| Educational studies in the U.S. continue to show high dropout rates for Latinos. Due to the high poverty rates found in families headed by Latinas and the influx of Mexican immigrants into the U.S., this study focused on the educational experiences of first and second-generation Mexican immigrant females and their parents' reflections.; While the root cause of academic underachievement has often been blamed on the shortcomings of students, this study discloses that underachievement is generated by school-wide policies, as well as deliberate actions on the part of school officials. Through transformative dialogues, aimed at revealing why some students benefit from schooling while others become increasingly disengaged from the school environment, six students explained how their academic track dictated the quality of their educational preparation.; Using R Stanton-Salazar's (2001) analytical framework, involving the interaction between social capital and institutional support, the study shows how students are immersed in a no-win situation. In fact, A. Valenzuela (1999) labels the phenomenon as a subtractive process whereby the students lose such attributes as their native language and cultural values, characteristics that are essential to a positive self-identity. Valenzuela adds that this subtractive effect often results in cultural divisions between generations of Mexican-origin people and may explain why M. and C. Suárez-Orozco (2001) have found differences in academic achievement among the various generations of Mexican immigrants. Other prominent scholars cited in the study include: H. Trueba, H. Romo, J. Ogbu, L. Olsen, P. Phelan, A. Davidson, H. Yu and C. Delgado-Gaitán.; The educational history of Mexican-origin people has shown traditional practices aimed at maintaining a phenomenon of underachievement. The voices of the participants in this study mirror the past by revealing modern day institutional barriers which continue to prevent Mexican-origin students and their parents from profiting in the American system of education. Such institutional barriers guarantee the pyramidal structure of capitalism by maintaining the disparity of value between labor and capital in the U.S. Unless educators and advocates for children's rights take political action, the present system will never extensively improve the lives of Mexican-origin people and other marginalized groups. |
