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What does the literature says about the language and culture gaps between home and school and how are already existing after school programs attempting to bridge these gaps.
Introduction
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, racial and ethnic distributions of public school students across the United States have shifted. Almost %49 of students attending public school come from families that do not identify as white. In addition 83% of teachers identify as white[1]. This leads to language and culture “gaps” between families and schools. The term “gaps” refers to misunderstanding or perceptions ______. Many theorize that the gaps are due to the barriers diverse families face regarding the education system and that one way to bridge these gaps is through after school programming. [2]
According to Ashcraft (2005), many children spend an average of 35 hours a week in afterschool programs. After-school care refers to the time before school, after school, on holidays, during summer break at a particular site such as school, community center, or private facility. After-school time is an important part of the lives of children and families, not just something to occupy the time of children when they are out of school.
I chose the topic of after-school programing and bilingual education because it encompasses a passion of mine, multicultural education and something I am knowledgeable about, afterschool programming. I have worked in an afterschool setting for more than eight years. In that time I have found how valuable this time can be. I have also found that there is lacks of awareness about after school programs and that many people have misconceptions about what goes on during this time. I believe that cultural awareness in a bilingual setting is key to a more peaceful educational environment. I also know that the relationships created in an afterschool setting can be used to make connections between home and school.
The purpose of this paper is to explore what the literature says about the language and culture gaps between home and school and explore how already existing after school programs attempt to bridge these gaps.
Barriers and Gaps between Parents and School as Viewed by Parents and Educators
Using two seminal pieces, 1) Con Respeto, Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools by Guadalupe Valdes (1996) and 2) Latino English Language Learners: Bridging Achievement and Culture Gaps between Schools and Families by Mary Ellen Good, Sophia Masewicz, and Linda Vogell (2006), four themes arise to identify gaps between schools and families. The themes include: communication and cultural clashes, expectations, support for families, and meaningful relationships between teachers and students. These seminal pieces include the perspective of both families and the teachers and have been referred to time and time again in research and citations. [3]
Con Respeto, Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools[4]which was part of a larger ethnographic study by Dr. Guadalupe Valdes from 1983-1986. It involved ten first generation working class Mexican families living in a semi-rural area near the U.S and Mexican border. She observed the struggles and hardships that came along with trying to succeed in an unfamiliar society. The study took place in a town she called Las Fuentes, along the US-Mexico borderlands, focusing particularly on the poorest area of the town known as “el barrio.” Valdes hoped to show that Mexican parents do know how to parent, but their parenting styles are a product of their class, culture, and experiences. Originally Valdez’s research was about understanding and examining the variety of factors that contribute to the academic “failure” of Mexican students in school. She described their values, morals, beliefs, work experiences, struggles to find housing, encounters with schools and educators, involvement in their children's education, and their everyday activity. The goal was to provide information and awareness that would help bridge the distance between culturally diverse families and schools.
Research conducted by Mary Ellen Good, Sophia Masewicz, and Linda Vogell (2006), LatinoEnglish Language Learners: Bridging Achievement and Culture Gaps between Schools and Families[5], explores the barriers to academic achievement for English Language Learners (ELLs). (Describe the main purpose of this piece)
Communication, Culture and Expectation Gaps Between Schools and Families[6]
According to Good et al. (2010) both teacher and parent groups identified communication as a major barrier to student achievement (p. 327). From the view of the parents, “parents acknowledged that they lacked English language skills needed to effectively communicate with teachers and school personnel” (p. 329), but they also felt like there were not enough bilingual teachers to help bridge language gaps. Good et al, (2010) found that teachers were frustrated that the majority of teachers in the district were not bilingual and that those that were bilingual were not appreciated or valued. Both parents and teachers agreed that “if teachers do not speak the child’s language or understand his/her culture, learning cannot be optimized” (p. 329).
One of the largest misunderstandings between the parents and teachers is the expectations they have of each other. Valdez claims that this has to do with the expectations teachers had about what families should be or not be doing with their children at home (p.148). On the other hand parents had different expectations of teachers as well. Valdez continued to say that many of the parents had little or no formal education and it was a sensitive topic for them to communicate with the teachers about (p. 149). The lack of communication lead teachers to perceive that parents did not want to be involved in school and did not care about their child’s education, since unlike middle class families they did not come to the school or help their children with homework. Valdez argues that this is not the case. Parents want to be involved. Often parents did not feel competent enough to communicate with school personnel. Many misunderstandings led them to believe that school personnel did not care about their children. For example, parents did not understand teachers who expected them to send their children to school already knowing their ABC's, because in Spanish learning combinations of letter sounds made more sense than single letters and because teaching ABC's was the job of the teacher. The job of the parent was shaping behavior and the school's job was academics.
Both Valdez (1996) and Good et al (2010) found that each group of people involved had difficulties communicating information and receiving information. Many teachers tried their best to teach the children what they thought was important, children used the skills they learned at home at school, and parents did their best to support their children at school but in all three cases many failed. This leads to all groups involved feeling helpless, angry, and confused.
Consistently throughout the reviewed articles, the ways in which parents and teachers viewed the role of the teacher came up. Good et al. found that there were obvious differences in the way teachers and parents viewed the role of the teacher. To show this, Good et al. gave an example that I think is important. One parents said:
In Mexico, teachers consider students and extension of their own family and refers to them as my children. They not only see themselves at educators, but also as parents, counselors, grandparents, and even mothers… As parents we trust their judgment; we believe what they tell us (p. 330).
This is an important quote to share because parents in this study felt like schools administrators viewed them as a problem. When asked about cultural barriers, parents expressed a loss of cultural identity and a loss of control. Many parents shared stories about family chaos resulting from the cultural conflicts and barriers the children faced entering a new culture and trying to understand where they fit in.
Valdez discussed the barrier of cultural clash more in depth than Good. She found that the ten families in her study each functioned as a collective family unit and schools did know how the Mexican family unit worked. The socialization practices used by these families did not prepare students for school, and the school does not view these practices as valuable. For example the children’s role was to contribute to the functioning of the family unit. Parents used consejos, which are cultural narratives, to teach to respect and obey their parents, to discourage selfishness, to take care of their siblings, and work together to reach family goals. For these families, sharing and cooperating was necessary for survival. One parent told Valdez “Les digo y les digo [consejos], para que se les vaya grabando” (I tell them and I tell them [consejos] so that it will become engraved in their memory) (p.126).
Valdez argues that families rely on traditional methods of parenting, including clear roles for parents, men, women, and children. For example parents learn the strengths and weaknesses of each child and use them to the advantage of the family unit. Husbands were generally providers for the family and wives were responsible for taking care of the household and education of the children. Children were responsible for contributing to the well-being of the family by performing chores, caring for younger siblings and teaching them family responsibilities, and to contribute money to the household as soon as it was reasonable and possible. Valdez says that success was defined as having hardworking sons and virtuous daughters. Families never imagined that young people might need to make choices between family responsibilities and their own ambitions. To these families, success was not doing well on a test, success was having connections and using these connections appropriately. This leads to a large cultural clash with schools.
Support for families
Families face a tremendous amount of challenges as they transition to the U.S, with new language and new systems. Often times there is little no no support for families maneuvering the new system. Good et al, reported that parents expressed a “feeling of being trapped in the economic reality of having to work long hours for very low wages” (p.333). Children also experience these challenges, for example Valdez’s research showed that children expected school to be like home. They expected for adults to behave in the same way they had seen adults behave at home. At home “children were trained not to be disruptive, not to call attention to themselves, not interrupt adult speech, and so forth” so when at school, they followed familiar rules of interaction (p. 149). According to Valdez, this is problematic because the children did not speak out loud, ask for teacher’s attention, volunteer, or call out answers.
Meaningful Relationships between Teachers and Students
Often, teachers struggle with the increasing demand to raise performance standards, improve instructional practices, and demonstrate accountability through high risk testing. Both “theory and practice show that without meaningful relationships with educators, students have little reason to connect with school and achieve academically” (Shepard et al., 2012, p.48). Currently, relationships of most teachers with their students seem surface and basic. Many teachers with large amounts of students know their students “only from their performance within rather limited classroom contexts” (Moll et al., 1992, p.134). It is important for teachers to care about students learning and about them as individuals. There “must be an indubitable connection between caring for students and educating them effectively” (Peele-Eady, Nasir & Pang, 2007, p.885). Valdez found that parents “felt the school environment was not welcoming and that some teachers were defensive” (p. 329). Parents expressed great desire to advocate for their children, but felt that schools did not listen. I viewed this as rooted in the lack of relationships rather than in language differences.
In my experience as a nonprofit afterschool educator of eight years, the CEO and higher level supervisors all support staff in building positive relationships with families by training the staff to learn about the families and home life. Educators are encouraged to have in depth conversations with families to contribute to the curriculum if they wanted to etc. When I completed my student teaching in a public 5th grade classroom, I felt a completely different expectation. The administration did not want us to do home visits or spend time bringing kids culture into the classroom. We were on a tight schedule and would get in trouble if we strayed from the plan.
Funds of Knowledge [7]
The lack of connection between school and home has been a continual issue in the world of institutionalized education. Fortunately, theoretical approaches have proven that a link between the two worlds is possible and leads to social and academic success. One approaches is the use of funds of knowledge. Many afterschool programs are using funds of knowledge methodology in their curriculum. The term funds of knowledge “refers to these historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and wellbeing” (Moll et al., 1992, p. 133). For those unfamiliar with funds of knowledge, the main idea is that families can be characterized by the practices they have developed and knowledge they have produced and acquired in the living of their lives” (Moll, Soto-Santiago, & Schwatrz, 2013). This involves understanding and analyzing the social history of the households, their origins, and the labor history of the families. It is important to look at how households celebrate, handle change, and maneuver difficulties because this can show how families’ problem solve and handle situations thus translating into classroom instruction methods. These articles explain the use of funds of knowledge in reference to teachers in the classroom, but it can be applicable to afterschool educators as well.
Currently, relationships of many teachers with their students seem surface and basic. Teachers know their students “only from their performance within rather limited classroom contexts” (Moll et al., 1992, p. 134). By capitalizing on the social history of the family, household and other community resources, instruction in the classroom can be organized so that the quality of the educational experience can exceed the scripted instruction most children commonly encounter and will incorporate the values of the families (Moll et al., 1992, p. 132). Moll et al. (1992) suggest that “much of the teaching and learning [at home] is motivated by the children’s interests and questions” (p. 134). Educators can incorporate those interests into the classroom if they know what they are. This information can eliminate some of the stereotypes or misconceptions an educator may have about a particular student. Although there has
been large gains with the theory of funds of knowledge, I believe more investigation needs to be done because at this point some educators know what funds of knowledge are, but the “how” is missing. How can this be done. How can learning about a family's approach to problem solving translate into an educator's understanding of how it relates to instruction. People and situations change over time funds of knowledge are not stagnant. There is a need to continue elaborating on the funds of knowledge approach, or any other approach that depicts students and families, in response to change in the participants’ social conditions of living (Moll, Soto-Santiago, Schwartz, 2013, Ch. 13, p. 173). It is important to have a processual understanding of funds of knowledge because families generate new funds of knowledge over time depending on their situation. This is part of what makes creating successful programs and curriculum difficult. Now that we know a little bit about the history of afterschool program, identified gaps and barriers between home and school, and presented the basis of the funds of knowledge, we can begin to look at programs already in place that are using student and family’s funds of knowledge.
Bridging the Gaps using After-School Programs
Success stories/Applicable programs in place
In my experience there are several after-school programs in existence that do not meet the needs of the children and families in the community. Many programs lack resources necessary for a successful program or are not aware of the needs of the children in the community. Many afterschool programs are viewed as just a place to drop of their child while they work, or to keep them busy. With this being said, there are several programs that are doing great things for children and their families. Elements from each of the programs can be combined to meet the purpose of this paper which is to explore how afterschool programs might bridge the gap between families and schools.