint. If using small groups, appoint arecorder for each group to take notes on people'sresponses and to present the group's ideas to theentire class using a "nominal group" technique.Using this technique, the instructor takes only oneidea from a group at a time and then moves to thenext group for another idea. For instance, theinstructor might say: "Would group one pleaseidentify the single most important issue in the seg-ment of video you just viewed? Remember, give meonly one issue, and then we will move to grouptwo to identify another issue." The instructor goesfrom group to group in this fashion until the ideashave been exhausted.

Pull some direct quotations from the critical per-spectives. We often make overhead transparenciesof particular pages and highlight selected lines toemphasize with the class. The entire perspectivecan be assigned as homework later.

(6) Closure. Ask students to consider: (a) possibleexplanations for similarities and differences intheir thoughts about the videotape, and (b) rea-sons for examining a particular alternative way ofthinking about teaching and learning in this situa-tion. Have individual students write about theirthoughts or encourage them to cooperate on asmall-group reaction paper.

Teach One or Two Segments in a Session

This strategy is designed to teach the wholevideocase from beginning to end.

Time required for instruction. We have taughtthis whole videocase in slightly more than twohours, excluding time for reading expert perspec-tives. With three hours, there is time to proceedwith a whole-group/small-group approach, discussevents and reflections, and even consider selectedcomments from the expert perspectives. Onceagain, the time required depends on the experi-ence of the studentsmore mature groups oftenbring a wealth of practical knowledge to discus-sions. We strongly encourage people toexperimentshow the events, frame discussionquestions, take short breaks between such discus-sions, assign outside reading and writing relevantto a case, return the next day, and reflect on theprevious discussions and readings.

Group size. We have held case-based sessionswith as few as six people and with as many as 80.When students are organized so they have ampleopportunity to participate in small and/or wholegroups, so they focus on the five key ideas, and somomentum in discussion is maintained, a sessionwill be successful.

Instructional procedures. (1) Post five large sheetsof newsprint around the classroom, each labeledwith one of the key words: FACTS/ISSUES, PER-SPECTIVES, KNOWLEDGE, ACTIONS,CONSEQUENCES. Explain to students, as inOption #1, that after they view a portion of thevideotape, they will think about what they haveseen and heard by responding to five questions.Review the meanings of key words. (2) Show theintroduction and two segments. Ask students toaddress each of the five questions. To save time, donot record students' responses. (3) Show the lasttwo segments; again address the five questions, thistime recording responses on newsprint.

Note that instructor questions need not proceedin linear fashion. For example, the instructor maydeal with questions 1 and 2, move to question 4,then come back to question 3, and jump to ques-tion 5. As students work their way through the

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case and learn more about the situation, theinstructor may need to focus less on the first twoquestions (FACTS/ISSUES, PERSPECTIVES)and more on the last three (KNOWLEDGE, alter-natives for ACTION, CONSEQUENCES). (4)Introduce students to the concept of a "Profession-al Perspective." Do so by describing it as oneprofessionally defensible point of view on thevideotape. Provide one or more perspectives anddraw particular attention to the identities of thewriters. Ask what explicit and implicit aspects ofthe writers' backgrounds may be especially impor-tant to understand when interpreting theirremarks. Because of the time required to read oneor more perspectives, students will need to exam-ine them outside of class time.

When assigning one or more critical perspec-tives, you might choose the one most at odds withyour own point of view. If you do so, you can rein-force the idea that in education, as in otherprofessions, there are often multiple acceptablepoints of view. Or you might select any two per-spectives and have students report on thesimilarities and differences between them withrespect to events viewed and discussed duringclass. Have students file the perspectives for futurereference. (5) Invoke closure in the session. Askstudents to consider: (a) possible reasons for simi-larities and differences in their thoughts aboutevents depicted on the videotape, and (b) thestrengths and limitations of the professional per-spectives.

View the Videotape as a Documentary

Although the videotape is designed to be used toencourage the development of people's reflectivepowers through active consideration of the fivetypes of questions as the situation unfolds, theinstructor might run it from beginning to end as adocumentary.

Time required for instruction. Showing thisvideotape and holding a brief discussion about itscontents typically takes us about 1 hour-5 min-utes to set stage for viewing by providing a briefoverview, 30 minutes to view the video, and about20 m inutes or slightly more for discussion.

Group size. Because there is less emphasis on in-class analysis and discussion under this option,group size is relatively unimportant, governedlargely by students' abilities to see and hear thevideotape.

Instructional procedures. The videotape can beviewed from beginning to end with no pauses fordiscussion much as one would view a documentaryfilm. To maximize the value of such a viewing, theinstructor should provide background informationon the contents of the tape that is, foreshadowwhat will be seen and heard. If the instructorwants to focus discussion later on particular issuesor events, he or she should alert viewers to beattuned to particular points of interest.

For example, the instructor might focus viewers'attention on opportunities for teaching and learn-ing in a bilingual class by alerting viewers toparticular aspects of Ray Trejo's class and to hisstudents' comments. What particular concern doesTrejo have about Spanish-speaking students learn-ing English? How does he promote students' socialdevelopment? What are some of the reasons stu-dents give for staying in school? Why do thestudents like Trejo? The students say they aregiven class time to concentrate on homework; ifyou were the teacher, would you allow this prac-tice? Why or why not? These or other questionscould be used to sensitize viewers to the material.

When the videotape is viewed as a documentary,it can be useful to assign one or more of the criticalperspectives to be read after class. The perspectivesencourage people to think about what they haveseen and heard in relation to someone else's view.It is best to follow up later by asking students torespond to some questions, either orally or in writ-ing, about the perspectives in relation to their ownposition or vis-a-vis one another.

Conclusion

Although we have designed this videocase to beused primarily with teachers, it can be used tostimulate conversations among other stakeholdersin education. A colleague of ours, Rudy Ford, hasused another videocase with administrators, par-ents, and students, as well as teachers. Thesegroups willingly shared their thoughts about what

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they saw and heardsometimes disagreeing on thefiner points but more often than not agreeing onhow to define problems and opportunities inschools. Involving others in discussions aboutschool life seems worth both the time and effort ifpeople want to build consensus for action in publiceducation.

For example, the Deming case might encouragepeople with different points of view to air theiropinions about "multicultural education" and tolisten to one another in the process. What evi-dence do parents accept that education isoccurring, to say nothing of that education beingmulticultural? According to students and their par-ents, how many and which cultures must influencea program before education might reasonably betermed "multi" cultural? What activities otherthan festivals, cooperative work groups, andassigned readings do school administrators believeteachers should use to promote mutual apprecia-tion of cultures? And so forth.

A discussion about multicultural educationamong diverse groups today might well turn toquestions about the many conceptions of "politicalcorrectness," or PC. Do people view multiculturaleducation as a form of PCthat is, as an attemptto apply political criteria for acceptable publicexpression? Or do they think that multiculturaleducation goals and behaviors characterized as PCare honest and reasonable attempts to redress thecasual stigmatization of minorities? Do peoplethink that what is termed PC behavior is just plaingood manners? This videocase will not resolvethese complex problems, but, in the hands of askilled discussion leader, it could be used to exam-ine them carefully and fairly.

We do not present the Deming videocase, and byinference the Deming school system, as a model tobe emulated. Our goal is more modest. We hopepeople will think and talk with one another aboutthis slice of life, and in doing so, learn somethingabout the people and the schools in this place.Maybe students of the case will begin to see theirown situations in a slightly different lighttothink, talk, and behave in their own communitieswith a richer awareness of the people around them.

13

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Joanne M. HerbertRobert F. McNergney

References

Herbert, J. M. & McNergney, R.F. (Eds.). (1995).Guide to foundations in action videocases: Teachingand learning in multicultural settings for foundationsof education. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

xi

eaching Note(=mom. by Todd Kent

(University of Virginia)

Case Summary

This case focuses on Deming Junior High Schooland Hofacket Mid-High School, both located inDeming, New Mexico. These schools are bilingualand are located 35 miles from the border betweenthe United States and Mexico. Nearly half thestudent population lives in Mexico, and these stu-dents attend the American schools free of charge.The case begins with a short description of theDeming community followed with commentary byHank Dominguez, director of personnel for theDeming Schools. The second event depicts scenesfrom the classroom of Paulette Quarrell, an Eng-lish teacher in the Deming Junior High School.The case then focuses on a high school bilingualclass taught by Ray Trejo, and this segment is fol-lowed by some comments from several of Trejo'sstudents. Additional commentary by Dominguezends the case with a discussion on some of the pol-itics and hurdles facing students from Mexico.

Transcript of Introductory Comments(1 minute, 10 seconds)

Narrator: Every day, more than 400 students crossthe border from Mexico to the United States toattend public school in the Deming, New Mexico,district. Some of these children hold dual citizen-ship, some hold only Mexican citizenship, but allcall Mexico home. Not since Pancho Villa crossedhere in 191C, has there been so much public con-troversy surrounding U.S.-Mexican relations inthis part of the world. This case is about money,about politics, about language, about teaching andlearning, but most of all about people. People onboth sides of the border will shape the culture thatdefines this southwestern community. Yourinstructor will encourage you to decenter, or tothink about life here from others' points of view.

You will explore the issues in the case and the val-ues that drive people's actions. You will try tounderstand what it means to teach and to learn ina community like Deming, New Mexico.

Hank Dominguez, Central Office(2 minutes, 35 seconds)

In this segment, an administrator from centraloffice describes the school communities. He thentalks about the controversies involving the enroll-ment of students from Mexico in U.S. publicschools. He also discusses some of the fiscal issuesregarding these students.

Edited Transcript

Dominguez: There is an historical situation herein Luna County. Palomas, Mexico is about 35miles from Deming. Since the early '60s, '70s, '80s,and '90s, there have been students from Palomas,Mexico, crossing the border. I feel that in the past10 years, there has been an increase in numbers ofstudents from Mexico. There are close to 450 stu-dents enrolled in grades K through 1(2) The K-5students go to Columbus, which is only 4 or 5miles from Palomas. Students in grades 6-12 arebused 35 miles into Deming. It is a controversialissue here. I am not going to deny that. But theseare our neighbors; we are side by side. They useDeming, our community, for their shopping. Ithink letting their children attend our schools isjust something that we can do as a district. We arebeing good ambassadors. We are not going to ques-tion where students come from. They show up atour door to be educated and we are going to edu-cate them.

Controversy arises because as a district, we donot charge these individuals any tuition. We are

subsidized by the state of New Mexico and wereceive the funding formula for these individuals.It is true that parents of students from Mexico donot pay taxes in the United States, but they docome into the Deming community and add to ourresources by spending money when shopping, etc.Critics feel that we should charge at least $3,000tuition. If we charged $3,000 a year, we wouldhave only a handful of students from Mexico. Cur-rently, the state reimburses us for each one of theseindividuals; because they are in a bilingual educa-tion program, we get anywhere from $2,500 tomaybe $3,200 per student.

Discussion Questions

(1) What are some of the facts and issues in thisevent?

Who pays for the education of students fromMexico who attend Columbus and Demingschools? At what administrative level is thismoney allocated?

is the number of students from Mexicoattending schools in Columbus and Demingincreasing, decreasing, or staying the same?

How long have students from the Mexicanside of the border been attending U.S.schools in Luna county?

(2) What are some of the relevant perspectives?

Why does Dominguez think it is a good ideafor U.S. public schools to educate studentsfrom Mexico?

Why might some U.S. residents argueagainst funding the education of studentsfrom Mexico?

Why might some Deming residents argue thatit makes financial sense to encourage tiesbetween Mexican and U.S. communities?

Why might a student from Mexico want togo to school in the United States?

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Why might some families in Mexico decidenot to send their children to U.S. schools?

What might students from Mexico thinkabout attending a school in the United States?

(3) What do you know and what more would youlike to know?

How many families from Mexico might beable to afford to pay tuition for their chil-dren to attend U.S. schools?

What percentage of the Deming school pop-ulation is of Hispanic descent? How many ofthe students from Palomas are U.S. citizensbecause they were born on U.S. soil?

How well do the students from Mexico speakEnglish? How well do the students on theU.S. side of the border speak Spanish?

What are the legal issues involved in educat-ing non-U.S. residents in U.S. schools? Howare California, Arizona, and Texas address-ing these issues? What court decisions arerelevant to this issue?

(4) What actions might you take?

Can U.S. schools require families from Mex-ico to pay for all or part of the cost of theirchildren's education? Should they try to doso? Why or why not?

What steps might educators take to helpintegrate students of different cultures intothe schools? Would you, for instance,include Mexican history as a required com-ponent of the social studies curriculum?

How might you facilitate communicationbetween school personnel and the families ofthe children from Mexico? Would you relyon written notes, word of mouth, or tele-phone calls? What are the advantages anddisadvantages of each method?

Would you make all school discourse (e.g.,report cards, newsletters, announcements)bilingual, or would you use only English?Would you have separate Spanish mailingsfor non-English speaking families?

How might you make the families from Mex-ico feel part of the school community?Would you make all school discourse (e.g.,report cards, newsletters, announcements)bilingual, or would you use only English?Would you have separate Spanish mailingsfor non-English speaking families?

Would you provide a means for holding par-ent conferences? Would you providetransportation for the parents? How couldyou assist teachers who did not speak Span-ish to communicate with families?

How might you use new technologies tolessen the social-psychological distancebetween Mexican and U.S. communities?

(5) What might be some of the consequences ofactions taken?

What might happen to the enrollment ofstudents from Mexico if U.S. schoolscharged tuition to these families?

What parts of the curriculum might bedropped or altered to make room for moremulticultural subject matter?

How would you know if all the families fromMexico were indeed receiving the informa-tion they needed? Would teachers thinkthat communicating with families fromMexico was burdensome?

Might local residents become annoyed withreceiving bilingual material?

What might local residents think about"-necial" efforts made by the school forengaging families from Mexico? What couldbe done to make all parents feel important tothe school? What would you say to a U.S.parent who paid to take a bus to attend a

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parent conference, while a parent from Mex-ico was provided transportation at schoolexpense?

Paulette Quarrell, Middle School EnglishGO minutes, 10 seconds)

In this segment, an English teacher delivers awriting lesson to middle school students. The stu-dents are writing a descriptive paragraph aboutsomeone in their family. The teacher uses a discus-sion of the five senses to introduce the lesson, andshe asks students to consider a sixth sense (feel-ings). She also describes the nature of her job, herexpectations for students, her beliefs about disci-pline, and what life is like as a beginning teacherin a small town.

Edited Transcript

Voice on intercom: There is a mandatory clinictoday at 3:45 in the Mid-High gym for those inter-ested in trying out for cheerleading next year. Bethere. (Quarrell and class recite the Pledge of Alle-giance in English and Spanish.) Thank you,everyone, and have a great Wednesday.

Quarrell: The first thing I would like for you to dois take out the writing that you started on yester-day. I want you to go through it and get some ideasbecause you were supposed to be thinking of a per-son to focus on today, someone in your family thatyou want to know more about or that yoll want towrite about or tell me about. I am going to giveyou a couple of minutes to read over what youhave. In that time if you want to make changes, goahead. If you do not, that is fine; I just want you toread over what you have done so far.

Quarrell's Reflections: This is my firstyear teaching here at Deming Junior HighSchool. I am teaching five English classes,and each class has close to 30 students. Ialso have one homeroom. I decided to do aunit on families because all year I havereally tried to put an emphasis on my stu-dents' expressing themselves. I think theirfamily life, what they have done, and-where they come from is very important. I

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teach the English block, and we are givena set of competencies that we are expectedto meet. At the university I attended, welearned about whole language and holisticlearning. I do like trying to incorporatethat in my class, but I know we are not awhole language school. I have to meet thecompetencies.

Quarrell: You should already have in mind whoyou want to focus on, so on a new sheet of paper Iwould like you to write that person's name at thetop and howthey are related to you. Let's first talkabout the descriptive paragraph that you are goingto write. What does it do? Why do you writedescriptive paragraphs? It usually includes adescription of one or more of your five senses. Tellme what the senses are.

Students: Sight ... touch.Quarrell: (writing on board) Okay, I heard sightand touch.

Quarrell's Reflections: We are teaching inpods but unfortunately we do not have acommon planning period. We are hopingnext year that we can get together andmaybe work on a thematic unit of somesort so that even in math and socialstudieswe are all working on the same theme.

When we are doing an exercise like theone we did today, where I keep emphasiz-ing that it is personal writing and not tohold back, I do not like to call on the stu-dents. Whether they share their writingshould be their choice.

My class is primarily made up of Angloand Hispanic children, but I do have afew Black students. We also have somelearning-disabled children who are main-streamed into our classroom, so we have asupport teacher who comes in and workswith us. We modify lessons for students,but when we do a writing assignment I donot modify it too often because I just wantto get something out of them. If it is agrammar assignment, we will modify thetask. I really want everyone to feel com-fortable in my classroom. Here, and inthe school in general, I do not think too

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much emphasis is placed on student differ-ences. I think everyone generally acceptsone another, which 1 think is important.

Quarrell: Now, there is another sense. Nick talkedabout it a little while ago, what was it?Student: Feelings.Quarrell: Yes, feelings. Good.

Quarrell's Reflections: I added feelings tothe five senses chart. I did so, becausewhen you are writing a descriptive para-graph or a descriptive paper about aperson, especially someone in yourfamily, Ithink y3u need to consider feelings.

Quarrell: What you are going to do with the topicthat you have chosen, the person that you havechosen, is to make up a five senses chart of yourown. And I want you to think aboutall of thosethings.

(Quarrell monitors student work.)Quarrell: What were you telling me about yourgodparents?Student: My great-grandfather. He is still alive.I'm going to write about him. He came fromGermany.Quarrell: Oh. Did he live in Germany?Student: Mmm hmm.Quarrell: Wow. [Camera focuses on informationstudent recorded on her five senses chart: sightblack hair, hazel eyes, he's tall; soundhas a heavyvoice; tastetea (without sugar), anything choco-late, donuts; feelingsI love him very much and 1wish he never leaves us.] This is excellent. Verygood detail! I remember when I was about fiveyears old, I used to wake up teally early with mydad before he went to work, and I always smelledcoffee. Now when I smell coffee, even though I donot live at home anymore, I think about him. Sowhen you are older, you might think back on that.

Quarrell's Reflections: I believe the stu-dents from Palomas are successful in hereand really make an effort due to their fami-ly. Back when I first started this job, I wasterrified about how I was going to handlethis age level. I was not expecting to workwith middle-school students. I am reallyglad I do now, because I love it. I am a lot

more confident about discipline than Iused to be. I know that I can get the classunder control when necessary. It is just amatter of constant communication,though. You have to set the ground rulesand enforce them. You really have toestablish your rules right at the beginning.I know a lot of my friends, there I said it, alot of my students consider me to be theirfriends sometimes. They do not see me astheir teacher. I want to be able to getalong with my students,but I have to kindof back up and say, "Okay, I am theteacher." Right now towards the end of theyear, I'm really struggling with that.

Quarrell: (to a student) So your dad's parents areMexican?Student: No.Quarrell: They adopted him?Student: My dad's not adopted. My dad's dad isadopted.Quarrell: Oh.Student: My dad's dad, wait. Yeah, my dad's dadwas.Quarrell: (Bell signals end of class.) Okay, keepthese papers s.11 together. We will be working onthem some more tomorrow, so do not worry if youdid not get it finished. Push in your chairs and youmay go. What? Yes, you may work on it at home,but I'm going to give you time tomorrow to workon your papers in class.

Quarrell's Reflections: When I am not atschool, 1 like to spend time with my familyand my friends. We go to baseball games orany of the high school games that aregoing on at the time We do not have a lotof things to do here in Deming. I think Iam learning a lot more being around thisarea. 1 grew up here, but my family doesnot speak Spanish very often, they speakSpanglish: "Y luego, " he said, "Que iba ahacer esto to K-Mart?" I tell my mom,"You should have raised me speakingSpanish. That way I would already know

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it." She says, "I know." In a nutshell, fami-ly, is important.

Discussion Questions

(1) What are some of the facts and issues in thisevent?

What flags do you see flying in Quarrell'sclassroom?

What do you think about saying the Pledgein both Spanish and English?

How are the start-of-day procedures handledin this school?

How does Quarrell engage the students intheir writing assignment?

How does Quarrell use her time while stu-dents are working on projects?

II Can you describe the approach Quarrell usesfor teaching writing and language skills?

What methods does Quarrell describe formaintaining classroom discipline? How doesshe address the issue of keeping a profession-al distance while forging relationships withher students?

How did students know that class was over?How did Quarrell conclude the lesson?

(2) What are some of the relevant perspectives?

Judging from what you heard in the morningannouncements over the intercom, what pri-orities might the administrators haveregarding the beginning of each day?

What do you suppose families from Mexicothink about their children reciting thePledge of Allegiance to the United States ofAmerica?

II Why might Quarrell have chosen families asa theme for the class writing projects?

What are Quarrell's main objectives in giv-ing out "personal" writing assignments?Some students view Quarrell as a "friend."How might this fact complicate herapproach to discipline?

What might be students' thoughts aboutsharing personal essays with the teacher?With their classmates? How does Quarrellshow sensitivity to this issue?

How confident is Quarrell in her own abilityto speak Spanish? Does she consider herselfat a disadvantage in her job by not speakingSpanish?

Quarrell says she resists changing the writingrequirements to accommodate special needsstudents. How might these students feelwhen they are required to do the same workbut may not be able to perform as well asother students? What might the other stu-dents, especially ESL students, think whenaccommodations are made for other class-mates?

(3) What do you know and what more would youlike to know?

Can teachers require students to stand quiet-ly or to leave the room during the Pledge ofAllegiance? (See Goetz v. Ansell, 197(3))

Although Quarrell says she uses whole-lan-guage techniques in the classroom, shethinks her school is not completely a wholelanguage school. What do you know aboutarguments for and against whole languageprograms?

Quarrell says she teaches in "pods." Whatdoes she mean by this?

There are several mainstreamed students inQuarrell's class. What do you know aboutmainstreaming? How is mainstreaming dif-ferent from full inclusion?

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What is the value of having childrendescribe their ideas in charts, such as the oneQuarrell used, before they begin writing?

What do you know about recommendedways to end a lesson? How might lesson clo-sure provide continuity between classsessions?

What do you know about more and lesseffective seat work and about the teacher'srole during seat work?

What does Quarrell mean by "Spanglish?"

(4) What actions might you take?

If you were the school's principal, how wouldyou begin the school day? Would you havestudents make the announcements? Wouldyou send memos to teachers and have themread the day's announcements?

When the bell sounded, Quarrell ended herclass. What other ways could the class beended? What would you do to help studentsprepare cognitively for the next lesson?

Quarrell's writing lesson will span at leastthree class meetings. The lesson in thevideotape seemed disrupted by the bell sig-naling the end of class. If you were anadministrator, would you move toward blockscheduling, where students work for longerperiods of time on fewer subjects?

Quarrell has a wide range of abilities in herclassroom, including special needs studentsand students for whom English is a secondlanguage. If you were her, how would youaccommodate this wide range of needs?Would you use a criterion-referenced ornorm-referenced grading system?

Quarrell says she tries to use a whole-lan-guage approach in her classes. Yet, herstudents must learn skills that appear onstandardized tests. How could you workgrammar, spelling, and other language skillsinto a lesson similar to the one in the video?

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Would you correct student mistakes as you some of the frustrations encountered by bilingualcirculated around the room? students.

If available, how could Quarrel! use comput-ers to promote writing in her class? Wouldyou encourage students to use spell checkers?Would you use educational computer soft-ware for language skill "drill and practice"and save writing projects for a more "wholelanguage" approach?

(5) What might be the consequences of actionstaken?

What is gained by having students readmorning announcements over the intercom?What is lost by having students perform thistask?

What are the pros and cons of having theteacher, rather than a bell, determine themoment a class ends?

What are some of the advantages and disad-vantages of block scheduling? What kinds ofstudents might benefit most from this type ofschedule?

What is the upside and the downside ofusing norm-referenced grading? Of criterion-referenced grading?

What are the advantages and disadvantagesof using computers as a tool for "drill andpractice" type activities in developing lan-guage skills such as spelling? If students wereallowed to use computers for writing, howmight their attitudes and skills be affected?

Ray Trejo, Mid-High School BilingualEducation (6 minutes, 45 seconds)

This segment focuses on the teacher and stu-dents in a bilingual high school class. The eventbegins with Ray Trejo talking about his decision tobecome a teacher. His comments are followed byscenes from the classroom at different points in theschool day. During the event, Ray Trejo expresseshis opinions about why some students attendschool and why others drop out. He also describes

Edited Transcript

Trejo: My name is Ray Trejo, and I have beenteaching for one year. I've done a lot of things. Iworked at a gas company before I started teaching,before I went to college. Then I got laid off. Iworked around the racetracks in El Paso shoeinghorses. I could not stand El Paso, so I decided to goto college, which was something I had neverthought about doing. When I got to college Italked with a lot of people, and they told me aboutteaching as a profession. I jumped on the idea.

Voice on intercom: There will be a meeting inthe high school all-purpose room this Saturday,May 1(5) Staff members, there will be a staffbreakfast hosted by First New Mexico Bank.

Trejo: Let's stand for the Pledge. Ready? (Trejoand class recite the Pledge of Allegiance.) Let'stake roll. Sergio, Erika, Janeth, Arturo, Carlos,Rosa...Let's look at the last sentence on the board:"Why do we go to school?" I want you to answerthat question, in a sentence. I want you to thinkabout why we go to school, and 1 don't want tohear, "to see my friends."(Trejo begins a lesson focusing on the differencebetween "never" an "2.1vays.") I am going to talkto you a little bit about how often people dothings. What does that mean? 2Que significa?Student: I never go m church.Trejo: I never go to what? Church? 2Iglesia? Okay,that's a good one. (writing on the board) I never go...Student: You forgot the "r".Trejo: Where? Oh, good. Who got me on thatone? Good.

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Trejo's Reflections: I think these studenthave learned that they too can have theopportunities that they see on televisionand so forth. They get a lot of role modelsfrom television; and I think they seeopportunities. 1 think that is why alot ofthem come to school.

Pressure, pressure...I believe a lot of mystudents drop out of school because of the

pressure put on them maybe by their peers.A lot of them try and try and try and try,and they never are rewarded for anything.I think they just give up. I think an impor-tant part of teaching is that rewardthatlittle reward keeps them motivated.

I told my class one of the most impor-tant things about school was being able tosocialize. I know a lot of them have prob-lems amongst themselves, so once in awhile 1 like to throw them in a group withsomebody they just do not get along with,and let them work it out. A lot of thesestudents are second-language learners.You've really got to be delicate with them,because of the frustration level that can bereached. From day one, a lot of these stu-dents are under the impression that we, orI, want them to become monolingualspeakers in English, and that's not right. Itell them that being bilingual is just soimportant, very important. I constantlytell them that they have to keep that.Spanish language with them and never for-get it. It is a monumental task to learnanother language. I'm still learning, andthese students help me. They teach mehow to be a teacher. 1 have nothingagainst universities, but this is the besttraining anyone could have, being righthere in the classroom with these students.The thing I worry about most is whether ornot I am making any progress with my stu-dents. I think about that all the time.

Discussion Questions

(1) What '_re some of the facts and issues in theevent?

What events influenced Trejo's decision tobecome a teacher?

What start-of-day routines arc evident inTrejo's classroom?

How long has Trejo been teaching?

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How does Trejo use humor to introduce hislesson? Do you think his humor is effective?

How does Trejo handle his own misspellingof a word he wrote on the chalk board?What might this tell you about Trejo's atti-tude toward his students and towardteaching?

What technique does Trejo say he uses topromote social development in his classroom?

What function, according to Trejo, doestelevision play in students' lives?

What does Trejo say to Spanish-speakingstudents about learning English?

(2) What are some relevant perspectives?

According to Trejo, what motivates moststudents to come to school?

What are Trejo's thoughts about why manystudents drop out of school?

Trejo says that many students find few rewardsin school. What reasons might such studentsuse to rationalize dropping out of school?

According to Trejo, what importance doesthe social function of school play?

How might a student who is not a native-English speaker think about learningacademic subjects in English?

Does Trejo think his teacher education wasadequate?

How might students' attitudes toward schoolbe influenced by television role models?

(3) What do you know and what more would youlike to know?

What is the significance of the year 1824printed on the Mexican flag hanging inTrejo's room?

What are the differences between immersionand bilingual approaches to educating non-English-speaking students? Arecharacteristics of either approach evident inTrejo's classroom?

What might be some of the objectives ofTrejo's opening lesson on "why we go toschool?"

What percentage of students drop out ofTrejo's school?

What might a drop-out student do after leav-ing school?

What does the school community think aboutbilingual classrooms in the public schools?

(4) What actions might you take?

What might be done in a school to provide abetter atmosphere for students who typicallydo not find school a positive experience? Onwhat school areas might you focus (e.g. acad-emic, social, cultural, extracurricular,occupational)?

How might you encourage bilingualism inschool, without making students feel theyare being assimilated into Anglo culture?Would you offer academic classes in Spanish,or would you teach subject matter only inEnglish? Would you alternate Spanish andEnglish instruction?

How might you educate students about thebenefits of attending school? Would youencourage business and college representa-tives to visit your school? Would you fosterschool-business relationships and programs(such as internships) in the school?

Trejo says that at-risk students need rewardsfrom teachers. What kinds of rewards mightyou provide to such students? Would you useonly verbal praise, or would you also includetangible rewards?

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(5) What might be the consequences of actionstaken?

Might programs designed to engage weakeror at-risk students also be appealing tostronger students? Would substantial timeand energy spent on at-risk students takeresources away from other students?

What might be gained by teaching academicsubjects in Spanish to students who strugglewith English? What might be lost with suchan approach? How might Anglo studentsreact to a mixture of Spanish and English inthe classroom?

What might be gained by exposing studentsto the business world while in school? Howmight schools profit from business-schoolrelationships? What might be lost by givingbusinesses an active presence in schools?

What is the danger of relying too heavily onextrinsic rewards? What are the pros andcons of using verbal praise with high schoolstudents?

Students in Ray Trejo's Class(1 minute, 55 seconds)

This segment of the videotape focuses on thethoughts of Trejo's students. Students discuss whythey attend school in Deming. They also describesome of their goals in life and then comment onthe homework given them at school.

Edited Transcript

Student 1: My name is Carlos Perez, I am 16 yearsold, and I live in Palomas.Student 2: I like the language and English andvery happy to learn our language and more oppor-tunities to have a job in the United States ofAmerica.Student 1: Better jobs and they pay more money. 1told my uncle (he is a mechanic) I don't like thatwork because you get oil all over your hands.Student 3: Secretary.

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Student 1: Bilingual teacher.Student 4: Bilingual secretary.Student 1: A lawyer.Student 2: I can work in Mexico; but here I getsome more money.Student 1: The first visit that I come, I'm afraidthat I don't know nothing, no English. Now Iknow a little bit.Student 2: I like to make friends that are livinghere like some Americans.Student 1: They give us work orally so we don'thave to write much. They should give us thehomework and if you can finish it in the period,you finish. If you no finish you can take to homeand finish. Trejo is my favorite teacher because hedidn't give me alot of work, but I learned moreEnglish with him.Student 5: Trejo is the best teacher for me, and Igive thanks to him.

Discussion Questions

(1) What are some of the issues and perspectives inthe event?

What are some of the reasons the studentsgive for being in school?

What are some of the career opportunitiesthat were of more and less interest to Trejo'sstudents?

What reason did the students give for want-ing to work in the United States instead ofMexico?

What were some of the fears students fromMexico had when they first an_mded schoolsin the United States?

IN How does Trejo handle homework assign-ments?

What are some of the reasons the studentslike Trejo?

(2) What do you know and what more would youlike to know?

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What do you know about the average stan-dard of living for students from Palomas,Mexico?

How many of Trejo's students attend college?

How many of the students find jobs in theUnited States?

How well do Trejo's students do on Ameri-can standardized tests?

Is there a guidance counselor in the schoolto help students develop career plans?

How do students learn about differentcareers?

(3) What actions might you take?

Trejo's students say that they are given timein school to do their homework, and theytake home what they do not finish in school.Would you provide class time for doinghomework, or would you keep homeworkand classwork separate?

Career opportunities appear to be veryimportant to Trejo's students. Would you useclass time to help educate students about dif-ferent opportunities in different fields? Wouldyou integrate such discussions into existingcurriculum, or would you treat career oppor-tunities as a separate subject area?

(4) What might be the consequences of actionstaken?

Students from Mexico travel 35 or moremiles to attend their school. What effectmight heavy homework loads have on thesestudents?

What can be gained by using class time todevelop discussions about career opportuni-ties? What are the disadvantages? What arcthe advantages or disadvantages of leavingsuch information to outside sources, such asguidance counselors or job fairs?

Challenges and Opportunities(4 minutes, 20 seconds)

In this segment, a central office administratordescribes some of the political issues involving thestudents from Mexico. He describes the recentchange to a student visa requirement and theimpact of that change on enrollment. The discus-sion includes comments on litigation filed inresponse to the use of public funds for educatingstudents from Mexico. The administrator alsodescribes the politics regarding the district policyof educating students from Mexico.

Edited Transcript

Dominguez: For students to come to school here,they have to go through a systematic student visaprogram. They have to go through the channels. Itis very difficult for these people to understand thatthis does not just happen. What they need to real-ize is that there is a handful of people that wouldbe against them.

I would say that some people feel there is a racialissue. I sometimes wonder if we were on the borderof Canada, and we had maybe the French, theFrench Canadians, or Canadians come across toDeming, New Mexico, if there would be so muchopposition. Maybe ours comes because we havepeople coming across the border from Mexico. I'mnot saying it's a contention with all, but I can saythat it hinges on some racism.

You know, this situation happened 2'A years ago.Prior to that, the students had a border pass; theygave them permission. I do feel that it was a tacticto hold back the students from coming. I stronglyfeel that because there was no forewarning. Theway that our district found out was the directorfrom I.N.S. in El Paso, Texas, and Senator Binga-man called me and said this is going to happen,and you're not going to be notified until July orAugust of next year. Our school term starts inAugust. 1 put a bulletin out to the schools, sayingthat starting the fall of next year, they will be ask-ing for student visas and if you do not have astudent visa and you are not a United States citi-zen, they're not going to let you come through. Weworked many, many hours into the night, becausethey were just lined up with their student visa

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papers, and we processed them. Then from therewhat they have to do is go to El Paso and go infront of their counsel there. They need to knowthat they have permission to come to our school.But 1 do feel that all of a sudden because there wasnot proper notification from the people here, thatthey were trying to stop students from crossing theborder. It totally backfired, totally backfired.

We did not lose any students. We gained stu-dents. Because you see, you have two types ofstudents. You have students from Palomas who areU.S. citizens. They were born in a hospital here inDeming, and then they went back to live in thecommunity of Palomas in Mexico. Then you havethe individual who lives in Palomas who is a Mexi-can citizen. The students that have to get thosevisas are the students who are not U.S. citizens. I'dsay that last year we issued about 140 student visas.We just recently had z lawsuit in which the plain-tiffs felt that the school district of Deming wasmisusing the public funds of New Mexico. Wehave the support from our legislators and from ourcongressmen. We have support from many localstate legislators. We have support from the statedepartment and our state board of education. Youknow we're doing a lot of things for other childrenin our community that are taking a whole lot moreeffort. They believe in the education of their chil-dren, they want them to do well. It's a slowprocess, and it's going to happen. But it's some-thing great. There are just more opportunities forthese students here, just greater opportunities.

Discussion Questions

(1) What are some of the facts and issues in theevent?

What are some of the obstacles studentsfrom Mexico face in trying to enroll in Dem-ing schools?

What does Dominguez say about the possi-bility of racial overtones in argumentsagainst the idea of students from Mexicoattending schools in the United States?

What effect did the switch from border pass-es to student visas have on the enrollment ofstudents from Mexico in Deming PublicSchools?

How did Dominguez respond to the changein visa policy?

How many student visas were issued in thefirst year of the new policy?

What was the basis of the law suit filedagainst the Deming Public Schools?

What are some of the sources of support forDeming schools cited by Dominguez? Whatmight be some reasons for such support?

(2) What are some relevant perspectives?

What might be some reasons that state offi-cials stopped requiring border passes andstarted requiring student visas for studentsfrom Mexico?

Why does Dominguez think the new visapolicy was a tactic to prevent the enrollmentof students from Mexico in Deming PublicSchools?

Why might some people oppose the enroll-ment of students from Mexico in U.S. publicschools?

Why does Dominguez think attendingAmerican schools is beneficial to studentsfrom Mexico?

For what reasons might some of the local res-idents support the presence of students fromMexico in the Deming schools?

How might students from Mexico havethought about attending the Deming schoolsafter a law suit was filed to stop them fromdoing so? How might they view the new stu-dent visa policy? How might these eventsaffect their attitude toward school?

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What do Anglo students think about havingstudents from Mexico attend the Demingschools?

(3) What do you know and what more would youlike to know?

What proportion of students from Mexicofind employment in the United States?

Are there counterproductive divisionsbetween cultural groups in the student bodyof the Deming schools? Is there a strongfeeling of community in the schools?

Why did the change to a student visa policyresult in increased enrollment of studentsfrom Mexico in Deming public schools?

Do New Mexico residents outside of theDeming school district support the presenceof students from Mexico in Deming schools?

(4) What actions might you take?

If you were a central office administrator,how would you help shape public attitudetoward the presence of Mexican students inthe Deming schools? Would you invite thecommunity to school events? Would youspeak publicly to civic organizations? Wouldyou write editorials to the local papers?

After the state changed the visa requirementfor students from Mexico, Dominguezbelieved the change was a tactic aimed todiscourage the enrollment of students fromMexico. He issued a bulletin warning schoolsof the change before the official announce-ment had been made, and he also usedschool resources to help process the studentsfrom Mexico. What might be done toencourage a positive school atmosphere forstudents affected by attempts to preventtheir enrollment in U.S. schools? Would youhold open meetings to address the issuesraised in the case? Would you leave theseissues to be addressed by Individual teachersand principals? Would you send out noticesto the entire school community?

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(5) What might be the consequences of actionstaken?

What are the implications of having superin-tendents speak out publicly on politicalissues, such as the enrollment of studentsfrom Mexico in U.S. schools? What are thelimits of a superintendent's responsibilities inthe management of a school system?

What effects might political and legal con-troversies have on students in the Demingpublic schools? Might increased attention tothe needs of students from Mexico detractfrom other issues important to Anglo stu-dents in the schools? Might the studentbody become polarized by these political andlegal issues? Might the presence of studentsfrom Mexico in U.S schools create new orenriched opportunities for all students? Is itever possible that education is not .a "zerosum game"that is, when someone gainssomeone does not have to lose?

References

Goetz v. Anse ll, 477 F.2d 636 (2nd Cir. 1973).

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!"), t""4I

Critical Perspective Ion the Case:by Mary E. Dilworth(American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education)

I am truly convinced that an excellent educationreflects the best of society. Because this society andits schools are racially, ethnically, and linguisticallydiverse, excellence can only be achieved if theteaching force, curriculum, and pedagogy reflectthis diversity. In myview, being a culturallyresponsive teacher oughtto be a goal of all teach-ers; regardless ofbackground, all of ushave something to learn.I frequently note, thatbecause I am a memberof a minority group doesnot necessarily mean Ihave a good understand-ing of how best to reachand teach children from groups other than myown. As an African-American educator, I am nomore familiar with what might be best practice forHispanic or Haitian-American youngsters than aEuroamerican teacher might be.

As an educational research director, I havefocused considerable time and energy collectinginformation to convince policymakers and teachereducators of the value of a culturally diverse andculturally responsive teaching force. There is acritical shortage of African-, Hispanic-, Asian-,and Native-American teachers in this nation, andmany schools are left without educational profes-sionals who can translate the cultures of theincreasingly diverse student population into mean-ingful educational experiences for all youngsters.To capture some of what is lost, I continuallysearch for information that places me in bettertouch with the practice and perspectives of teach-ers from groups other than my own. I look at theprocess as a validating experience. For instance, Ilook for indicators that suggest that teachers of

color actually do a better job of teaching young-sters from their own racial/ethnic/linguistic groupsand then attempt to discern why this is or appearsto be the case. Is it a simple matter of role model-ing, or possessing a common language or culture

that seems to make someteachers more effectivethan others? Whatexactly do these teachersknow that the majorityof teachers, who are byand large white, do notknow and/or need toknow to ensure the edu-cational success of anincreasingly diverseschool population?

I am a member of the"baby boomer" generation who was born in NewYork City and grew up in nearby New Jersey. Welived in the downtown area of the city, and myneighborhood playmates, who lived the apartmentbuildings nearby, were as diverse as one wouldexpect for the time. Most were Irish-, Polish-, andItalian-Americans, and a few were Jewish- andChinese-Americans. I was advantaged by havingbright, conscientious working-class parents and aCatholic school education. I was raised to believeand remain convinced that anyone can achieveanything provided he or she works hard on goodthings in the right way. Because this philosophy oflife has served me well professionally, I believe,possibly naively, it can work for others.

Learning how to be an elementary schoolteacher in an historically Black university, I thinkI have a fairly good grasp of the social and eco-nomic issues that negatively affect the academicprogress of children who are dispossessed. One ofmy most broadening experiences was in a graduateclass "Education and Minority Group Problems"

In my view, a greater under-standing of how and wherevarious racial, ethnic, andlinguistic groups converge aswell as differ is usefulinformation.

15

where, as one might otherwise expect, we did notfocus exclusively on issues of the African-Ameri-can community. For instance, we heard firsthandaccounts of the internment of Japanese-Americansduring World War II and began to understand thehistorical common experience of bondage. Thereare numerous issues and incidents that relate vari-ous groups to each other, yet we seldom infuse thisinformation into the standard curriculum. In myview, a greater understanding of how and wherevarious racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups con-verge as well as differ is useful information.

In my teacher education experience, I alsolearned how a child can disguise ability and evengenius so untrained, unsuspecting teachers do notrecognize these characteristics. Coming from a fair-ly urban community I was familiar with inner-cityculture. So 1 was not completely shocked toobserve the phenomenon of the best math studentin my first grade "running the numbers" in aneighborhood restaurant and beauty salon. Duringthis period, before the legal state lottery, playingthe illegal numbers was very much a part of inner-city, African-American culture. Respectedmembers of the communitybarbers and grand-motherswould wager nickels and quarters for thechance to "hit." As I recall, a penny wager on theevening's 3-digit number could yield $26. It neveroccurred to me to report what 1 had observed tothe authorities, but I did feel an obligation to givethis young man extra encouragement in the class-room. While his after-school job was less thandesirable, at age 7 this youngster was able to calcu-late accurately and rapidly in and out of theclassroom. His in-school performance indicated hehad the ability to be the astronaut he wanted to besome day. I perceived my role as one of making hisin-school experience as challenging as his out-of-school experiencein hopes he would alwaysrather be in my classroom than in the streets.

I did not always see life clearly through my stu-dents' experiences. On one occasion, a studentwho typically did his homework came to schoolunprepared. When I asked him why he had notdone the homework, he told me that as soon as hegot home from school the day before, his familydrove from Washington, D.C., to New York Cityand back (a 9hour round trip). I was incredulousand chastised him for making up such a story. Sev-eral days later in the teachers' lounge, I learned

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that the child's father was a drug runner who maywell have made frequent trips up and down thehighway.

Like most people entering the profession, mycommitment to teach was strong. As the oldest offive, I love children; and I think I am reasonablysuccessful communicating with them. When 1reflect on my early years of teaching in the Districtof Columbia Public Schools, as well as on my morerecent experience as an adjunct faculty member atthe historically black Howard University, I realizemy students need to learn what will serve thembest in the "real world." For this reason, I spentvaluable class time teaching my all African-Ameri-can first grade the little bit of Spanish I knew.Although Spanish was not a part of the approvedcore curriculum, the language was rapidly becom-ing a part of the children's neighborhoods anddaily lives. In my view, the children needed tounderstand and appreciate Hispanic-Americansand other ethnic groups in their increasinglydiverse community. (The extent to which mycooperating teacher and principal appreciated suchdiversions from the standard curriculum wasanother matter; yet I felt no remorse for deviatingfrom that standard.)

Similarly, as a private teacher for a recuperatinghomebound fourth grader, I recall being appalledthat she was unfamiliar with the names of thestreets that surrounded her home. She lived in anaffluent neighborhood and was driven virtuallyeverywhere. She had no opportunity to becomeacquainted with anything beyond her front yard.One of our first local geography lessons, thoughnot part of the mandated curriculum, was to learnwhat was around her. My tendency to tap issuesoutside the curriculum continues today. For exam-ple, when 1 teach graduate-level introduction toteaching and educational research courses, I try toplace discussion, writing assignments, and projectsagainst a backdrop of current issues, ideas, andpeople in the education newsthe National Edu-cation Goals, the merits of Lee Shulman's writingon the knowledge base for beginning teachers, AsaHilliard's thoughts about teaching African-Ameri-can students, and so forth.

Teaching "outside the curriculum" is, of course,risky business, because these "other" issues are notused to calibrate standardized achievement instru-ments. Such additional contextual information,

however, helps individuals, particularly those fromdisenfranchised groups, get ahead. My dispositionabout getting ahead in life through education,then, clearly influences my research and practice.

Issues

Teachers and administrators in Deming, NewMexico, appear to meld passion for education, loveof community, and appreciation of heritage intotheir unique brand ofpublic schooling. View-ing the videotape ofHank Dominguez,Paulette Quarrell, andRay Trejo, affirms howteachers' personal beliefsand values influenceinstruction. Researchsupports the fact thatteachers' expectationsinfluence their students'academic achievement.

desire to teach, and I did not cross the picket linethat next day. I did not, however, feel good aboutmy decision. I have to believe that educators inDeming must also have some mixed emotionsabout educating youngsters from both sides of theborder. This commitment most likely requiresthem to engage in some political action during andafter school, and it must add tension to teachers'lives. If a teacher from this community does notbelieve that accepting students from Palomas is

appropriate, it is highlylikely that he or she will

In this time of publicdiscussion regardingstandards and outcomes-based assessment, one mustalso ask how well students inthis school arrangementachieve academically.

Research also indicatesthat teachers generally hold low expectations forchildren from lowincome and/or racial, ethnic,and linguistic minority groups. (Irvine 1990, Lad-sonBillings 1994, Winfield 1991). The studentspictured in these Deming classrooms appear tohave positive selfimages, nurtured no doubt bytheir teachers.

A number of issues emerge from the Deming casethat display vividly the dilemmas educators facedailydilemmas about whom is to be taught, whatthey are to be taught, and the conditions underwhich they will learn. The practice of teaching Mex-ican children in the Deming schools raises moral andethical issues that probably confront teachers whoteach immigrant populations elsewhere.

I am reminded of a strike by a local teachers'union. At the time, I was a long-term substituteand not a union member. I had become emotional-ly attached to my sixth-grade class, and 1 believed Ishould honor the principal's request to come toschool and help out with several classes that wouldlikely be left unattended. At the same time, I wasraised in the highly unionized state of New Jerseyby my parents to believe that unions were forworking-class people, for us, and we ought nevergo against them. My home culture won over my

be ostracized by certainmembers of both com-munities. It is alsopossible that a decisionto exclude those stu-dents traveling dailyfrom Mexico could be adecision that wouldwork against a close fam-ily member.

The question oflegal authority or school

system control also pervades this case. Does thislocal community's desire to maintain what thepress has termed a "binational" school system over-ride any state or national resistance? On the onehand, the notion of a binational school or schoolsystem appears to compliment the recent NAFTAagreement between the United States and Mexico.Deming Schools seem congruent with the ethnic-immersion efforts elsewhere in the United States(e.g., French camps and international curriculumschools in Minnesota and publicly funded African-American immersion schools in urban areas suchas Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.). On theother hand, the existence of such schools fuels thedebate about equalization of school funding. Willbenefits to students who are U.S. citizens be cur-tailed as enrollment of students from othercountries increases? Does the tax base of this com-munity fully support Deming's unique approach, ordoes it require state or federal subsidies? Will abinational school system require a greater numberof bilingual teachers than the school district cur-rently employs? Is there or should there be certifi-cation reciprocity for U.S. and Mexican teachers?

In this time of public discussion regarding stan-dards and outcomes-based assessment, one must

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also ask how well students in this school arrange-ment achieve academically. Do the U.S. studentsdo well? Do the Mexican students do well? Nation-al standards for achievement are increasing rapidly,but how prepared are youngsters to meet such stan-dards? More important, do students meet localstandards of excellence? Given the particularlyhigh national dropout rate among Hispanic youths(approximately 28 percent in 1993), perhaps inthis community completion of ninth grade is anachievement worthy of note. If so, would such"success" garner outside support?

While the video provides little indication ofproblems between U.S. and Mexican students, onemust wonder whether students from both vicinities

along with one another, and if they worktogether. Both Quarrell and Trejo mention thereare no serious problems among students. Theirobservations prompt me to wonder if there is"something" they consider not worth mentioning.

Relevant Perspectives

This case offers valuable insight into this ruralNew Mexico community. I perceive a sense of com-munity that is atypical of many places in theUnited States. No doubt the schools have helpedshape the character of the community. I get theimpression listening to Dominguez that he does notoperate in isolation, that there is some level of sup-port to educate youngsters from both the state andlocal establishment as well as from the community.He speaks matter-of-factly about the funding for-mula for bilingual educationa formula that isbeing used here to support students from outsidethe United States. In many other communities,people would probably find this practice unaccept-able and make their feelings known in variousways. As Sonia N ieto (1994) notes, "Messagesabout culture and language and how they are val-ued or devalued in society are communicated notonly or even primarily by schools, but by the mediaand community as a whole" (p.401). Althoughthere may be some dispute nationally and withinthe state of New Mexico about the value or propri-ety of a binational school or even bilingualeducation, this videotape suggests that in this com-munity, school officials and students and teachersseem to be of like mind. I daresay if the situationwere otherwise, students of all backgrounds would

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not be as proficient as they are in saying the Pledgeof Allegiance in English and in Spanish.

As his comments regarding student visas suggest,the system administrator, Hank Dominguez, knowshow to negotiate the system to the advantage of allchildren. It is also important to note that he is notnaive to the implications of racism. He has kepthis "eyes on the prize" of providing high-qualityeducation to all students who enter Demingschools. Dominguez and the other administratorsare important players here. They must sometimesfeel as though they work both for and against thelocal and state educational systems.

The teachers in this case also appear positivelydisposed and committed to their students and theschools. For instance, Quarrell explains, ratherthan complains, that her six classes are typically 30students each. This is well over the average U.S.17:1 student teacher ratio (U.S. Department ofEducation, 1994). The tape also shows her gradingpapers after school hours in what appears to be herhome. Neither Quarrell nor Trejo voices concernsabout the composition of their classes, students'abilities, or their problems that one often hearsfrom practitioners who work in schools with highconcentrations of minority students. They alsoclearly embrace the value of bilingualism, withQuarrell noting she wished her parents had spokenSpanish to her, so she would have a better com-mand of the language, and Trejo commenting onthe merits of being bilingual. Although their classesare large, one gets the sense that students, particu-larly those who speak, seem to have a very goodsense of the teachers' values and expectations.Research suggests that this is not always the case.

In many ways, Quarrell is typical of beginningteachers (Berliner 1988). She is enthusiastic abouther class and her students, and she has her ownnotions about the school's curriculum standards.For instance, Quarrell realizes the school'sapproach to whole-language instruction is differentfrom whole-language methods to which she wasexposed in college. She comments about this situa-tion when explaining her language arts lesson, butimmediately posits that Deming Junior High is"not completely" a whole-language school. Perhapsthe university's presentation of whole languagetheory was not thorough enough for Quarrell torecognize and apply it in a new setting. Theseeventualities are not surprising, as Maria De La Luz

3

Reyes (1992) notes there is frequent misinterpreta-tion among teachers and researchers as to thedifference between "whole language" and "writingprocess." Both concepts are based on constructivistviews of learning and both rely on children's litera-ture as a base for literacy instruction. Quarrellseems cognizant of this blur and does not detail herunderstanding of the issues. Reyes advocates thatin embracing either approach, teachers mustunderstand that each student brings a valid lan-guage and culture to the instructional context.Quarrell's unit on family appears to have beendeveloped with such an understanding.

I also noticed that during her lesson, Quarrellhad no qualms about adding a sixth sense, "feel-ing," to the standard list of five senses. As aneophyte teacher, I too amended the curriculumquite casually, even arrogantly, without seriouslyconsidering the consequences. Quarrell expressessome concern, however, in adding a unit on fami-liesone which is not apparently part of theschools' curriculum. She knows students will beheld to a standard other than hers.

Quarrell describes herself as wanting to teach inher home community, an attribute shared by themajority of teachers (AACTE, 1991). They can bevery parochial, attending college fairly close tohome, and wanting to return to the same or similarcommunity from which they came,

Paulette Quarrell's sense of self shows clearly inher work; she promotes "family" as an essentialingredient in personal success. She organizes herlesson around family, asking the children to writeabout an individual in their families. Although itwas not stated, one gets the clear sense that thestudents were to write positively about their family.I wondered if there were any students from familiesso dysfunctional that they did not want to share astory. She presumes, and possibly rightfully so, thatparticularly in her community ancestors are impor-tant. She also selects a topic that will haverelevance to all students in her classes. If she repre-sents a "typical teacher" in the community thenone ought not question the willingness to teachyoungsters coming to school each day from Mexico.There is a poster in her classroom that promotesthe idea of community, "Put Yourself in OurShoes," yet Quarrell's practice does not seem toreflect this notion in a significant way. Possibly thisdisplay is directed to visitors from outside the class.

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When she reviews the assignment, her instruc-tions are "tell me about your family member." I findthis a bit unusual, because I assume students wouldwant to share their writing with peers. Simply put,there does not appear to be much interaction. Sheasks students to read over the notes they had made,she asks a question, "What is a descriptive para-graph?" but then does not wait for an answer. Iwonder if the students have come to realize she willanswer questions herself. Is it a function of confi-dence in her ability to respond to an incorrectanswer in a positive way, or it could be a matter oftime managementno time to search for the cor-rect answer? She focuses on herself. In anotherinstance, Quarrell explains that she does not callon students because she wants them to be comfort-able. Possibly this explanation reflects her owntemperament and not necessarily that of the stu-dents. She does not want to amend the assignmentfor students' comfort, but again this appears to beher personal preference rather than students' pref-erence. Does she fear losing control?

This segment of video does not demonstrate thatQuarrell fosters sharing in her class. She is thefocal point, quite possibly because she is uncom-fortable being perceived by students as their"friend"--a relationship that complicates issues ofdiscipline and respect. She struggles to be likedand loved as a friend or family, but she also wantsto be respected as the authority figure. She lays outa particularly difficult road to walk, but again cus-tomary of beginning teachers.

Beginning teacher Ray Trejo, on the other hand,exhibits a greater level of confidence in the class-room. While they may have been told to beconscientious for the camera, it is noteworthy thatTrejo's students were doing school work as theattendance was being taken. He had no problembeing corrected at the board by students; it is pos-sible he made the error on purpose to offerstudents an opportunity to correct him and feelgood in the process, or to test their attentiveness.In the short video clips, he appears in control ofhis classroom, moving about freely. He works asthough he has "eyes in the back of his head"(Kounin, 1970), seemingly knowing what his stu-dents are doing at all times even if he is notdirectly attending to them. We hear his studentscomment on their aspirations, and we learn thatTrejo has positively affected their perceptions.

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Ray Trejo is a "career changer" whc apparentlydid not get adequate satisfaction from his work atthe gas company. He expresses great fulfilmentfrom teaching. He seemingly relates well to stu-dents. Trejo recognizes they often find role modelson television, must contend with strong peer pres-sure, and feel sensitive to progress or the lackthereof. Trejo deliberately assigns students to worktogether who may not necessarily seek out eachother, because he wants to encourage socializationamong students who have difficulties in the system.

Trejo's emphasis on the importance ofsocialization in schools where the students are pre-dominantly "of color" conforms to the professionalliterature. Reflecting on the earlier work of AnnieStein (1971) with New York City kindergartenteachers, Sonia Nieto states that, "In the schoolswith large Puerto Rican and African-Americanstudent populations, the socialization goals werealways predominant; in the mixed schools, theeducational goals were first" (p. 409) She furthernotes that "A kind of tracking, in which students'educational goals were being sacrificed for socialaims was taking place in these schools, and itseffects were already evident in kindergarten"(Nieto, 1994, p. 409). Although this researchrelates to very young students it suggests a culturalconnotation to the socialization process. As I notein Reading Between the Lines: Teachers and TheirRacial Ethnic Cultures (1990), teachers of colorhave of necessity learned to communicate andnegotiate in more that one culture. They attendschools and colleges organized around mainstreamknowledge and values. They return to personalfamilies and communities that oftentimes are dis-similar in significant ways. The bulletin board inTrejo's room, "Success is an Attitude," is particu-larly telling in this regard. It may reflect Trejo'stemperament. Given his experiences in the workworld or elsewhere, he might even communicate amercenary view of the value of education. His stu-dents, like most youngsters their age, aspire to highstatus, and/or well-paid careers. Does Trejo believethe primary reason students are in his bilingualclassroom is to improve their economic condition?Regardless, his students apparently appreciate hisapproach and demeanor.

The students hold some high goals. It wouldseem that Trejo, and no doubt others, expect greatthings from them. Once again, we see the subtle

effects that adults have on children by communi-cating high but reasonable expectations forsuccess. Students complain about homework, butthey seem to understand the relevance and impor-tance of doing it. The students we see and hearhave been nurtured to speak in English, and atleast some did not appear to have any apprehen-sion about doing so. Trejo's stated belief that thestudents help him be a teacher indicates his will-ingness to continue to learnan attitude thatmost likely fosters student participation.

Professional Knowledge

A number of questions come to mind as 1 watchthese teachers and the administrators in action. AsI mentioned earlier, teachers bring their own per-sonalities and values to classrooms, which in turninfluence their styles of communication and peda-gogy. Through the years, authors have suggestedwe tend to use the same teaching styles that wewere used on us as students. If so, to understandwhat is happening in Deming, I would like toknow more about the K-12 experiences, collegebackgrounds, and life experiences of Quarrell,Trejo, and Dominguez. Were they born in theUnited States? Were they educated in this regionof the country and thus particularly sensitive tothe conditions of the students? Have they experi-enced a bilingual education program? Even partialanswers to these and other questions about theeducators' histories would make me feel less like anoutside observer and better prepared to imaginemyself in such a situation.

Christine Igoa (1995) describes how her experi-ence as an immigrant to this country influencesher teaching. Reflecting on her experiences as ateacher of immigrant students, she states:

Here the children and I were on commonground. Because I myself had come to theUnited States as an immigrant child, weall understood what it meant to have beenuprooted and transplanted. We were awareof cultural differences, the loss of signs ofthe familiar, and the fragmented educationexperienced by many because of travel andrelocation. Some of us had traveledthrough other countries and, in manycases, shared a war experience. (p.5)

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In her practice, she follows an approach toteaching immigrant youngsters that requires cul-tural, academic, and psychological interventions.She contends such an approach is appropriate forall children: "I have seen many U.S.born childrenin cultural conflict with each other. I have seenchildren restless, fragmented, and in cultural con-flict with themselves" (p.10).

In this videotape, we get the clear impressionthese students, like other students, wish to do well.We do not, however, see the obstacles they facedaily in meetingotheir goals. We are informed thatmany must take long bus rides daily to and fromschool in Deming. This means they wake veryearly in the morning and likely have less time thanmany students their age to do homework, partici-pate in after-school activities, relax, and socialize.We can also assume that these students have alevel of resiliency typical of many youngstersplaced at risk. In summarizing the literature, Win-field (1994) describes the characteristics ofresilient youth in high-poverty areas who succeeddespite their disadvantaged circumstances. Theseinclude "a wide array of social skills, positive peerinteractions, a high degree of social responsivenessand sensitivity, intelligence (measured by IQ tests),empathy, a sense of humor, and criticalproblemsolving skills" (p.2).

If these students are doing well academically itmay be attributed at least in part to the presence ofa healthy sense of community. Researchers JudithLittle (1993) and Linda Winfield (1994) suggestthat political and legislative reforms in and bythemselves, will not be sufficient to solve the prob-lems of minority school failures if educators do notredefine their roles with respect to students andcommunities. Johanna Nel (1992) and NancyZimpher and Elizabeth Ashburn (1993) also indi-cate the need for serendipity between and amongthe values and goals of students and their teachers.Sonia Nieto (1994) when speaking of resilient stu-dents observes, "The positive features that havecontributed to their academic success, namely,caring teachers, affirming school climates, andloving families have helped them face such odds"(p. 423).

Although Quarrell's desire to make studentscomfortable in their work sounds reasonable, somecomfort-producing approaches may have unin-tended consequences. Bell hooks (1993) writes of

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psychological "safety" in college classrooms, yether observations seem unusually pertinent here:

Many professors have conveyed to metheir feeling that the classroom should be a"safe" place; that usually translates tomean that the professor lectures to a groupof quiet students who respond only whenthey are called on. The experience ofprofessors who educate for critical con-sciousness indicates that many students,especially students of color may not feel atall "safe" in what appears to be a neutralsetting. And that it is the absence of a feel-ing of safety that often promotes prolongedsilence or absence of student engagement(p. 93).

Research supports peer interaction as a valuablecomponent of learning, particularly for "minority"students. Kathryn Au and Alice Kawakami (1993)note "[P]eer relationships and peer group normsmay play an important part in classrooms with stu-dents of diverse backgrounds of all ages." Theycaution further that "Teachers may inadvertentlywork counter to peer group norms in ways thatcause students to resist or oppose school activities"(p.2.3).

None of my commentary should lead the readerto infer that either Quarrell or Trejo is a poor orinsensitive teacher. On the contrary, they eachshow characteristics of culturally responsive teach-ing that are necessary but absent in manyclassrooms. Their performances on the videotapeare analogous to what LadsonBillings (1994)describes as culturally responsive teachers who are"conductors" and "coaches." She suggests suchteachers strive for excellence rather than aimingfor slight improvements. Ladson-Billings asks us tovisualize an orchestra conductor who commandsthe attention of the musicians and has full controlover their actions. "So powerful can the personali-ty of the conductor be that the audience and themusical critics describe the quality of the perfor-mance in terms of the conductor's performance,even though the conductor did not play a singlenote" (pp. 23-24). "Conductors," like Quarrell,"believe that students are capable of excellence,and they assume responsibility for ensuring thattheir students achieve that excellence" (p. 23).

') 1.!

"Coaches," like Trejo, also communicate highexpectations for their students, however, they arecomfortable sharing responsibility for learning withstudents, parents, and community members."Coaches understand that the goal is team success.They know that they do not need to gain personalrecognition in order to achieve that success.Coaches are comfortable operating behind thescenes and on the sidelines" (Ladson-Billings, pp.24-25). My hunch is that everyone remembersteachers who were conductors and coaches.Although conductors may have seemed s,-,rict andcoaches demanding, we probably learned the mostand the best from them.

Actions and Consequences

In the case of Quarrell, I would focus greaterattention on student interaction than was exhibit-ed in the videotape. For instance, although sheseems to embrace an element of constructivismusing her students' prior knowledge, in thissituation about family, as the point of departure forteachingwe do not observe her encouraging stu-dents to build on that knowledge by developingand sharing their information with peers. One sim-

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ple way to do so would be to form groups wherestudents could contribute to a pool of descriptivewords for each of the six senses. The small groupcould then use these words to develop their indi-vidual family-member profiles. In this way,students' vocabularies would likely expand, andeach person could consider differences and similar-ities among their families. Although we do notknow what Quarrell's follow-up lessons on creativewriting will be, student groups might write fictionsabout the individuals profiled. Each group couldthen share its story with the whole class. Many stu-dents might also be challenged to define, spell, anduse words their classmates provide.

We see very little of Trejo actually teaching. Iwould guess, however, that his students would gainfrom an emphasis on the importance of acquiringknowledge for its own sake. They could do so bypracticing language skills in both English andSpanish, or for that matter in any language. Lan-guage skills that promote effective communicationalso contribute to the quality of people's lives. Ican imagine lessons in the use of sign language andcomputers as instruments of communication thatmight help students perceive the importance oflanguage and its effective use.

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References

AACTE (1991). Teaching teachers: Facts andfigures. Washington, D.C.: AACTE.

Au, K. H. and Kawakami, A. J. (1993) Culturalcongruence in instruction. In E.R. Hollins, J.E.King, and W. C. Hayman (Eds.), Teaching diversepopulations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp. 5-23). New York: SUNY Press.

Berliner, D. C. (1988). The development of expertisein pedagogy. Washington, D.C.: AACTE.

De La Luz Reyes, Maria. (1992, Winter). Chal-lenging Venerable Assumptions: LiteracyInstruction for Linguistically Different Students.Harvard Educational Review 62 (4), 427-446.

Dilworth, M.E. (1990).Reading between the lines:Teachers and their racial ethnic cultures. Washing-ton, D.C. : AACTE and ERIC Clearinghouse onTeacher Education.

hooks, b. (1993). Transforming pedagogy and mul-ticulturalism. In T. Perry & J. Fraser (Eds.),Freedom's plow: Teaching in the multicultural class-room. New York: Routledge Press.

Igoa, C. (1995). The inner world of the immigrantchild. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Irvine, J. J. (1990). Black students and school failure:Policies, practices and prescriptions. New York:Greenwood Press.

Kounin, J. S. (1970). Discipline and group manage-ment in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart andWinston.

LadsonBillings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Suc-cessful teachers of African American children. SanFrancisco: Jossey Bass.

Little, J. W. (1993). Teachers' professional devel-opment in a climate of educational reform.Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 (2),129-151.

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Nel, J. (April, 1992). Teacher preparation: Implica-tions of Cummins' theoretical framework foranalyzing minority students' school failure. Paperpresented at the Annual Meeting of the Ameri-can Educational Research Association, SanFrancisco, California.

Nieto, S. (1994, Winter). Lessons from students oncreating a chance to dream. Harvard EducationalReview, 64 (4), 392-426.

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Winfield L. F. (1994). Developing resilience in urbanyouth. Oak Brook, Ill: NCRTL.

Winfield, L. E (1991) Resilience, schooling, anddevelopment among African American youth: Aconceptual framework. Education and Urban Soci-ety, 24 (1), 5-14.

Winfield, L. E and Manning, J.B. (1992). Chang-ing school culture to accommodate studentdiversity. In M.E. Dilworth (Ed.), Diversity inteacher education: New expectations (pp. 181-214).San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Zimpher, N.L. & Ashburn, E.A. (1993). Counter-ing parochialism in teacher education. In M. E.Dilworth (Ed.), Diversity in teacher education:New expectations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

C

ritical Perspective IIon the Case:by Lisa Sparaco(Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, New Mexico)

People teach for many reasons. Some are calledto teaching as if it were a vocation or a response tothe needs of the community. Teaching provides anindividual with opportunities for personal growth,professional development, and at least some securi-ty. Teaching can seem like just a job when theworking conditions do not support people to facewhat seem to be overwhelming challenges. Inmany ways, teaching is like volunteer work; mostteachers invest time and resources for which theyare not adequately compensated. For me, teachingis all these things and more.

There are times when I am inclined to see myinvolvement with teaching in one way more thanothers. For the most part, however, teachingdefines my identityit has become a part of who Iam not just what I do. I believe this is true formany teachers.

In the United States, we have mandatory publiceducation until the age of 16 and a school systemdesigned ostensibly to meet the demand. All chil-dren must receive some form of schooling thatconforms to certain guidelines established by thepublic, professional educators, and governmentofficials. Parental and community involvement inpublic education vary greatly from place to place,but students generally fall at the bottom of thedecision-making apparatus.

Most schooling is patterned on a "one-size-fits-all" model. Adults provide instruction geared to astandardized curriculum and supervise learners'progress. This has been the traditional way of"being schooled" throughout our country's educa-tional history. I experienced the approachfirsthand from the time I starred school in theearly 1960s through the completion of my bache-lor's degree in special education in 1978. But muchof what was once considered traditional and appro-priate is undergoing massive change, includingpeople's reliance on a largely unchallenged canon

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of knowledge underlying the system. For instance,educators now consider such factors as primary andsecond language acquisition abilities and learningstyles as they rethink grouping practices, vary adultto student ratios, and employ culturally-sensitivecurricula.

Today, the public education system represents anamalgamation of knowledge, problems, countlesscritiques, and efforts at reform. As I return to myown studies in pursuit of a doctoral degree in mul-ticultural teacher education, I find many of thepractices and beliefs I was once taught beingreconstructed. Personally, I am happy to seemuch of it go. I am delighted to participate insuch transformations, although the results can bedisorienting.

At present, the social, cultural, economic, andpolitical dimensions of schooling itself are as hotlyand openly debated as at any other point in oureducational history. Power is at the heart of muchof the debatewho holds it, how they acquire andwield it, if, when, how, and with whom they shareit. Power is manifested and explored by analystsnot only in traditional terms of financial and polit-ical control, but in patterns of discourse betweenand among students, teachers, and school adminis-trators. As people have drawn inferences about thenature of power in traditional top-down organiza-tions, reforms have encouraged participatorydemocracy, shared decision making, and site-basedmanagement. Scholars see further evidence of"paradigm shifts," or major changes in the waypeople interpret the world and their place in it, inreconceptualizations of learners, teaching, curricu-la, school management, and indeed every aspect ofeducation.

I feel anxious about the present state of Ameri-can education, but at the same time I am hopefulabout the changes. I cannot pretend to be repre-sentative of all teachers. Quite the contrary. My

experiences are amazingly limited compared tomany others in the field. I am an individual, and Ihave made specific choices that have shaped thecourse of my life. I tend to look at teaching as avocation that embodies an important element ofcommunity service. Although some view the term"vocation" as interchangeable with "occupation,"or what one does for a living, I prefer the Webster'sdefinition: "a summons or strong inclination to aparticular state or course of action." I furtherdefine the "action" in terms of social action and asense of commitment to the community as demon-strated through work with children in schools.

Over the years, I have heard many of my col-leagues claim they were apolitical; that politicsshould stay out of education, and vice versa. WhenI was a beginning teacher, I thought they were talk-ing about involvement with teachers' unions andlocal elections. But as I gained more experienceworking with families and communities, I began tounderstand politics in much broader termsthat is,as a reflection of one's social commitment.

For example, my first teaching job as an earlychildhood special education teacher was in a segre-gated, nearly all-Black public school in PortArthur, Texas. I worked in the only racially inte-grated program in the school. As a new teacher,and as a union member, I was active in both thelocal PTA and the local teacher's association. Tome, that was political. I was often the only whiteperson present at PTA functions, even thoughmost of the teachers were white. When employeesfrom around the district were brought together forstaff development, I saw how many of them tacitlysupported the system by simply never discussingthe fact that the schools were not integrated.Many years later, I learned there are arguments forand against integration on many levels and onmany sides. To deny that one has a position is alsopolitical. Arid to ignore the relationship betweenone's politics and one's practice is to be naive.

If we accept the definition of a profession as "acalling requiring specialized knowledge and oftenlong and intensive academic preparation," thennew teachers begin a personal process of intellec-tual growth and skill development in addition tocommunity service. Our degrees in education com-bine studies of content, curriculum, pedagogy,human development, and much more. Yet, manyrefer to us as "professionals" only when discussing

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issues of accountability. Perhaps our expressions ofconcern about working conditions, pay scales, andthe need for community involvement, make usseem somehow less professional in their eyes thaneither physicians or lawyers.

Not everyone views teachers the same way.When I went with the Peace Corps to Ecuador andworked in public and private elementary schools,teachers there were held in high esteem. The rela-tionship between teachers' social commitmentsand the amount of respect the public paid them asprofessionals became even clearer to me as Iworked toward a master's degree in Latin Ameri-can Studies. For the two years I lived in MexicoCity on an internship with the Inter-AmericanIndian Institute, I learned about critical pedagogyfrom Latin American Indian teachers. Those braveprofessionals struggled for their own forms of bilin-gual and liberation educationall against amazingodds. I often ask myself, how can a society like oursthat places such emphasis on mandatory educa-tion, be so hesitant to acknowledge teaching as aprofession? What can we teachers do to improvethe image and role we play in our communities?

One thing we can do is to avoid taking unfairadvantage of our position of authority. The profes-sional challenge is to know where the line shouldbe drawn between accepting responsibility andbecoming an authority figure. We can onlyrespond professionally to the challenge by convers-ing with those around uslistening to what theysay, and sharing power to make decisions when andwhere appropriate. I intend, through my doctoralstudy, to focus on appropriate methods of establish-ing dialogue to help the restructuring underway inmany public schools.

My personal preference for learningboth formy daughter and myselfwould be a dual-immer-sion program, where the language abilities ofdiverse populations are brought together in abilingual, multicultural environment. Thisenvironment would be managed by teachers whowere well-versed in alternative methods of instruc-tion and classroom management, and who wouldallow for learners to help design their own pro-grams. Decisions about instruction would be madeat or very near the site of teaching and learning,not far away. People would participate in an ongo-ing dialogue that revealed learners' needs.

)

Issues

Deming, New Mexico, is located some 35 milesfrom Palomas, Mexico. More than 400 studentscross the border each day to attend school in theDeming School District. Those in kindergartenthrough fifth grade go to nearby Columbus, andthe others attend the public junior high, mid-high,and senior high schools in Deming. The videoaddresses the needs and experiences of these stu-dents, as well as theissues of local communi-ties in educatingstudents from Mexico.

The brief narration atthe beginning of thetape orients the viewerby providing brief back-ground about theeducational situation inDeming. The narratorexplains that some stu-dents coming from Palomas, Mexico, hold dualcitizenship, and some hold only Mexican citizen-ship. The question of citizenship and its attendantrights are at the center of much debate over immi-gration, legal and otherwise. Ultimately the courtswill decide such questions. As we have seen withthe recent voter approval of Proposition 187 inCalifornia, and many battles before over bilingualeducation around the nation, these issues oftenplay themselves out in schools.

As the videotape suggests, the definition of "citi-zenship" goes well beyond one's national origin_How we think about citizenship will govern howwe define ourselves as a nation in the 21st century.Will the United States be open to peoples of allracial backgrounds and nationalities, or will immi-gration be even more restricted aiong racial andethnic lines than it is now? Answers will deter-mine not only the demographic make-up of thecountry but our national identity as well.

The narrator suggests that, regardless of their cit-izenship, students coming to the Deming schoolscontinue to consider Mexico home. To my way ofthinking, that is another way of saying that eventhough people from Mexico value U.S. public edu-cation, they do not diminish the importance oftheir Mexican heritage or culture. The narratorwarns viewers, appropriately in my opinion, to

remain open to others' experiences and sensitiveto local perspectives on teaching and learning.Simply by describing the community as "south-western," he evokes a context rich with historyand cultural contact between the United Statesand Mexico. The people in the video, we are told,are involved in shaping culture through this ongo-ing contact.

These observations seem congruent with culturalstudies of contemporary U.S. society that demon-

strate the influence ofhistory on our values andon our everyday lives.Such studies also empha-size needs for sensitivityto and inclusion of oth-ers' voices in publiceducationvoices ofthose who have longbeen ignored andsilenced. Modern educa-tion reformers draw

attention to the importance of including in curric-ula the contribution. if peoples previouslyexcluded from study. The video reinforces thesaliency of this concern.

Some of the broader policy issues are introducedat the beginning of the tape, and revisited again atthe end, by Hank Dominguez from the centraloffice. He, like the narrator, emphasizes the impor-tance of money. We are told the state of NewMexico subsidizes the education of students fromPalomas, Mexico, to the tune of $2,500-3,200 perstudent, because these students participate in abilingual program. As Dominguez notes, thoseopposed to immigration generally, and to the edu-cation of immigrant children more specifically,often use the economic argument to justify theirposition: "These individuals don't pay taxes." Thischarge is often followed by the call for Mexicanfamilies to pay the average per-pupil expenditure,if they send their children to the Deming schools.

Dominguez counters that Palomas families dopay taxes when they shop in Deming. He also con-tends that the importance of commerce and theexchange of services across the border should notbe underestimated. Mexican shoppers in the Unit-ed States boost economies and strengthen socialand familial ties between peoples. I would add thatimmigrants, documented or not, contribute to the

As the videotape suggests,the definition of "citizenship"goes well beyond one'snational origin.

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economy by accepting low-wage service jobs andby providing a necessary source of labor, particular-ly in agricultural communities. Mexican nationalsmay file for unemployment, worker's compensa-tion, and/or social security, but taxes to supportsuch programs are deducted from their wages.Moreover, when Mexicans and Mexican-Ameri-cans own property on the U.S. side of the border,they pay property taxes, just like anyone else.

Debates surrounding the relationship of power toculture and the histori-cal struggle overownership of the landbecome more critical asour society becomesincreasingly "multicul-tural." The classroom inmany ways is a micro-cosm that reflects the

the new policy for student visas required from non-U.S. citizens coming from Palomas. Previouslyonly a border pass had been required of both theU.S.-bom Mexican students and the non-U.S. cit-izens. I get the impression that the lack of"forewarning" about the change in policy was apolitical tactic aimed at blocking students' entryinto the United States. One can sense HankDominguez's satisfaction in beating the systemthat is, sending word to the community in time to

have more than 140 stu-dents from Palomas

I believe racial intolerance isan issue in this case and else-where in our society.

broader society.Although the morecomplex problems cannot be resolved in theschools alone, the dialogue so vital to the moreinclusive forum can and probably should begin inthe more intimate environment of the classroom.Young people can experience tolerance and learncommunication techniques they need to partici-pate fully in a democracy. To be sure, adults canbenefit from modeling tolerance and effectivecommunication for children as well. Anotherissue, then, is how we proceed to create suchopportunities.

At the end of the videotape, as Dominguezexplains the process of applying for student visas,he wonders aloud if opposition to educating stu-dents from Mexico in U.S. schools can beexplained by racism. Would opposition exist in theNorth if French-speaking Canadian studentsattended U.S. schools? I believe racial intoleranceis an issue in this case and elsewhere in our society.W.E.B. Du Bois is as correct today as he was in the1920s when he observed that the major issue ofthe 20th century in the United States is race. Theinability of the U.S. public to address openly ourhistory of racist policies and practices may be ourgreatest weakness. Fear and ignorance fuel racism,discrimination, and violence. Only education canreplace hate with tolerance and mutual respect.

It is interesting to listen to Dominguez describehis perception of the politics involved in enforcing

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register appropriately forthe next school year.Dominguez also takespleasure in the supportthe district received fromthe State Department,certain members of Con-gress, and manycommunity members

when the Deming School District was accused ofmisusing state funds. Clearly, there are issues ofpolitics and power beneath the surface of thevideo.

Perspectives

The videotape presents various cultural and ped-agogical perspectives for viewers' consideration.Although it is difficult for me to separate "issues"from "perspectives," when we observe classroomactivities and listen to people's comments and con-cerns, I begin to perceive how the two are related.

Consider Paulette Quarrell, a :iispanic teacherat Deming Junior High School. After brieflydescribing her workload, Quarrell shares her per-sonal feelings and professional thoughts about herwork. Although one cannot assume she is moresensitive than are other teachers to the culturaland linguistic needs of the students from Mexico, Ibelieve her ability to meet these students' needs isenhanced by her own personal experiences andethnic background. Students' perspectives on suc-cess can be influenced greatly when they see asignificant representation of educators from theirown communities in their own schools.

Quarrell and Trejo, another Hispanic teacher onthe videotape, make evident the importance ofdeveloping and preserving both Spanish and

0

English language abilities. Sadly, the experience ofSpanish-speaking populations with regard to theuse of Spanish in schools anywhere in this countryis not so positive. Generations have been forced toremain either on the margins of mainstream soci-ety, or to forgo their language entirely, and thuslose a great deal of their culture.

The importance of language to the survival of aculture is enormous. r .use involved in the strug-gle to defend the right to speak more than onelanguage argue that it is no longer acceptable todefend the elimination of other languages whilelearning English. Theorists and practitioners fromaround the world contend the best way to learnEnglish for a non-English speaker is by first learn-ing to read and write in the learner's primarylanguage. The question in the minds of these peo-ple is how best to do so.

There are policy and pedagogical options to thesink-or-swim, total English-immersion model forlearning the language. Likewise there are manyways speakers of other languages can retain theirmother tongue while they learn English andachieve genuine biliteracy. Some propose separate,bilingual programs that nurture the special lan-guage and cultural needs of a particular ethnic orcultural group. Others offer integrated and dual-bilingual approaches, bringing diverse linguisticand cultural groups together to learn English aswell as a second language. As the videotape sug-gests, there are also advantages of having nativeSpanish speakers as models for learning Spanish asa second languageadvantages that might out-weigh educational expenses in meeting learners'language needs.

Quarrell expresses concerns about the meaningand practice of "whole-language" approaches. Shehas structured her homeroom activities around thetheme of family. She integrates language activitiesto stimulate student writing and to reinforce stu-dent self-esteem and identity. She realizes theschool is not a whole-language school, and stu-dents must meet certain competencies not directlyrelated to whole-language development. Nonethe-less, she wants to use methods of whole-languageteaching which she learned in college.

Quarrell seems ambivalent or even confusedabout whole-language learning vis-a-vis studentdemonstration of competencies. The issue dealswith both teaching and assessment. A solid whole-

language program can help students meet the com-petencies of a skills-based program, but maybe notin exactly the same order, or during a particularperiod of time. Sometimes assessment is notdesigned or administered properly to detect thevariations in learning that whole-language instruc-tion produces.

In raising the whole-language issue, Quarrellforces us to consider if whole language might beappropriate for English-language learners and cer-tain ethnic or cultural groups and less appropriatefor others. Issues of differential expectations andvariable effects are being debated at many levels.Unfortunately, whole language is often interpretedinappropriately as conflicting with the needs ofdiverse learners. Learning grammar and the pho-netic sounds of a language are not somehowseparate from journal writing and reading for com-prehension. They are complex skills, however, thatrequire much teacher planning time and coordina-tion among team members if students are tointegrate them successfully. Apparently, the "pod"arrangement Quarrell mentions will help teachersfind common planning time and encourage themto coordinate their efforts on thematic units.

During the writing lesson on family, Quarrellopens with a brainstorming session on the fivesenses and adds "feelings" as a sixth sense. Weobserve the importance she places on the feelingsand personal experiences of her students. Whenthe group of learners is as heterogeneous as Quar-rell's class appears, the teacher needs to beespecially sensitive to the affective domain. Shealso expresses concerns about discipline with thisage level. She explains how her effort to gain theconfidence of her students could create potentialchallenges to her position of authority. Such chal-lenges are prevented, she explains, by clearlyestablishing rules from the beginning and by com-municating regularly what is acceptable and whatis not.

All teachers need to be able to communicatetheir respect for students' personal feelings andexperiences without sacrificing students' respectfor them. Because Quarrell is Hispanic and sharesa common cultural background with many of herstudents, her abilities to understand them areenhanced. Many teachers today do not understandand appreciate the cultural habits of the diversestudents they face. The good news is they can

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learnthey can develop awareness and sensitivityand demonstrate these capabilities by trying alter-native methods of instruction and assessment. AsQuarrell does, they can also recognize the impor-tance of family in their students' lives.

Ray Trejo, the Deming Mid High School teacherpresented in the video, describes himself as some-one who did not plan to go into education. Aftergrowing tired of El Paso and being laid off from hisjob, he decided to become a teacher and live in asmall, rural town.

The piece on Trejo'sclassroom opens withhis asking the studentsto discuss why they goto school. Although thescene seems a bit staged,the viewer can see howcomfortable the studentsfeel with their teacher.The teacher translatesfreely for the studentswhen necessary duringthe discussion, and theyfeel comfortable with the idea of correcting him aswell.

Trejo perceives the importance of school for hisstudents in terms of the opportunities it providesfor enhancing their lives. (The difference betweenTrejo's and Quarrell's views may be due in part tothe fact that he is teaching older students.) Hetalks about the pressure on the young people.Apparently many of them drop out of schoolbecause of pressure and the lack of reward for theirefforts. He also mentions the importance of peerpressure and socialization on the students. Trejobelieves teachers need to provide more incentivesto encourage and motivate students. The frustra-tion of second-language learners is great, accordingto Trejo, and thus he believes strongly they need tohe encouraged to continue learning in both Eng-lish and Spanish.

Like Quarrell, Trejo is Hispanic. This fact helpshim understand the students coming to Demingfrom Mexico. He comments on how much he haslearned from his students; he even states that thebest training is in the classroom. Trejo worries outloud about how much progress he is making withhis students.

Trejo's students from Palomas offer yet anotherperspective on school life in Deming. They rein-force his comments on the importance ofeducational opportunities for young people. Oneyoung man is motivated by the improved jobopportunities he expects to have in the UnitedStates if he learns English and succeeds in school.This view is shared by another student as well.Some students report that their initial fears oflearning English were replaced by confidence as

they experienced somesuccess. When asked,individuals say they hopeto become a lawyer, abilingual teacher, and asecretary. These students'comments suggest theyexperience a level ofcomfort in the schoolenvironment; or at least,they do not appear to beuncomfortable becausethey feel different or insome way inadequate

compared to other students in the system.

. . . it is important to considerhow race and ethnicity canaffect the debate about edu-cating students from Mexicoin the New Mexican publicschools.

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Professional Knowledge

We know from the outset of the videotape thatthis case centers on those students of dual citizen-ship and of Mexican citizenship only who live inMexico and attend the Deming Public Schools.When the teachers speak of the culture and lan-guage skills of Hispanic students, however, we donot know for certain if they are also speaking ofHispanic students from New Mexico. Perhapsbecause I perceive such an overlap in the issuesand needs of these communities 1 am overly sensi-tive to this issue. Nevertheless, if I were a teacherin Deming, I would want a more complete under-standing of the similarities and differences amongthese communities.

Quarrell mentioned there were a few African-American students and some Anglos in theirprograms. The tape only shows a few of the Ang-los. Again, I would want broader knowledge of allthe groups involved in the school and communitybefore determining what programs would best meetthe needs of any of the groups.

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For others like me who are not native to NewMexico, it is important to consider how race andethnicity can affect the debate about educatingstudents from Mexico in the New Mexican publicschools. I assume both Quarrell and Trejo, andprobably Dominguez as well, are representatives ofthe New Mexican Hispanic population, which isthe majority population of New Mexico. That isnot to say that all New Mexicans of Hispanicdescent think alike. Quite the contrary. There issignificant diversity ofopinion and beliefamong the Spanish-speaking communities,and their descendants,in New Mexico.

Some claim direct lin-eage from colonialSpain. They maintainthey have never identi-fied with Mexico andtherefore are not "Mexi-can-Americans." These people disagree amongthemselves about the amount of past and presentNative American influence on their culture. Oftenthese disagreements vary greatly by geographicregions from the northern New Mexican commu-nities to the small towns, such as Deming, alongthe southern border with Mexico. With the Treatyof Guadalupe in the late 1840s, the people of thisregion became citizens of the United States with-out having much voice in the matter. Manyprotested. And to this day, they resist vehementlyany attempts by Anglo culture to become domi-nant. Others embraced the separation fromMexico; their political legacy survives side-by-sidewith those who are also called "Hispanic" but whodo not share the same political values.

Current economic problems and heightened ten-sions about immigration exacerbate some of thesepre-existing social, cultural, and political divisionsin the state. As in other parts of the country, notall people of Hispanic descent favor an open-doorpolicy to immigrants from Mexico. We are oftensurprised at how little can be taken for grantedwith regard to how people identify themselves onissues such as immigration and economic develop-ment. Yet, there is a tendency to believe thatHispanics, Mexican-Americans, and Latinos ingeneral, are mostly sympathetic to the needs of

newcomers from Mexico and from other Spanish-speaking parts of the world.

If anything, I believe they are usually moreunderstanding of the needs and often more apt todefend the rights of immigrants. I am not Hispanicor from New Mexico, nor have I studied theseissues in depth. These are my observations basedupon personal experiences and limited research.But as I become more involved in the educationsystem, both as a graduate student and as a parent,

I see the need to under-stand the dynamics oflocal and state politics.

How people per-ceive these complexissues is often a reflectionof how they identifythemselves. Some inNew Mexico, regardlessof ethnic or racial identi-ty, feel threatened bynewcomers, while others

express a sense of solidarity with them. Some com-munities welcome development; others challenge it.Recently some of the more troubling conflicts in thearea occur between native New Mexicans of His-panic descent and Anglos who differ in terms oftheir cultural priorities. And I have not even men-tioned the issues and factors affecting the large andequally diverse Native-American community ofNew Mexico. The history of New Mexico continuesto be revised to include the experiences of anincreasing number of diverse communities. As Iview the videotape, I remind myself to avoid over-simplifying a complex situation.

Besides the ethnic composition of the studentbody, I would be interested in knowing how theteaching force reflects the demographics of thestate. There are, for example, far too few NativeAmerican teachers for the number of students inthe system. This fact might impinge on my owneffectiveness as a teacher in a particular system.New Mexico's population is growing, and manyteachers are coming from other parts of the country.What strengths do my colleagues bring that com-plement or supplement educational programs? Howdo schools and communities help new teachersadjust to the realities of life in New Mexico? Whatlocal professional organizations and support net-works exist for me as a teacher? If I were teaching

This case is a vivid demon-stration of how technologymight be used to broadenstudents' outlooks on theworld.

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bilingual education, how and where would I find anappropriate curriculum for my students? Finally, if Ididn't speak Spanish, I would want to know whereand how I could start learning immediately!

Suggested Actions andPossible Consequences

Trejo, Quarrell, and their students struggle forthe right to be bilingual in an English-dominantsociety. Whatever ateacher's own languageand ethnic background,in this community andothers like it, she or heneeds to become famil-iar with the history andissues of bilingual edu-cation. As I notedabove, teachers' under-standings of social andcultural dimensions ofsuch education shapethe design and implementation of programs. Fortu-nately, today's teachers need not filter theirunderstanding through lenses of archaic literatureand homogeneous human experience. They canjoin in the postmodern debate about the construc-tion of knowledge and its place in our increasinglymulticultural society.

This case is a valid demonstration of how tech-nology might be used to broaden students' outlookson the world. The teachers here and in other ruralareas need to learn the language of technology forthe good of their students. With all the opportuni-ties to go online today, and the relatively low costof hardware, even the smallest, most rural ofschools can leap into cyberspace. Once there, stu-dents will get a glimpse of a future well beyondtheir own communitya future in which they willparticipate, but only if they are prepared.

Developments in technology and communica-tions will be accompanied inevitably by therecognition that monolingual English speakersmust learn other languages, particularly Spanish. Iwonder how many of the native New Mexican stu-dents in the Deming schools speak Spanish; andhow many are interested in learning. When oneconsiders how important it will be for others tolearn Spanish, the presence of students from Mexi-

co in Deming schools can be seen as purely benefi-cial. These native-speaking language models, asTrejo knows, could help everyone learn.

Technology and the prevalence of foreign-language speakers in schools will force teachers tobehave in certain ways. Students must be versed inboth to participate fully and effectively in the 21stcentury. Teachers in a district like Deming mustwork especially diligently to stay on top of innova-tions in these areas. Teachers will also be forced by

circumstances to dealwith multicultural curric-ula. Even thoughindependent publishersand bookstores are dwin-dling to near-extinction,multi-cultural literaturefor young children andadolescents is flourishing,especially in New Mexicowhere the Hispanic andChicano cultures haveexpressed themselves for

many years through literature and the arts.To meet the needs of all students in the Deming

schoolsthose who reside in the United Statesand those who live in Mexicoschool leadersneed to sponsor an on-going dialogue in theirrespective communities with all stakeholders. Ifthe system is to maintain community support fortheir programs, educators need widespread confi-dence and participation. Formal meetings andconferences, as well as frequent informal contacts,between school personnel and community mem-bers can encourage people to maintain theirinvolvement in the system. Keeping people invest-ed in public education is a difficult but necessaryproposition. Political trends at state and nationallevels pose serious challenges to the kind of inter-national cooperation occurring in this community.Educators might be wise to network with othercommunities experiencing similar problems andopportunities.

Special efforts could be made to bring communitymembers into the schools. When "community" isdefined to include people from another town inanother country, this task could seem daunting.Unless the families and students who live in andaround Deming can work side -by -side on commontasks with the Palomas families, however, it is

When people address thesemonumental tasks of commu-nity involvement and sitemanagement, an entire schoolculture gradually becomestransformed.

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unlikely the needs of Palomas students will be metand even less likely people will ever think ofthemselves as one community. To leave thesocial-psychological bridge-building up to teachers,even if they are teaming with one another, is simplytoo much to ask. If community members from Palo-mas are unable to come to the Deming schools,then educators could try to establish some structurefor Deming people to cross over into Mexico.Without such contact, it is difficult to imagine howa lasting relationship can be established.

When people address these monumental tasks ofcommunity involvement and site management, anentire school culture gradually becomes trans-formed. With so many diverse learners and anevolving multicultural, interdisciplinary curriculum,such transformations will by necessity encourageteaming. We teachers must be willing to relinquishsome control over our time and space in exchangefor the support of a partner or two. We must be will-ing to accept some new realities in classrooms.

As Quarrell notes, one way to encourage collabo-ration among teachers is to group them in "pods."Teachers in pods can collaboratively address theissues of English-language learning, and second-language acquisition, if the curriculum is dividedamong several individuals instead of left up toone. Certainly there are other ways to supportteaming too, but regardless of the strategy, teamteaching requires patience and practice. I thinkless-experienced teachers will find it easier to col-laborate than will veteran teachers. Old habits arehard to break.

In a case like the one presented in the DemingJunior High School, where English and Spanish arethe two primary languages spoken, a dual-immersionprogram offers something to all students. For nativeNew Mexicans of Hispanic descent, having oppor-tunities to learn Spanish as fully as English is amajor victory for bicultural and bilingual rights.Non-Hispanics in New Mexico can also benefitfrom having the chance to improve their languageskills in no small measure because such improve-ments will enhance their employability. Thosestudents coming from Mexico, regardless of theircitizenship or plans for the future, will gain confi-dence when their language is valued; by serving aspeer role-models in a dual immersion program theywill undoubtedly develop their self-esteem. Thegreatest benefits will be realized over time as com-

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munities of adults learn to communicate and livewith one another as neighbors.

The border can be a door to all of Latin Americathrough which people and materials pass. Possibili-ties for cross-cultural exchanges are many. Classroomteachers on the U.S. side can find materials inSpanish nearby. They can visit communities andpractice the use of the language. Teachers from Mex-ico could, of course, do the same in the UnitedStates. Programs of exchange could be establishedwith neighboring schools in Mexico. Sister schoolscould even be set up that might eventually lessensome of the stress caused by the students needing tocross the border for a better education. These mightbe connected in spirit and by technology.

Classroom teachers like Quarrell and Trejo needto explore the various ways they can connect theirstudents with students around the state, indeedaround the world. International networks existthat can build on and extend definitions of multi-culturalism in these particular classrooms. Thetechnology is so powerful and so increasingly avail-able that teachers as individuals might well takethe initiative to get students online. Teachers canand must assist students in this process.

For those like Hank Dominguez in administra-tive positions, the challenges may be even greater.Current political trends in all the states borderingMexico indicate that schools and communitiespreviously supportive of education policies thatserve immigrant students will be seriously chal-lenged. Even attempts at eliminating servicesand programs for immigrants and their children areblocked by the courts, as has happened withProposition 187 in California, effects on publicattitudes must be addressed.

How people treat each other in the schools andon the streets will indicate what needs to happenin classrooms. If administrators and policymakerscannot strengthen their support for bilingual andbicultural programs in the years ahead by poolingtheir human and economic resources, they maylose what few gains they have made. Contradictionabounds: popular philosophy and demographicssuggest the importance of attending to issues ofcultural diversity, while politics seems to narrowpeople's views. Despite criticism of public schools,they remain our best hope for educating our chil-dren and for ensuring fairness in our dealings withone another.

ritical Perspective IIIon the Case:by Roberta Maldonado(Boulder Public Schools, Boulder, Colorado)

I was born in 1954 in Southern California'sSan Gabriel Valley. At the time, my parents wereliving comfortably in a tiny bungalow in a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles. Through the years,our lifestyle continued to improve but not withouthard work and sacrifice. The story of my family'sstruggle became a defining feature of my upbring-ing; related to me in precious fragments, thatnarrative inculcated the cultural and historicalperspective missing from my formal schooling. Italso stimulated my lifelong interest in language,personal narrative, story telling, writing, andliterature.

I cannot imagine telling my own story, then,without including information about my family'shistory. My maternal grandparents andgreat-grandparents, who were born in Mexico,came to the United States during the MexicanRevolution. From what I understand, theirwar-torn life in Mexico, their flight across the bor-der, and the part they played in the establishmentof Mexican (as opposed to "Spanish") barrios inSouthern California was similar to what VictorVillasenor (1991) described in Rain of Gold. A his-torical footnote that has been largely ignored isthe bravery of women, such as my mother's grand-mother, who fled across the border with herchildren in hopes of finding a better life. My great-grandmother was a respected schoolteacher inMexico; once in the United States, however, hereducation and professional standing were of littleconsequence. Obviously she believed life in theUnited States was worth the trouble and sacrifice.My mother's father actually crossed the bordertwice, the second time when he was barely ateenager, carrying a younger brother who was inneed of medical attention. Such stories make merealize that wars rip families and countries apart; acircumstance we need to remember when consid-ering ways to work with recent immigrants.

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Although both of my maternal grandparents hadlimited formal schooling, both were literate inSpanish. From what I understand, my grandfatherused to write poetry. Unfortunately, he sufferedfrom a genetic hearing impairment and from psy-chological damage. Thus, my grandmother, whowas fluent in English, was the financial head of thehousehold. She was able to purchase a series ofhouses in Los Angeles (probably because she was afair-skinned redhead) and to renovate them withmy grandfather's help. Income from the sale ofthese houses and from a number of odd jobsallowed my grandmother to support nine people.

I do not know much about my father's family,perhaps because their history is less dramatic. Forexample, identity was not an issue for my father;coming from an "old" New Mexican family, hisstanding in the community was not questioned theway it was for Mexican immigrants. One of hisgrandmothers was born in Santa Fe, and from thephotos, is obviously mestiza or Native American;she married a Spaniard who may have come fromColorado. My other great-grandmother lived in ElPaso, where she raised a family alone and ran acantina. I'm not certain where our family landcame from, but at one point there were hundredsof acres in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where familymembers raised cattle and crops. (I own a cattlebrand of the period.)

During the Depression and postwar years, myfather's parents, like many New Mexicans, migrat-ed to California. This historical juncture isdescribed in a classic Chicano novel, Bless Me,Ultima (Rudolfo, 1972). As for my grandparents,they returned to Las Cruces for extended periodsof time. Consequently my father has happy memo-ries of hunting, bathing in acequias (irrigationditches), and working his family's land in NewMexico. Today, two of my third cousins raise greenchiles and cotton on 80 acres of that land. During

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my childhood we often visited these cousins andmy great-aunts and uncles in New Mexico; Iremember my father's joy during those times. Likemy father, I identify strongly with New Mexicanculture, and I love the land like a relative.

Both my parents lived in East Los Angeles,where they attended the infamous Garfield HighSchool, site of Jaime Escalante's "Stand and Deliver"math program. I find it amusing that Garfield fig-ures so prominently in my family's oral history. Ialso realize the school has changed a great dealsince my parents were students there. My mother,who is dyslexic, dropped out in ninth grade aftersuffering countless humiliations. At the time,learning-disabled children, polio victims, develop-mentally challenged, and any other "irregular"students were lumped into what my mother sayswere obviously the "dummy" classes. My father, onthe other hand, was an excellent student, particu-larly in mathematics and science. Nevertheless,when he expressed interest in attending college,his adviser suggested he learn a trade instead.

At the age of 15, my mother and father had meton opposite sides of a candy counter. My mothersays even then my father "thought big" andbragged about his plans for the future. A year afterthey met, she began to work in a Los Angelessweatshop doing piecework for the clothing indus-try. Her income helped to support her parents andyounger siblings and, after she married, enabledher to put my father through school. Factory workcontinued until my birth. Surprisingly, my motherdoes not talk about this experience with rancor. Asa seamstress, she worked with incredible speed andcharacteristic perfectionism. (Because of her highenergy, I suspect if she were a student today, mymother would be labeled both as "learning dis-abled" and "hyperactive.") She was paid "by thepiece," and thus recalls "making good money." Herexpertise also earned her the privilege of sewingdesigner clothingclothing she would someday beable to afford for herself.

As it turned out, World War II would both inter-rupt and facilitate the achievement of my parents'dreams. My father enrolled in undergraduateschool at the New York Merchant Marine Academy.After the war, the GI Bill allowed him to attendmedical school at the University of California-Los Angeles. This particular time period is a fasci-nating point in Chicano history. The

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Mexican-American people (mainly men) whoattend "d college in the '50s were few in number,but powerful. My mother's brother, for example,attended college, acquired his Ph.D. in botany, andbecame a university professor. Both my father anduncle were instrumental, in their own ways, inmentoring other Chicano students and profession-als. I grew up with positive role models and thebelief that Chicanos could excel academically. Atthe same time, I received the somewhat conflictingmessage that my most important role in life was tomanage a household and to have several children.

Quite naturally, my father believed almostreligiously in the "American dream." He was polit-ically conservative, eternally optimistic, andimpatient with whiners. I believe he had mixedfeelings about the Chicano power movement ofthe '60s and '70s. While he understood Chicanos'concerns, probably more than many of the protest-ers, the stridence of Chicanos' demands seemedexaggerated to a man who had managed to over-come so many personal obstacles.

Meanwhile, I reached adolescence, that criticalpoint in so many children's educational historieswhere things often take a turn for the worse. It hastaken me nearly three decades of personal soul-searching, as well as extensive training andexperience to understand what went wrong withmy education. I believe many ethnic minority andfemale students still experience some of the prob-lems 1 encountered. An anecdote might illustratewhat I mean.

I am 15. I have attended mostly public schoolsserving primarily white, middle-class students. Myparents, after all, have finally achieved a positionof relative privilege. They decide to send me to aparochial school to end my educational malaise. Iam an enigma to my teachers and to my parents; Iscore with the upper 5 percent on languageachievement tests, but I perform less well in math-ematics. I get passable grades with a minimum ofeffort. I manage to do well in advanced French, forexample, probably because I've already learnedanother foreign language (Spanish). In history, Ilook at pictures in the textbook and make storiesout of historical events. English poses no problems,because narrative conventions are second natureto me. I perform with ease and illustrate my workbeautifully. Although math is not easy, I'm not acomplete loss; geometry in particular appeals to

the artist in me and looks a lot like those tissuepaper patterns my mother spread on the floor.Though I am painfully bored, I do not apply myselfto anything with conviction or excitement. I am,after all, a typical teenager. But then one day, Istumble on Ezra Pound's translation of the Chinesepoem, "The River Merchant's Wife."

Some suggest literature has almost magicalpower; such individuals might say literature "foundme." Although I don't altogether disagree, I amless esoteric. I believe literature symbolizes thehuman condition. I also believe literature, and thedevelopment of literature, has the potential formaintaining the status quo. When I was in school,I do not believe my experiences and needs weredeemed significant. When I read "The River Mer-chant's Wife," the fact that the main character wasa yellow-skinned, black-haired, traditionally-raised, teenage female, was terribly important tome. I have never forgotten my reaction to thispiece of literature that so vividly described a youngwoman's feelings. More important, the poemencouraged me to read and to write poetry, and Ihave not stopped writing since. I was also com-pelled to earn a master's degree in creative writing,which has served me well in the classroom. 1encourage my students to develop their writingskills; to do so, I use a process approach to teachingliterature and writing, with some important reser-vations I will discuss later in my analysis of theDeming videotape.

In retrospect, I see now that my professionalpath has paralleled and criss-crossed my personalone in other ways. While I was studying art andminoring in English at the University of NewMexico in 1976, a faculty member suggested Ienter the art education program. At the time, Iwas exploring how to combine text and visuals,and New Mexico's combination of Hispanic,Native-American, and Anglo cultures providedample material. During student teaching, I thoughtabout the ways knowledge and learning are cultur-ally mediated. I also had my first contacts withmonolingual Vietnamese students in Albuquerqueschools.

I was an advocate, as I am now, for bilingual edu-cation. After all, bilingualism had been a part ofmy upbringing. When 1 graduated from Universityof New Mexico, I taught art for a year in an Amer-ican bilingual junior-high school in South

America. When I returned to the States, I oftenargued for bilingual education by asking why thecultural and economic elite of other countries pro-mote multilingualism in their private schools andwe do not. Through the Eighties, as new waves ofimmigrants arrived in the United States, I was tar-geted as an English as a second language (ESL )teacher because of my Spanish surname and abilityto speak Spanish. Not having ESL training or adegree in English, I felt terribly unqualified forsuch a position. While the school system might becriticized for their staffing decision, educators atleast realized they had to try to meet the needs ofdiverse learners.

It has taken decades to develop adequate train-ing for bilingual teachers and to establish qualitybilingual programs for students. Issues of educa-tional equity have also stimulated the inclusion ofsecond-language learners in regular classrooms. Atthis point, there is little excuse for teacher educa-tors to resist or to ignore the inevitability of theirgraduates dealing with diverse populations. I amexcited by educators' efforts to work with ESL stu-dents in our schools; their tactics are quitedifferent from those of teachers who smacked myparents' hands for speaking Spanish in school.

The need for our students to express themselvesis universal. Whether I've been teaching "at-risk"students creative writing at a public alternativeschool; seniors Advanced Placement literature;ninth and tenth graders journalism; or bilingualseventh graders theme-based language arts, I cancount on the power of language to motivate. Theteacher's tasks are to recognize, draw out, andstrengthen the capacity for expression.

Introduction

At the beginning of the videotape, the narratordirects us to "decenter" useful advice for anyoneentering unknown territory. Essentially, to decen-ter means to go beyond ourselves, to look at lifefrom others' points of view.

Consider for a moment things which make usfeel secure and stable. As we conduct our lives, wetend to take many of these things for granted.Within our communities, for example, rules ofconduct are second nature to most of us, and ourexpectations of others are usually fulfilled. We

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learn to depend on countless predictable environ-mental features and to minimize areas open fornegotiation. Rarely are we challenged to "shift"our position, to step out of or beyond our habitualways of seeing, believing, and acting. Yet this isexactly what "decentering" forces us to do.

The Deming, New Mexico, school district andits binational student body are an excellentmetaphor for good teaching. Good teachersexpand their boundaries and facilitate theexchange of knowl-edgeknowledge towhich everyone is privy.Good teaching oftenmeans loosening (notlosing) control. Holistic,collaborative teachingphilosophies soften theborders between teacherand student, classroomand community, cogni-tion and experience.Successful implementation of such philosophiesrequires teachers to assess their beliefs about powerand authority. It makes sense that the next stepmight be literally to cross the artificial line keepingtwo neighboring nations separate.

to these students beyond traditional curricularofferings. If teachers reject this position, they mustconsider ways to restructure their classes, to alterinstruction, and to present content to an increas-ingly diverse student body. A second issue is todetermine which bilingual education model mosteffectively promotes second-language acquisitionwhile maintaining academic rigor.

The choice of a bilingual model generates asubset of related issues. If we assume that "water-

ing-down" curriculumharms both native

A critical issue, then, is whatprofessional position teacherswill adopt vis-a-vis the non-traditional student.

Issues

Not surprisingly, Deming's efforts to educate stu-dents from Mexico is extremely controversial.People must accept the program if it is to succeed;and school employees are bound to be importantspokespersons and liaisons. Although the opposi-tion's view is not represented on the videotape, itis important to consider alongside supporters' argu-ments. Recent developments in California indicatethat states deal differently with border "problems"and that their "solutions" affect schoolchildren. Aschild advocates, teachers may find themselves try-ing to balance practical public sentiment withtheir own humanitarian instincts. A critical issue,then, is what professional position teachers willadopt vis-a-vis the nontraditional student.

Once public schools admit, through choice or bydefault, language-minority students, does it auto-matically follow that school programs mustaccommodate the needs of second-language learn-ers? Some contend schools have no responsibility

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English and Spanishspeakers, what portion ofthe standard curriculumshould second-languagelearners be expected tocover? And whichteaching methods willenable them to succeedin schools? These aredifficult questions.

Ultimately, answers depend on people's views ofculture, power, and privilege.

The featured middle school teacher, Quarrell,teaches the "English block." This may refer to adual literacy program or to a maintenance program(terms explained later). In either case, the implica-tion is that at least some of the students in herclass are taking a "Spanish block" language artsclass as well. It should be noted that at no timedoes the teacher use Spanish with her students.What does this convey to students about the statusof Spanish as a language of knowledge? Some pro-grams have strict language separation policies; thatis, classrooms are designated Spanish-only or Eng-lish-only, with teaching occurring entirely in oneor the other language. Does allowing two lan-guages to develop side-by-side in the same roomincrease the possibility of confusion and resistance?What if a school with second-language learnerslacks the resources to schedule separate classes?

A third issue is the efficacy of "whole language"and "holistic" approaches to teaching and learning,particularly with language-minority students. Ingeneral, these students perform less well than theirage peers on standardized tests and arc more pronero drop out of school. Quarzell is aware that herstudents (some of whom are language-minoritystudents) are expected to meet "a given set of

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competencies." She voices her reluctance toadhere strictly to progressive philosophies shelearned in college for fear her students will notperform well on formal assessments. When shemodifies lessons, is she restricting students'opportunities to learn?

Ray Trejo does not talk about students' perfor-mance relative to "competencies," but he doeswonder if he is "making any progress" with his stu-dents. This raises a fourth issue: to what end doesthe teacher of culturallyand linguistically diversestudents teach? Whatshould Trejo's instruc-tional goals be for thisgroup of high school stu-dents on the thresholdof adulthood? Shouldhis expectations be thesame as they would befor any other student athis school?

With this last question, teachers confront criticalissues of curricular relevance. Is it cultural conde-scension to teach standard forms? Shouldeducational ownership and self-esteem comebefore academic achievement? Is it possible ordesirable to separate them? Should teachers beaware of and openly discuss difference, or is it moreequitable to ignore it? Might a teacher become sosensitive to differences in her students that sheinadvertently withholds information vital to acad-emic and professional empowerment?

she still wonders if student and teacher rolesshould be better defined. Many first year teacherswill ask similar questions of themselves, and by theend of the year they will have established a man-agement "style" with which they are comfortable.They will fret less about being too friendly withstudents, understanding that their relationshipswith students will vary by individual. Trejo alsoseems to be on very friendly terms with the stu-dents but does not express worry. I wonder if his

ease with the students isrelated in any way to hisage or his gender.

As noted earlier,Quarrell hints she mightlike to use more of theholistic teaching she wastrained in and be lessconstrained by districtproficiencies. She indi-cates that she and otherteachers have talked

about developing cross-disciplinary thematic units,but they have not yet discussed a strategy foraccomplishing this goal. Being a newer teacherand probably recently graduated from a teachertraining program, up-to-date teaching methodsand current middle school theories are probablystill fresh in Quarrell's mind. Unfortunately, some-thing is preventing her from practicing the fullrange of her skills, and one senses that she is"holding back." This is not the case with Trejo,who neither discusses his teaching methods norexpresses dissatisfaction with the broader milieu.He appears to be using traditional ESL methods,translating lessons into comprehensible units ofinformation. Based on the approximately 7 min-utes we see him interacting with his students,Trejo seems to stress oral expression more thanwritten expression. He also wonders aloud if hisefforts are beneficial to students.

Trejo values bilingualism, stating bluntly, "Bilin-gual education is important to me." He says this tocounter what he perceives as the students' and thecommunity's impressions that he wants students"to become monolingual." Quarrell also expressesa personal investment in bilingualism; shebemoans the fact she was never taught fluentSpanish by her Spanish-speaking parents.

These teachers' "perspectives"are often framed as concerns,the main concern being adesire to meet students' needs.

Relevant Perspectives

Both teachers seem quite confident that thePalomas-Deming exchange is worthwhile. Theyare eager to do what they can for students, regard-less of their place of origin. Like all committedteachers, they have moments of doubt about theireffectiveness, but they clearly take responsibilityfor their students rather than blaming shortcom-ings on policies, class sizes, or language barriers.These teachers' "perspectives" are often framed asconcerns, the main concern being a desire to meetstudents' needs.

Quarrell also worries about discipline; althoughshe says her classroom management has improved,

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BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Trejo's comments also suggest that he allowsstudents to direct much of their learning and toinfluence his teaching. He claims that the "kidsteach me how to be a teacher." Like most teachers,he has found that the "best training anyone couldhave is in the classroom with the kids."

Multiculturalism is not mentioned by either ofthe teachers, although Quarrell alludes to not plac-ing too much emphasis on differences "Everyoneaccepts each other, which is important," she says.Ray Trejo does not talk specifically about differ-ences among students, but he does say he must be"delicate" with his Spanish-speaking students,because they are easily frustrated.

Quarrell expresses the wish for greater coopera-tive and/or collaborative learning opportunitieswhen she speaks of theme-based team teaching.Ray Trejo also obliquely refers to sometimesputting students "with someone they don't getalong with real well." He does not explain his rea-son for doing so. Both teachers seem to intuit thatstudents' working in groups is desirable, but theydo not explain their methods for organizing andevaluating such activities.

Professional Knowledge

Deming School District hosts about 400 studentsfrom Palomas, Mexico every day. Per-pupil expen-ditures (money allocated for educational servicesdivided by the number of pupils to be served) arebetween $2,500 to $3,500, the lower amount mostlikely being spent at the elementary level. Com-pared to other school systems, this is a minimalsum of money, and suggests Deming is primarily aworking class and blue collar community. JonathanKozol, among others, has described inequities infunding formulas for U.S. schools. In SavageInequalities (1991) Kozol noted that per-pupilspending in Texas, for example, "ranges from$2,000 in the poorest districts to some $19,000 inthe richest" ( p. 223). Of course, from the perspec-tive of Deming residents struggling to raise familieson small budgets, the $1 million or more allocatedto area schools is a big chunk of taxpayers' money.

So often, people exhorting citizens to give uptheir hard-earned dollars for education archigher-paid professionals. Based on Dominguez'scomments, this appears to be the case in Deming,

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where the binational program has the support of"school officials, legislators, congressmen, and stateboard of education members." I wonder how ordi-nary citizens think about educating the children ofnon-taxpaying families. And if taxpayers are nega-tive, how do we as teachers respond to theirconcerns? Can we sincerely act as the "goodambassadors" the tape asks us to be?

Dominguez observes that many people cross overfrom Mexico to make purchases in Deming. Giventhe conversion rate of pesos to dollars, it is likelythat Mexican citizens doing their shopping in theUnited States are capable of spending quite a lot ofmoney. Employees of grocery, clothing, and otherretail facilities in border towns can attest to thehundreds of dollars spent per visit by Mexicannationals. Furthermore, it is impossible to accountfor the number of individuals crossing the borderwith or without papers to work in the UnitedStates. Their cheap labor translates into morespending power for American employers. Somechildless persons with "green cards" are indeedpaying taxes, yet receiving none of the benefits ofa citizen. Taken together, might these dollars notoffset a portion of the amount spent on those 400students? What will those students, armed withtwo languages, an excellent education, and appre-ciation for American democracy eventuallycontribute to their Mexican communities and tostrengthening their own country's economy?Towns on both sides of the border are bound tobenefit. The value of good neighborly relations isinestimable.

Having accepted and hopefully been inspired bystudent diversity, districts, schools, and individualteachers will begin to make programmatic deci-sions based upon some undergirding philosophy. Ifa school organizes a pullout ESL program, but allother classes are English-immersion classes, thenclearly the school's goal is to get students speakingEnglish as quickly as possible, even at the loss offluency in students' native languages. The affectiveresults of this can be devastating, and academical-ly, such programs do not take into considerationthe long-term educational value of bilingualism.Such approaches run counter to research suggest-ing reading and writing in one's native language isfoundational to acquiring second-language literacyskills (Cummins, 1981).

"Transitional" bilingual programs are more close-ly aligned with recommended practice in that theyuse students' primary language as a bridge toEnglish-language instruction. Over time, however,instructors' use of a student's primary language iscurtailed. In contrast, "maintenance" bilingualprograms focus on the development of students'skills in both their primary and secondary lan-guages. Consequently, students read and write inboth languages. Yet a third modelthe "two-wayimmersion program"includes both students whowant to learn English as a second language andnative English speakers who wish to develop fluencyin a foreign language (Peregoy & Boyle, 1993).Students in such programs are generally placed inclasses conducted wholly in the second language topractice speaking, reading, and writing in the con-tent areas. In addition, students can receiveinstruction both in their native language and intheir second language.

It is important to remember that each of theabove programs implicitly affords a certain value toa student's primary language (and thereby to thatperson's culture). In the most extreme example,English is deemed "the only legitimate medium forlearning and instruction" (Reyes, 1992, p. 431).Those who believe this to be true may adhere to a"deficit myth," automatically labeling language-minority children as being "at risk" (Flores,Tefft-Cousin, and Diaz, 1991, p. 369). More often,children's use of their home language is simplydiminished, because it is not valued in the class-room. The message is essentially consistent"English and literacy [are] synonymous" (Reyes,1992, p. 432).

Interestingly, this has been the case even in pro-grams meant to be inclusive, not exclusive; inparticular, whole-language programs have comeunder fire as being elitist at core, despite their egal-itarian aims. The conspicuous absence of attentionto ethnicity and culture in process-based, whole-language, and literature-based theories, was at firsttaken to mean that all students, regardless of back-ground, would be well-served by them. Statementssuch as "whole language stands for justice, democ-racy, and empowerment and against injustice and astratified society," (Edelsky, 1992, p. 325) clearlyargue for serving traditionally marginalized stu-dents. It should be noted, however, that somewhole-language advocates qualify their "alterna-

tive view" of learning by contending that after not-ing the conditions under which oral languageacquisition normally proceeds, we ask whether thesame conditions are present when the time comesfor literacy instruction. In fact, second-languagelearners do not learn either the oral or writtenforms of the new language under familiar, homelikeconditions or circumstances; taking this criticaldifference into account dramatically shifts the viewwhole-language leaders would project onto alllearners.

Although writers addressing ethnic minority andsecond-language learners' needs point out short-comings in whole-language and other process-oriented approaches, their concern is entirelymisplaced (Barrera, 1992). For example, evenmore than most children, Mexican and Mexican-American students have been shown to be moti-vated by environments facilitating cooperativework (Reyes, 1991). Au (1993) suggests that forchildren experienced in home cooperation and sib-ling caretaking, a "composite" classroom cultureincorporating peer work groups is effective. Themutual responsibility and community spirit fos-tered by peer editing is in fact a distinguishingfeature of whole language and one that works wellwith many ethnic students. But expecting one ESLstudent to act as sole peer editor for another ESLstudent without a good deal of teacher assistance isunrealistic and ultimately inequitable. Althoughthe team approach of whole language seems theright one for Mexican students, at the editing andrevising stages of the writing process the teacherwill need to do some direct instruction on a regularbasis (Reyes, 1992; Delpit 1991).

Assessing student learning is the logical nextstep after establishing a philosophical frameworkand designing curriculum. Instruments favoring"holism over analysis" which replace forms ofassessment "grounded in the standards of thecultural knowledge of one group white,middle-class, native English speakers"are a goodchoice for the Deming schools (Gomez, Graue, &Block, 1991, p. 621). In the whole-language juniorhigh school classroom, portfolios containing a rep-resentative range of work illustrate studentachievement and progress over time. Samples mustbe collected early in the school year, so the teachercan immediately start compiling data on students'strengths and weaknesses. Students keep running

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records of misspelled words and grammatical errors.In this way, the student is also able to see evidenceof growth and attend to problem areas; teachersneed not rely so heavily on class-wide tests whichdo not necessarily address students' individualneeds.

Student assessment can also be informal, as Trejosuggests by wondering aloud if he is doing the stu-dents any good. He might actually have thestudents provide feedback. In the videotape, stu-dents do so orally. Written teacher evaluations andself-assessments are also quite valuable (Paraguay& Boyle, 1993).

Because Trejo's Mexican students have suchwell-defined professional goals in mind, it seemsreasonable to be directed by their wishes and tobegin immediately preparing them for employmentrather than to be overly concerned with state pro-ficiencies. Trejo might consider contractingindividualized educational goals with his students,with built-in, mutually agreed-upon assessments.As in the case of this mid-high school classroom, itis most useful if "the performance of [second lan-guage learners] be compared in the languages inwhich students are literate to provide a more accu-rate picture of their academic potential" (Reyes,1991, p. 23). Reyes also suggests that evaluationsof writing samples might be more objective ifexamined by bilingual consultants rather than byclassroom teachers.

Teachers of second-language learners shouldremember that "an ordinarily simple task in one'snative language becomes a cognitively demandingchore in the second language when it exceeds thestudent's current skills" (Reyes, 1991, p.22).Nevertheless, educators must consider not justprocess. but also district proficiencies students willbe expected to demonstrate (Reyes, 1991). More-over, Delpit advises that teachers acknowledge theunfair "discourse-stacking" our society engages in,and make explicit the conventions of standardEnglish. She calls this "power code literacy"(De 1pit, 1991, 1992). In future years, high schoolretention and college admission rates will be usedto assess minority student achievement in "powercode" curricula.

However, lowering dropout rates and increasingrepresentation in higher education will take morethan teaching minority students a decontextual-ized set of skills. In 1991, the National Council of

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La Raza (NCLR) reported only about half of His-panic adults were high school graduates, comparedto 80.5 percent of non-Hispanics: between 1975and 1990, high school completion rates dropped 3percentage points for Hispanic students. Possiblereasons are that Hispanics are more likely to beheld back in school, thereby setting them up forcontinued failure, and Hispanics tend to beenrolled in "tracks" preparing them neither for col-lege nor for stable employment. Also significant isthat less than 3 percent of U.S. elementary andsecondary school teachers are Hispanic, thus less-ening the number of positive role models availableto young people (NCLR, 1992). The same reportshows less than 1 in 10 Hispanics graduated fromcollege compared to 22.3 percent of non-Hispan-ics. Despite these grim statistics, BernardoFerdman (199.0) notes that the educational systemis promoted as the "great equalizer."

Ferdman suggests that rather than behaving as if"fairness means measuring each individual by thesame yardstick ... another way to think aboutequal opportunity ... is to emphasize the differ-ences among peoplein particular, thosedifferences rooted in culture and therefore in groupmembership (p. 183). In this alternative view ofequal opportunity, fairness involves choosing ayardstick appropriate to the person and group:

Which texts and which writing tasks doesthe student engage in as "ours" and whichas "theirs?" When a child perceives a writ-ing task or a text and its symbolic contentsas belonging to and reaffirming his or hercultural identity, it is more likely that he orshe will become engaged and individualmeaning will be transmitted or derived.(p. 195)

The power of educational ownership should notbe underestimated. Several means of fostering thishave already been mentionedwhole-languagestrategies with adjustments made for second lan-guage learners, cooperative learning strategies, andauthentic, student-driven assessments. In addition,schools might design curricula that reflect students'experiences, values, and needs; in order to do so,school staff must be not only deeply committed butalso well informed about various multiculturalmodels.

Sleeter and Grant (1993) describe five differentapproaches to multiculturalism:

1. "Teaching the Exceptional and Culturally Dif-ferent" aims at helping nontraditional students fitinto the mainstream culture. More specifically, stu-dents taught by this approach are to develop the"cognitive skills, concepts, information language,and values required by American society in orderto hold a job and function within society's existinginstitutions and culture"(p.42).

2. The "Human Rela-tions Approach" strivesfor improved relationsbetween students of dif-fering backgrounds.Among programemphases are lessons onstereotyping and on sig-nificant contributions tosociety by minoritygroup members. Ethnicfairs and special celebrations fall under this catego-ry; many schools adopt this approach.

approaches, as it deals more directly with oppres-sion and inequalities in society. School goals are to"prepare citizens to work actively toward socialstructural equality; promote cultural pluralism andalternative 'lifestyles; [and to] promote equal oppor-tunity in school" (p.211).

I wonder which, if any, of these approaches isalready practiced in Deming Schools. There aremany levels at which "difference" can be played

out in schools it maybe personally and quietlyexpressed through awhole-language curricu-lum; it may be discussedby students of differingbackgrounds studyingliterature and history; itmay be analyzed viareading, writing, andtalking with classmates;or it may be acted uponby students exploringtheir hopes for the

future, who then carry their vision into thecommunity.

Giroux (1987) claims that all curriculum andpedagogy are "historical constructions" embodyingparticular interests except those of students. Tomake student experiences an integral part of cur-riculum and instruction, he recommends:

Despite its unique proximityto the border, Deming schoolsare not uncharacteristic ofwhat a beginning teachermight encounter anywhereelse in the country.

3. A "Single-Group Studies" approach focuses ona particular group, such as women, Asian-Ameri-cans, Hispanics, African-Americans, and peoplewith disabilities to promote "social equality for andrecongnition of the group being studied" (p.123).The approach has been criticized, however, forpromoting cultural separatism and for leaving theregular curriculum unreformed. Moreover, imple-mentation of Single-Group Studies in schools maypromote stereotyping because lessons about groupstend to be superficial (Sleeter & Grant, 1993).

4. The "Multicultural Approach" is designed toreform schooling for all children, rather than forparticular groups. "It is for everbody, and it seeksnot only to integrate people into our existing soci-ety but to improve society for all" (p.184). Thoseusing this approach regularly introduce diverse per-spectives, experiences, and contributions of allcultural groups and both sexes.

5. "Multicultural and Social Reconstructionism" ismore overtly political than any of the other

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[W]e redefine curriculum not as a ware-house of knowledge merely to be passed onto waiting customers, but, more important-ly, as a configuration of knowledge, socialrelations, and values that represents anintroduction to and legitimating of a par-ticular way of life ... [Taking] the notion ofstudent experience seriously means devel-oping a critically affirmative language thatworks both with and on the experiencesthat students bring to the classroom ...Student experience, like the culture andsociety of which it is a part, is not all ofone piece, and it is important to sortthrough its contradictions and to raise thequestion: what is it this society has made ofme that I no longer want to be? (pp. 176,177, 178)

This is another example of the "Social Recon-structionist" view which Sleeter describes. Insteadof automatically dismissing these theories as far-fetched and impractical, educators might keep inmind the statistics cited earlierwhen it comes toour children's welfare, better a "project of possibility"than an exercise in futility.

Teaching Focus, Suggested Actions, andPossible Consequences

Despite its unique proximity to the border,Deming schools are not uncharacteristic of what abeginning teacher might encounter anywhere elsein the country (NCLR, 1991). Spanish-dominantstudent bodies abound in California, Texas, Michi-gan, New York, Chicago, and Ohio. Of course,classrooms may also include students from a variety ofother ethnic and cultural groups (e.g., Cambodian,Thai, Hmong, Chinese, French Haitian, Russian,Bosnian) brought to American shores by variousmeans and for a multitude of reasons. Teachers maybe both excited and overwhelmed at the prospectof working with students with different back-grounds. In all likelihood, teachers will adapt andinnovate as they go along, filling the gaps in theirprofessional education with on-the-job training.These teachers will undoubtedly perceive discrep-ancies between practices learned in teachereducation programs and what might be required intheir less-than-perfect, real-world classroom.

Quarrell alludes to this important point whenshe explains how she has had to modify her"whole-language" philosophy to meet district com-petencies. By all indictions, the accommodationsshe has made have not negatively affected herclassroom, and there are additional approaches shecould try which would not conflict with what shealready has in place.

As she models a lesson from her unit on fami-lies, Quarrell demonstrates one of the mostimportant features of whole-language, process-approach programs writing which evolves fromstudents' personal experiences. She asks studentsto focus on one member of their family, and hasthem list the sound, taste, odor, sight, and touchthey associate with the individual they aredescribing. To the five senses she tells students toadd "feelings." Students' responses are rich andsurprising. One describes her subject's voice as

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"heavy," and lists "tea without sugar" and "any-thing chocolate" as characteristic tastes. Intimateconversations between teacher and student aboutpersonal history are a natural outgrowth; theteacher shares her childhood reactions to wakingin the morning and smelling coffee. Sensations,emotions, and experiences are valued here.

In addition to this "workshop" approach, otherwhole-language strategies and features could easilybe integrated into the classrom, if they are notalready, while actually fulfilling some competen-cies along the way. By organizing cooperative,peer-editing teams with teacher-designated"experts" in spelling, punctuation, topic sen-tences, and creative expression, the teacher is freeto circulate among groups. Rearranging students'desks so they face one another facilitates groupwork and teacher movement. It also redistributesauthority; rather than being the center of atten-tion, the teacher acts more as a coordinator andguide, offering feedback and support to students.When she needs to have everyone's attention, shesimply makes the announcement that everyoneshould turn and face her.

The teacher will, of course, act as editor,although somewhat further along in the revisionprocess. Many students benefit tremendously fromhearing their work read aloud in the voices of theirfellow students. As they place more and more cred-ibility in their peers' opinions, they also gainconfidence in their own. Having unclear or out-standing points in the composition noted by areader underscores their developing concept ofaudience as well.

Discussion of this type is also a springboard forthe student critic's own writing. She may return toher own piece with new insights allowing her toelaborate what was previously only a sketch. If, forexample, a peer editor reads an essay whichincludes information about extended family mem-bers living in the household, she may realize thatsimilar details would enrich her own work. Stu-dents should be told at the outset that "borrowing"ideas is not only acceptable, but encouraged, pro-vided they are able to transform borrowed ideasinto something of their own. This is a valuable les-son in how real-life authors, scientists, artists, andother creative professionals develop their personalvisions. It can also be an illustration of the interde-pendence of disciplines which lays a foundation for

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a richer understanding of history. If the schoolalready implements an interdisciplinary, team-based approach to learning, there will be ampleopportunities for cross-over of this kind. If not, it isup to the teacher to create them.

Throughout this process, writing units shouldbe supported by literature of a similar genre orrelated topic. (Being careful to relate oral discus-sions and literature to the lesson and the lesson'sgoals, helps a teacher stay on track, while allowinga lively interplay of resources.) Literature-basedlanguage arts programs share some features of, butare not identical to, whole-language and process-approach programs. What all three have incommon are the aims of providing "authentic"language experiences, and of empowering studentsby acknowledging their personal backgrounds.Diverse family structures, religious beliefs, econom-ic circumstances, and cultural backgrounds arewelcomed, respected, discussed, and studied in thecontext of lessons; they are also evident in thebooks children read.

Finding classroom materials and developing cur-riculum that reflects the lives of non-mainstreamedstudents require effort. Language arts teachersshould take the presence of multicultural literaturein their classrooms very seriously, because the stu-dents certainly will. Students need to learn thatmany published authors are people of color, thatmore and more are bilingual, that they may haveovercome difficult circumstances in their commu-nities and schools, and that most write, to someextent, from personal experience. Conversely, ifdiversity is excluded from the curriculum, anotherset of powerful, destructive messages is conveyed(Barrera, Liguori, and Salas, 1992).

In general, literature is the language arts teacher'smost valuable resource and teaching tool. It is aready-at-hand model for students' writing. Just asthe product of any other discipline must be contin-uously attended to and absorbed by students(imagine music students being expected to com-pose concertos after they've only been exposed tojingles!) so must writing students learn from the"masters." Literature written for middle-schoolstudents can he tattier shallow in theme and sim-plistic in style; fortunately, the '90s have seen asurge in well-written multicultural literature.Although students should be encouraged to read"high interest" books geared to adolescents, those

45

readings should be supplemented by more artisti-cally, intellectually, and emotionally challengingselections.

A teacher does not have to have everyone read adifficult novel cover to cover. If we regard litera-ture first and foremost as "story," then we expandour notion of literacy activities to include the oral.One or two carefully chosen, exciting chaptersread and/or listened to together as a class can hookreluctant readers, who may very well request theopportunity to read the entire book later. Moreadvanced literature will require more pre-readingactivities, more tie-in to previous readings and per-sonal experience, and more teacher-moderateddiscussion. The extra effort and time are wellworth it.. As students become involved in, compre-hend, and discuss good literature, they earnmultiple rewards. They understand that narrativeforms may vary from linear and chronological tofragmented and overlapping. They internalizegrammatical conventions and spelling. As theylisten to literature expressively read aloud, theybecome aware of sentence structure, dialogue,narrative patterns, voice, and tone. In responsejournals, they are encouraged to discuss the story'srelationship to their own lives, and they practicewriting about a by-now familiar topic, easily usingnew vocabulary and concepts. During discussions,they engage in critical thinking, make comparisonsand contrasts, and connect the "reading" (even ifthey haven't themselves done the actual reading)to their own writing.

Of course, some sensible modifications need tobe made to holistic, process-approach, and/or liter-ature-based language arts programs when they areused with second-language students. Presumablythe middle-school classroom we see in the tape haslimited English speakers. It must also includenative English speakers reading and writing belowgrade level. Although these students shouldcertainly be included whenever possible in whole-class activities, they cannot possibly be expected towork at the same rate or in quite the same way astheir mainstream peers. For individualized reading,it is helpful to have chosen several books writtento at least three different reading levels, but all fol-lowing a basically similar theme. Although theymay not be able to read more advanced selectionson their own, they can listen to tapes and readalong. Simpler picture books on related themes

may be assigned to second-language students. Tothe extent they are verbally able, students can joinin small-group and whole-class discussions aroundthemes common to the books.

"Reading Response" projects which do not nec-essarily entail writing, but encourage creative andpersonal reactions to books, often yield excitingresults (Karolides, 1992). Make clear to studentsthat projects should demonstrate their thoroughunderstanding of the book and their feelings aboutit, to avoid uninspireddioramas. Eschew thetraditional book report,by all means.

Second-language stu-dents enjoy the power ofpooling their resources.It works well to havethem writing somepieces together; thosestronger in grammar take the writing lead whileothers generate ideas, possibly in their first lan-guage. For example, creating a script from a storystudents have all read gives differently-abled stu-dents the chance to contribute to a group effort. Bysharing their impressions of the story, giving ideasfor how events should be scripted, and by beingassigned an agreed-upon role to play, they practiceseveral types and levels of language. They shouldalso at times be (earned with English-dominantstudents (who have themselves been assigned toteams according to gender, ability level, and per-sonality traits) both for purposes of multiculturalexposure and for temporary immersion in standardEnglish.

This is actually the more "classic" cooperativelearning approach, developed by Johnson andJohnson, Kagan and others, in large part to facili-tate mainstreaming and integration efforts.Cooperative learning theorists have designed quitea few highly structured programs for various disci-plines that are worth exploring. For example, acooperative strategy called "jigsaw," where everymember of a team is given primary responsibilityfor a piece of a larger task, works well when stu-dents are learning to do research (Reyes, 1991).The prospect of writing a research paper is lessthreatening when done in partnership.

As a culminating writing unit activity, "publish-ing" students' work and displaying it accomplishes

several things at once: 1) it completes the holisticlanguage arts cycle with a proud display of stu-dents' efforts, legitimizing the "student as author;"2) it shares classroom work with families and com-munities, thereby extending an invitation to getinvolved in their children's education; and 3) it is"finished" work which can be put in a portfolio toshow student progress and to replace traditionalassessment instruments.

How much of any of the above can be applied toRay Trejo's mid-highschool class? Probablyvery little, which onlyproves that each class-room is a uniquecommunity with uniquerequirements. Trejo's stu-dents are highlymotivated and unusuallymature teenagers who

know that bilingualism enhances their employ-ment possibilities. Yet their expressed professionalaspirations are rather limited; and like mostteenagers, their plans show some shortsightednessdue to simple inexperience. These students couldbenefit from exposure to a wider range of careerpaths, which in turn may require specific types ofacademic preparation. It might be helpful, forexample, if the teacher were to inform himselfabout Mexican law school requirements to bestdirect the student who plans to attend one. Thosestudents who name "bilingual secretary" as theirfuture profession might be prodded to considerlong-range planning for higher education and abusiness major; certainly, working as a secretarycan be fulfilling, but it is the teacher's task to "holdvisions of students that they cannot imagine forthemselves" (llelpit, 1992). All the students couldbegin immediately acquiring a working vocabularyrelated to their interests. Bilingual professionalsshould be brought into class to speak to the stu-dents and to give them the most realistic outlookpossible. These students are also wonderful candi-dates for "service learning" and other hands-oneducational experiences beyond the classroom,once they have developed enough self-confidenceto venture out.

The Mexican students have a rare chance tobecome not only bilingual, but bicultural. Theywill potentially be in the powerful position some-

The Mexican stu

rare chance to be

only bilingual, b

dents have a

come not

ut bicultural.

46 1"4s

day to mediate between two worlds. Therefore,openly discussing the features of each culture, con-trasting and comparing, and when appropriate,criticizing, generates higher- order thinking evenbefore students are able to read or write in English.They could listen to literature written by Chicanosthat deals with border themes, and share work pub-lished in Mexico that looks at the border from theMexican perspective (Anzaldua, 1987; Gomez-Pena, 1988; Acuna, 1988).

Trejo says he stresses oral English and does notdiscuss whether he plans to introduce reading andwriting. For his students to be fully bilingual, theyshould be urged to become proficient in all three.Meanwhile, it will be very important that studentsbe reading and writing in their native languagethroughout second-language instruction. If theyare not taking a separate Spanish-language artsclass, then opportunities to practice and developnative language-literacy skills must be incorporat-ed into the class they do attend. It will takestudents five to seven years to achieve completeoral fluency, with proficient reading and writing inEnglish occurring toward the end of this period.Neglecting reading and writing in the first lan-guage for that long is not only a waste of valuabletime, but may actually hamper the students'chances of becoming fully literate in the second.

Because he is the older, more experienced adult,and because Mexican students afford high statusand respect to their teacher, Trejo is in an excel-lent position to act as broker among all availablelearning resources, his students' goals, and his owncommon sense. The role of teacher has changedfrom leader to facilitator. Really, teaching is evolv-ing and responding to the conditions of today'sschools. A growing body of literature supports whatteachers in "real-world" classrooms in communitieslike Deming are doingcreating student-centeredcurricula based on personal experience that fostersauthentic learning opportunities.

References

Acuna, R. (1988). Occupied America: A history ofChicanos. New York: Harper Collins.

Anaya, R. A. (1972). Bless me, Ultima: A novel.Berkeley, Calif.: Tonatiuh International.

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Anzaldua, G.. (1987). Borderlands: La frontera. SanFrancisco: Aunt Lute Books.

Atwell, N. (1987). In the middle: Writing, reading,and learning with adolescents. Portsmouth, NH:Boynton/Cook Publishers.

Au, K.H. (1993). Literacy instruction in multiculturalsettings. San Diego: The HBJ Literacy Series.

Barrera, R. B., Liguori, 0. & Salas, L. (1992). Ideasa literature can grow on. In V. Harris (Ed.),Teaching multicultural literature in grabs K-8. Nor-wood, Mass.: Christopher Gordon Publishers.

Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary languagedevelopment in promoting educational successfor language minority students. California StateDepartment of Education: Schooling and languageminority students. A theoretial framework. LosAngeles: National Evaluation, Dissemination,and Assessment Center, California State Univer-sity, p. 3-49.

Delpit, L.D. (1992). Acquistion of literate dis-course: Bowing before the master? Theory intoPractice, 31, 296-302.

Delpit, L.D. (1991). A conversation with Lisa Del-pit. Language Arts, 68(7), 541-547.

Edelsky, C. (1992). A talk with Carole Edelskyabout politics and literacy. Language Arts, 69(5),324-329.

Ferdman, B. M. (1990). Literacy and cultural iden-tity. Harvard Educational Review, 60(2), 181-204.

Flores, B., Tefft-Cousin, P. & Diaz, E. (1991).Transforming deficit myths about learning, lan-guage, and culture. Language Arts, 68(5),369-379.

Giroux, H. A. (1987). Critical literacy and studentexperience: Donald Graves' approach to literacy.Language Arts, 64(2), 175-181.

Gomez, M. L. (1988). Documented/undocument-ed. In R. Simonson & S. Walker (Eds.), Thegraywo/f annual five: Multicultural literacy. St.Paul: Graywolf Press.

Karolides, N. J. (1992). The transactional theoryof literature. In N.J. Karolides (Ed.), RennerResponse in the Classroom. New York: Longman,21-32.

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York:Harper Perennial.

National Council of La Raza (1992). State of His-panic America in 1991: An overview. Washington,D.C.: NCLR.

Peregoy, S. F., Boyle, O.F. (1993). Reading, writing,and learning in ESL. New York: Longman.

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Reyes, M. (1991). Bilingual student writers: Aquestion of fair evaluation. English Journal, 80(8),16-23.

Reyes, M. (1992). Challenging venerable assump-tions: Literacy instruction for linguisticallydifferent students. Harvard Educational Review,62(4), 427-445.

Sleeter, C. E. & Grant, C. A. (1993). Making choic-es for multicultural education: Five approaches torace, class, and gender. New York: MacmillanPublishing Company.

Villaserior, V. (1991). Rain of gold. Houston. Texas:Arte Publico Press.

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