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UA faculty and students are researching how to improve educators' ability to teach Mexican-American youth.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
December 21, 2007

The English language has traditionally been at the center of discussions about ways to educate Hispanic students, but it can no longer be the central topic.

That is the opinion of University of Arizona faculty and graduate students who formed a collective in 2003 to study issues related to Mexican-American students and schooling.

The group has begun a research initiative to “critically examine” the ways teachers are prepared to educate Mexican-American students, which involves taking a look at what is happening in Arizona’s schools and also informing educators and students about best practices.

“This type of information is important to populations all over the nation,” said Toni Griego Jones, a UA associate professor for teaching and teacher education in the College of Education. “When we talk to people from other places like Iowa, Minnesota and Oregon where they’re getting a lot of Mexican-American kids, they don’t know what to do.”

The group’s initiative is not grant-funded and did not come about because of an administrative mandate, Griego Jones said. Instead, it is “driven by a great need in K-16 schools,” adding that the focus in on teacher preparation.

Bradford Melrose, who is pursuing his doctoral degree in teaching and teacher education, said he views this as an equity issue.

He also said that while the group is in the “initial stages of reforming the teacher preparation program,” the work today will have long-term implications that should help resolve the problems with the “one size fits all” approach to learning.

“We need to know these students,” he said, adding that change must happen to ensure that “students become big contributors in the classroom.” If that must happen, educators need to learn about the students and their neighborhoods, not simply what it means to teach, he added.

The team has published articles on the topic and encourage educators to avoid typecasting Mexican-American students and also find ways to incorporate their existing knowledge into the classroom. Many of the students involved intend to go on to become faculty members.

The UA’s College of Education also began offering a doctoral degree in teacher education with a minor in Mexican-American Studies.

Also, Griego Jones began offering a course specifically about Mexican-American students and the study group, which includes members who have been able to present their work at national conferences.

The team has also begun working with others on campus to survey families about their needs and has collaborated with the UA Mexican American Studies & Research Center and educators in local school districts.

“In only a few years, we’ve done an awful lot,” said Griego Jones, who will be on sabbatical next year in Mexico studying the education system.

She hopes to someday launch a research institute within the teaching and teacher education department that further develop research and teaching practices in this area.

The surge in the Mexican-American population in the United States, especially since the 1990s, has also driven the need for a deeper understanding of the group, Griego Jones said.

It had become obvious to the group that the Hispanic population was not a homogenous group and that just because people shares the same language – which is the case among many Mexican-Americans and Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and others – that does not mean the entire population within that group has a shared experience, the same cultural exchange or even the same educational needs.

“So much about what we know is centered on bilingual education and English language acquisition, I think, to the detriment of other things,” Griego Jones said. “We know so much about the immigrant experience, but not the Mexican -American experience. There is a gap there.”