integrating home and school identities of recent-immigrant hispanic english language learners...

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Integrating Home and SchoolIdentities of Recent-ImmigrantHispanic English LanguageLearners Through ClassroomPracticesAna Christina DaSilva Iddings a & Laurie Katz ba University of Arizonab The Ohio State UniversityPublished online: 05 Dec 2007.

To cite this article: Ana Christina DaSilva Iddings & Laurie Katz (2007) IntegratingHome and School Identities of Recent-Immigrant Hispanic English Language LearnersThrough Classroom Practices, Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 6:4,299-314, DOI: 10.1080/15348450701542306

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JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY, AND EDUCATION, 6(4), 299–314Copyright © 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Integrating Home and SchoolIdentities of Recent-Immigrant

Hispanic English Language LearnersThrough Classroom Practices

Ana Christina DaSilva IddingsUniversity of Arizona

Laurie KatzThe Ohio State University

The negotiation of integrated home and school identities of 3 second grade HispanicEnglish language learners (ELLs) included in an English–dominant classroom areexplored through sociocultural paradigms, with an emphasis on the role of theindividual’s agency in the social construction of identities. In addition, we examinethe conditions within the classroom context and practices that may influence thenegotiation of the children’s home and school identities. These identified conditionsinclude (a) opportunities for students to perform home and community roles in theclassroom, (b) space for students’ (and their families’) voices to be expressed andvalued, and (c) access to meaningful participation of students and their families in“school learning” activities. Our data provide examples of classroom practices thatmay constrain these conditions. Based on our findings, we make suggestions formediations that can facilitate the integration of home and school identities for ELLs.

Key words: identity, English language learners, Hispanics in education, agency,home-school integration, elementary grades

Educational outcomes of English language learners (ELLs) continue to differfrom those of their native English-speaking counterparts in the United States.The National Center for Educational Statistics (2000) reported that in the UnitedStates, 28.6% of Hispanics between the ages of 16 and 24 years old drop out

This article reflects an equal collaboration between the authors.Correspondence should be addressed to Ana Christina DaSilva Iddings. E-mail: aiddings@email.

arizona.edu

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300 DASILVA IDDINGS AND KATZ

of school as compared to 7.3% of Whites. In addition, achievement rates inreading and math were still lower for Hispanics than for Whites at ages 9, 13,and 17 (National Assessment of Education Progress, 2004). In view of thesefigures, the circumstances of Hispanics in American schools have been a concernto politicians and educators. Researchers investigating achievement differentialsbetween Hispanic and White populations have submitted explanations pointingto the disparities between minority1 students’ experiences at home and at school(Moll & Gonzalez, 1994; Valdez, 1996; Valenzuela, 1999).

Although school practices have traditionally favored White middle-classstudents’ academic, social, and linguistic practices (Ladson-Billings & Tate,1995), many Hispanic students have been able to achieve academic success.Likewise, some teachers have been able to address the needs of these studentsthrough the practices they establish in their classrooms. Following McDermott’s(1993) assertion that classroom practices “crucially influence what students canlearn and who they can become” italics added, p. 303), and based on empiricalevidence, we suggest that examinations of identity constructions within thelinguistic, social, and academic practices of schools may provide useful insightinto what may distinguish classrooms where Hispanic students can thrive.

In this article we inquire into the ways by which classroom contexts andpractices may constrain favorable conditions for the integration of home and schoolidentities of three recent-immigrant Mexican students with beginning levels ofEnglish proficiency included in an English-dominant second-grade classroom inthe Southwest region of the United States. We organize our findings aroundthree overarching contextual conditions that provide favorable circumstances forintegration of home and school identities based on our review of recent literature andon our observations and research. These conditions are (a) opportunities for studentsto perform home and community roles in the classroom, (b) space for students’ (andtheir families’) voices to be expressed and valued, and (c) access to meaningfulparticipation of students and their families in “school learning” activities.

We provide six examples from our transcripts of classroom practices thatillustrate contextual constraints to these conditions and thus curtail possibilitiesfor integrated home and school identities. We then suggest mediating factorsthat, in light of our observations, analyses, and theoretical considerations, canfacilitate the integration of home and school identities for ELLs. However, beforeturning to our study, we offer a brief overview of the concepts and relationshipsthat are central to our research.

SCHOOL PRACTICES AND HISPANIC STUDENTS’ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Certain school practices have been linked to achievement differentials betweenminority students and their White, middle-class counterparts. For example,

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INTEGRATING HOME AND SCHOOL IDENTITIES 301

Valenzuela (1999) has linked low teacher expectations of and/or unfavorablebias toward lower-income students and racial/ethnic minorities with differ-ential student achievement. Ladson-Billings & Tate (1995) have suggestedthat access to rigorous curriculum and overall high-quality education has beenalmost exclusively reserved for White, middle-class students. DeCuir & Dixson(2004) contended that current tracking systems, honors classes, and giftededucation—widely populated by Whites—-contribute to the resegregation ofschools. In addition, many recent studies have suggested that the preservationof Standard English as the hegemonic language of school relegates non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants and African Americans to subordinate roles in the classroomand to positions of inferiority in society (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Asato,2000; Moll, 2002; Shannon, 1995). These practices (as well as others not previ-ously discussed) have implications for students’ constructions of social identities,as individuals produce and re-produce themselves and others in the process ofenactment of activities within multiple contexts (Roth et al., 2004). Students’identity constructions, in turn, have implications for academic achievement.

Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti (2005) connect home/community and schoolpractices through the idea of “funds of knowledge” or the utilization of students’and their families’ sociocultural histories and cultural resources as importantmediating factors for children’s growth and development, as well as for theempowerment of parents. Their analyses of different case studies of teachers’interactions with their Hispanic students’ families demonstrate possibilitiesfor connecting academic content and the learners’ existing social worlds. Forexample, through a series of household visits, a teacher learned about one of herkindergartener’s fathers, who in addition to his regular job as a gardener, hadmany untapped resources, such as a wealth of musical and theatrical knowledge.With this knowledge she encouraged him to assist with the school curriculum byhelping to design a garden and a full-scale musical production. His involvementin these projects extended to other areas of school life, where he was electedParent–Teacher Association president and organized an ambitious agenda thatfurther connected school and community interests. The father, school (childrenand teachers), and community all benefited from a closer alignment of experi-ences. Viewing identity as inextricably related to participation in practice (seealso Lave & Wenger, 1991; Holland, Lachicotte Jr., Skinner, & Cain, 2001), wenow turn to the relevant literature on identity construction.

IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

Recent research influenced by sociocultural psychological paradigms hasadvanced theoretical conceptualizations of learning as involving a process ofreorganization of the “self” when learners encounter new linguistic, social, and/or

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cultural realms of activity (e.g., Belz, 2002; Kramsch, 2000; Lantolf & Pavlenko,2001; Norton, 1997, 2000; Norton Peirce, 1995). Within this perspective, learnersare not merely seen as processors of information, but instead are regarded as“agents whose actions are situated in particular contexts and influenced bytheir dynamic ethnic, national, gender, class, and social identities” (Lantolf &Pavlenko, 2001, p. 155). The concept of agency evoked here refers to individuals’possibilities, will, and purposes to exercise autonomy and to affirm themselvesas active social agents. In addition, this notion is aligned with Taylor’s (1989)proposal that human agency is socially, culturally, and historically constructed,as well as intimately linked to significance. That is, as individuals engage inactivities that are meaningful to them; they give voice to, and can begin totransform the meaning of those experiences (Giroux & McLaren, 1994). Takinga sociocultural perspective on identity, which emphasizes human agency andforegrounds the context of activity, we argue that identities are not fixed orstatic entities, but are instead fluid, dynamic, weakly bounded, and subject tonegotiation through the practices in which one engages.

Some scholars who subscribe to the aforementioned perspectives haveresearched identity through the examination of personal narratives. Notably,Pavlenko (2001) proposes—from her analyses of 13 autobiographical, cross-cultural narratives written by bilinguals—that individuals take an active partin the process of repositioning themselves in a new society. Her illustrationsshow that, through purposeful and meaningful use of language, writers negotiatelinguistic identities for themselves, overcoming being positioned as deficient andincompetent second language speakers and, instead, establishing their selves aslegitimate users of the target language. Moreover, she argues that through theirnarratives, writers may challenge ascribed identities (e.g., national, racial, ethnic,cultural, social, class, and gender), actively producing and re-producing multipleand complex subjectivities.

Norton Peirce’s (1995; and later as Norton, 1997, 2000) studies aboutimmigrant women in Canada echo Pavlenko’s (2001) findings that immigrantsoften construct border-crossing, hybrid, and multiple identities. For example,when at the workplace, Martina, one of the learners Norton Peirce (1995) profiles,was socially positioned as an immigrant woman. In this context she felt uncom-fortable speaking in English and referred to herself as “stupid” and “inferior.”However, as a mother and primary caregiver in the home, she was able to useEnglish to speak her mind to defend her family’s rights against unscrupulousclaims by her landlord. In Norton Peirce’s example, Martina’s identity wascontingent on her institutional role, power relations, and contextual conditions(i.e., worker/immigrant/subordinate). However, as her role shifted, so did heridentity (i.e., mother/protector/agent). It is also noteworthy that, in the contextof home, Martina was able to express her voice—defined here as “the linguis-tically constituted self” (Lantolf, 1993, p. 223). Conversely, in the workplace,

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as the contextual conditions were not favorable for her to take an active role inconstructing her identity, she came to perceive her self in terms of her socialpositioning.

In relation to schools, Bourne (2001) builds on this discussion about therole of an individual’s agency in identity construction by observing howstudents actively negotiate multiple selves between and across home and schooldiscourses. In her study of a multiethnic, multilingual primary classroom ininner-city London, Bourne finds that groups of Bangladeshi and CantoneseELLs covertly use home languages with each other in class and use Englishin interactions with their families and home communities. The fact that thedichotomy between home and school cannot be drawn so clearly is evidencethat students negotiate multiple languages, registers, and codes in spite of rigidschool language policies. Bourne asserts:

Children are not passive pawns in the socialization processes of the school, butare active participants, taking up different positions within the alternatives open tothem through both pedagogic and peer discursive practices. (p. 103)

In sum, the aforementioned studies have argued that identities are influencedby the social roles individuals perform, by the purposeful use of language(or voice), and by their participation in the daily practices of their variouscommunities. They have also argued that individuals assume agency in takingup, resisting, and re-elaborating their subjectivities. The analysis of the datafor this study provides support for the arguments delineated previously; thatis, that integrated home and school identities are subject to negotiation throughparticipation in daily practices. However, we contend that, in the case of recent-immigrant Hispanic ELLs included in English-dominant classrooms, the degreeto which these negotiations take place may vary considerably according to theconditions within practices and the contexts available in the institutional spacesof schools that enable students to express their voices, perform meaningful roles,and fully participate in learning practices. The detailed description and findingsof our study follow.

THE STUDY

Method and Analytical Frameworks

A microethnographic discourse analysis (cf. Bloome, Carter, Christian, Otto, &Shuart-Faris, 2005) was used to examine conditions that afforded or constrainedthe integration of the children’s home and school identities in this study. Thisparticular approach refers to the ethnography of communication (cf. Gumperz,1986, Hymes, 1974) and was selected to analyze events in the classroom thatreferred to the children’s identities. Bloome et al. (2005) describe events as

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empirical circumstances where researchers can inquire into how people createmeaning through their actions and reactions to each other. Within these eventsindividuals’ actions and reactions are characterized as linguistic processes inthat their actions and reactions are derived from language systems for makingmeaning.

Transcripts from these events were further analyzed and broken into messageunits. Bloome et al. (2005) build on the work of Green and Wallat (1981) tointerpret the message unit as the smallest unit of conversational meaning. Eachnumbered line represents one message unit. Although prosodic markers are partof these types of analyses, only some prosodic cues are included in our transcriptswhen it is important to discuss an issue in the data analysis.

The children’s identities were analyzed according to (a) how the childrenpositioned themselves and were positioned in relationship to others, (b) theactivities they conducted, and (c) the locations of their activities. In this approach,classrooms are considered cultural sites where children and adults enact a seriesof cultural practices that they may modify, adapt, and transform, or they mayimport cultural practices from other social institutions and from other domainsof cultural life. For example, in our study, children in the classroom engaged inpractices that were culturally mediated through verbal and nonverbal means aswell as the use of other semiotic systems.

Participants and Setting

This study was part of a larger project designed to investigate the social andacademic interactions between native speakers of Spanish and native speakersof English. The larger project was motivated by the principal’s concerns abouta sudden large influx of Hispanic students to a predominantly White, English-dominant school. Specifically, the principal was interested in establishing strongrelationships with the immigrant families that were moving into the neighborhoodand in creating a school-wide family literacy program to support the academicachievement of ELLs.

A second-grade classroom was selected based on the principal’s recom-mendation of a teacher who had designed and implemented a family-literacyafter-school program aiming to attain a greater understanding about the familylives of students in her classroom. One of the program’s purposes involvedparent–teacher conferences about how parents could support their children’sacademic progress at home. The focal participants in this study were three recentimmigrant Mexican students (residing less than 5 years in the United States)—Mariana, Javier, and Octavio—, their respective parents and siblings, and theclassroom teacher, Ms. Walker, a White middle-class, veteran teacher (24 yearsof experience in teaching primary grades) and native speaker of English with nobackground in the Spanish language. There were 14 other students in the classwho were native speakers of English.

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Procedures

The researcher was a participant observer in the classroom as well as in theFamily Literacy program held after school. Social and academic interactionsbetween teachers and students (and among peers), as well as the interactionsbetween the teachers and the students’ families during parent–teacher confer-ences, were recorded. In addition, ongoing interviews were also conductedwith the teacher, the participating students (in English and in Spanish), andtheir parents (in Spanish). These interviews provided information regarding theteachers’ pedagogical beliefs about ELLs and the families’ cultural backgroundsand further insight into the students’ classroom interactions. In addition, 30hr of video- and audiotapes were recorded. Trustworthiness of findings wasensured through the use of prolonged engagement (i.e., long-term observation inthe field), purposive sampling, triangulation of sources (i.e., teacher, students,parents, artifacts), and triangulation of methods (i.e., observations, interviews,field notes, video- and audiotaping).

FINDINGS

Analyses of classroom events that were representative of everyday activitiesrespond to the following research question: What school practices constrainthe integration of home and school identities for Hispanic students in themainstream classroom? To illustrate our findings, we provide below six examplesfrom our interviews with participants and observations of school practices (i.e.,regular classroom activities, teacher–student and student–student interactions,and parent–teacher conferences) that illustrate contextual constraints on the threeidentified conditions:

Opportunities for Children to Perform Home andCommunity Roles in the Classroom

Examples 1 and 2 are both excerpts from a parent–teacher conference betweenMr. Suarez (Mariana’s father) and the classroom teacher, Ms. Walker. Theseexcerpts highlight paradoxes between home and school identities. Noted are thestark contrasts that at times existed between the descriptions of ELLs from thepoint of view of the parents and the teacher. In Example 1, the father describeshis daughter in a grown-up and in a somewhat heroic manner at home. However,in Example 2, it is clear that Mariana was not so perceived by the teacher, asshe was not able to display these roles in the classroom. Her inability to displaythese roles might be due to her understandings about expectations within the

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classroom as a cultural setting or because of her difficulties in expressing certainaspects of her subjectivities in the new language.

Example 1

F: Father (Mr. Suarez)1. F: Le gusta cuidar de sus hermanitos

(She likes to take care of her siblings)2. y de los niñitos del vecino.

(and of the neighbor’s children).3. Los traje y los busca de la escuela todos los dias.

(She walks them to and from school every day.)4. Y tambien nos ayuda en la casa � � �.

(She also helps in the home � � �.)5. A veces nos ayuda a comprender las cosas de ingles que no comprendemos

(Sometimes she helps us understand things in English that we can’t under-stand)

6. muchas veces habla con la gente por telefone,(and many times she talks to people on the phone)

7. quando tenemos que nos entender en ingles.(when we have to understand the English.)

In the previous example, Mr. Suarez speaks of his daughter as very responsibleaccording to the roles she performs at home and in the community. In lines 1 to3 he talks about Mariana as a contributing member of her family and communityby describing her role in an activity she does with her siblings and neighbors.In line 3 he elaborates on her ability to enact responsible roles by noting thefrequency of her activities in these roles as “every day.” Also, he uses wordsthat demonstrate her actions or responsibilities, such as take care (Line 1), walksthem (Line 3), and helps us (Lines 4 and 5).

In lines 5 to 7 Mr. Suarez further describes Mariana’s role of responsibilityin activities she performs for her parents that require language brokering. Forexample, in Lines 6 and 7 he provides a description of how Mariana helps thefamily by playing the role of translator. Mr. Suarez’s descriptions of Mariana’sroles at home and in the community were not displayed in her classroom setting.Later in the same parent–teacher conference, Ms. Walker responds to a questionfrom Mr. Suarez about Mariana’s school performance in the following transcript.

Example 2

T: Teacher1. T: [In school] she is generally immature [italics added],2. but really well behaved.3. She has shown good progress with her English,

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4. but she still has a long ways to go before she can perform at grade level.5. She needs to practice her English at home more.

Ms. Walker begins in Line 1 by using an adjective to describe Marianaas immature. She uses the adverb generally in front of immature to describeher overall performance. In Line 2 Ms. Walker describes Mariana in anotherbroad manner that relates to her behavior (well behaved). The description of herbeing well behaved could mean she isn’t disruptive or causing any behavioralproblems in the classroom. Ms. Walker is more descriptive about Mariana’sperformance when she comments about her English proficiency (her use of theword English pertains to her English proficiency versus the subject of English).The teacher’s comment about her showing good progress with her English in Line3 is countered in the following Lines 4 and 5. The teacher connects Mariana’sprogress of English with academic performance, indicating that she needs to beat a certain level of English proficiency before she can perform at grade levelin her other subject areas. Ms. Walker ends her narrative in Lines 6 and 7 byadvising Mr. Suarez that Mariana needs to speak more English at home.

This transcript indicates the emphasis on becoming English proficient overthe importance of content areas. The teacher provides no information aboutMariana’s performance in any of the subject areas. She only reports to Mr. Suarezprogress on her English and further advises him to have her practice Englishat home. This advice does not consider Mr. Suarez’s previous comment thatMariana knows more English than other family members, as evidenced by herrole as a translator (in Example 1, Line 7, Mr. Suarez’s emphasis on the wordhave can be interpreted as sometimes needing assistance in communicating withpeople who don’t speak Spanish.)

It can be noted in Examples 1 and 2 that attempts to bring the children’s homeidentity into the classroom were provided through the structuring opportunitiesfor frequent parent–teacher conferences. However, these links were not furtherextended, as it did not appear that Ms. Walker acknowledged Mariana’s father’sdescriptions about her roles in her home as having the same validity at school.

Space for Children’s (and Their Families’) Voices to BeExpressed and Valued

The following two illustrations demonstrate constraints to the second identifiedclassroom contextual condition influencing the negotiation of integratedhome/school identity regarding the valuing of one’s voice. Example 3 isexcerpted from an interview between the researcher and Javier’s mother on thetopic of helping students with their homework. From this conversation, it surfacedthat Maria thought that school should be regarded as a higher authority—a“louder” or more important voice than hers. It also became evident that Maria’s

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sense of competence in relation to assisting her child with homework was tiedto English proficiency; that is, her inability to speak English precluded her fromsharing her knowledge and/or experiences with her son.

Example 3

M: Maria (Javier’s mother)1. M: Es muy dificil para mi ayudarlo. Por ejemplo, el tenia las palabras

hot dog para escribir en su tarea.(It’s very hard for me to help him [with his homework]. For example, hehad the words hot dog to write for his homework.)

2. Y yo lo dice, “Hijo, ponga las palabritas [hotdog] juntas,”(And I told him, “Son, the words hot dog are spelled together hotdog),”

3. pero el me dijo, “no” ellas van separadas—la maestra me dijo!”(but he said, “No, they are spelled separately—my teacher said!”)

4. “Oh! OK,” le dijo, “si la maestra lo quiere asi, pongalas separadasentonces. Ella es la maestra y sabe todo muy bien.”(“Oh! OK,” I said, “then place them separately if the teacher said so. Sheknows everything well.”)

5. Tu sabes que yo soy bien burra. No sey nada. Sey muy poquito ingles yyo no puedo ayudarlo(You know I’m very dumb. I don’t know anything. I know very littleEnglish and can’t help him).

When referring to her subjectivity, Maria downplays her capabilities in Line1 (it’s too difficult), subjugates her knowledge to that of the teachers’ in Line4 (she knows), and undermines her intellectual being in Line 5 (I’m dumb).These findings are consistent with Norton-Peirce’s (1995) and also with Freire’s(1970) discussions about general characteristics of oppressed populations ashaving a tendency to self-deprecate, to view themselves as ignorant, unfit, andunproductive (p. 97).

The devaluation of voices coming from the home was also observed duringclassroom interactions between the children, as can be noted in the followingillustration (Example 4). During a casual conflict between native and nonnativespeakers of English in the classroom, it was evident that the ELLs perceived theirparents as not having a voice in the English-dominant context of the classroom,and thus, as unable to advocate for their children:

Example 4

A: Aaron; J: Javier; M: Mariana1. A: Poking Javier with a pencil. [Provoking him]2. J: Stop!!! [Demanding]3. A: Continues to poke Javier. [Antagonizing]

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4. J: If you don’t stop, my mom said she will come talk to the teacher. [tryingto establish authority]

5. A: Your mom doesn’t speak English! [Taking away Javier’ s authority]6. M: Es cierto, tu mama no manda nada aqui.

(That’s right, your mom doesn’t have a say here.)

As the ELL students in that classroom were often placed in a position toassociate the lack of English proficiency with powerlessness (Line 5), they beganto develop a sense of helplessness (Line 6) that was in many ways reflectedin their participation in school activities. These students’ sense of helplessnesswas usually reinforced by the fact that other students were assigned to help withvarious tasks. For example, on many occasions during independent reading time,the teacher would pair up ELLs with native speakers of English. Often in thosecases, ELLs would generally be seen disengaged from the task while the otherchild (the native English speaker) read the book alone.

Meaningful Participation of Students and Their Familiesin “School Learning” Activities

The following illustrations exemplify our third identified contextual classroomcondition influencing the negotiation of integrated home and school identities.Example 5 depicts an interaction between Octavio and a native speaker of English(Karen) as the children were working on their individual projects. In this project,the students had to do a worksheet involving the cutting and pasting of picturesof objects in the story of Cinderella (which the teacher had previously read),according to the sequence in which they appeared. They were then directed toselect the correct word located from a written list on the blackboard and tofinally write that word next to the corresponding object on the worksheet. Notedin this transcript is the exclusive use of English preventing Octavio from beingable to understand and to complete the task, and the single-answer nature of thetask, constraining opportunities for meaningful participation.

Example 5

K: Karen; O: Octavio1. K: [to Octavio] You don’t know what to do. What [are] you looking for?2. O: [looking for the word shoe on the board to write]3. O: [underneath the picture of a shoe] I no know.4. K: [to Octavio] You’re not doing [anything]!5. O: [to Karen] You want [to ] trade papers? I no know how [to6. O: do the assignment]. [Karen’s paper was already finished]7. K: [to Octavio]: OK. Here, you take mine. [students trade papers]8. [Octavio erases Karen’s name and writes his name its place].

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In Line 1 Karen makes an evaluative statement to Octavio that he does notknow how to complete the assigned task and walks toward him. She helps himby first asking him in Line 2 what he is looking for. Octavio responds to herquestion in Line 4. In Line 6, Octavio asks Karen to trade papers with him soshe can do his assigned work. Karen consents in Line 8 and he is observederasing her name from the assignment and writing his name on the assignment.In this event, Karen is not just assisting Octavio with the assignment but does theentire assignment for him. In this respect, Octavio is constrained from engagingin any meaningful participation in this activity. As this activity (like most otheractivities in that classroom) took place exclusively in English and there wasonly one correct way or one correct answer to complete the task, the ELLs weregreatly dependent on their native English speakers classmates for assistance inperforming the assignments.

Similarly, during an interview with Ms. Walker, when asked about thekinds of academic support Octavio was receiving at home, it became clearthat Octavio’s parents were also constrained from participating meaningfully in“school learning” activities, as they were perceived by the teacher as not able tohelp. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Example 6

1. T: I normally don’t ask for any parent support for Octavio, unless his sister2. is there to help him [� � �]. I don’t’ think either of his parents can read. I

think3. that some of the parents [of ELLs] can’t help their children succeed in

school4. because they really don’t have an insider’s eye with regards to schools. Many5. of them are not literate themselves, so they don’t know what to do to help6. their children.”

In this illustration it can be noted that identities of noncompetence (Lines3, 5) were cast onto Octavio’s parents by the teacher, based on preconceivedassumptions generally held about parents of ELL students as uneducated andilliterate (Lines 4, 5). It may be worth noting that later in the study, during aninterview with Octavio’s mother (held in Spanish) we came to discover that, intruth, both of his parents were literate in Spanish. The mother had a high schooldiploma, and the father had three years of formal training as an electrician in avocational college in Mexico.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study identify school practices that constrained favorableconditions for the integration of home and school identities. For example, in

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relation to the first condition involving the opportunity for students to performhome and school roles in classrooms, constraints may have been brought aboutby the practice of measuring children’s development against guidelines definedby curriculum standards normed and designed for native speakers of English(she was not performing at grade level), which seemed to have contributed to theteachers’ perceptions of Mariana as immature. Also, the exclusive use of Englishin the classroom prevented Mariana from expressing aspects of her subjectivityexhibited at home (i.e., responsible, grown-up). Being able to express oneself ina familiar language and/or modality may allow children to position themselvesmore authentically in events and to use familiar words that associate themselveswith their families, community, and school. Although this clearly is an argumentfor initial instruction in students’ native language, we realize that many teachersmay not speak the native language of the English language learners in theclassroom. It would be pertinent, then, for teachers to offer opportunities forthese students to be able to speak in their first language to peers and/or classroomvolunteers who share their native language background, and/or, at times, allowstudents to read, write, or listen to video- or audiotapes in their native language.

The second favorable condition for the negotiation of integrated home andschool identities entails opening spaces for children’s (and their families’) voicesto be expressed and valued. Our data demonstrated that this condition may havebeen strained by homework practices that exacerbated the value placed on schoolknowledge (she is the teacher, she knows, I don’t know), and, once again, by thepractice of silencing the voices of those who speak languages other than English,serving to preserve hegemonic relationships within the institutional context ofschools (your mom doesn’t speak English, she doesn’t have a say here), leavingELLs feeling inept and powerless, and taking away possibilities for them toexercise autonomy. In agreement with Delpit (1988) who argues that one ofthe tragedies of education is the manner by which the dialogue of people ofcolor have been silenced, we add that the devaluation of family voices mayhave insidious and undesirable effects on the family unit as a whole. As parentsor others trusted by children to be in positions of knowledge and authority aresilenced and undermined, ELLs could be left with little recourse for coping witheveryday challenges.

The third condition pertains to providing ELLs and their families with accessto meaningful participation of “school learning” activities. Here, the practiceof pairing ELLs with native speakers of English seemed to contribute to greatdependence of these students on their native-English-speaking counterparts (e.g.,Karen doing the paper for Octavio). Also, the structure of many classroompractices involving single answers (right and wrong) and fill-in-the-blanks leftlittle opportunities for the ELLs to participate meaningfully because they oftendid not understand the procedural elements that guided those activities and didnot have access to the language that conveyed the content of instruction (see also

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DaSilva Iddings, 2005). In addition, the practice of excluding ELLs and theirfamilies from school learning activities because of preconceived suppositionspresented a constraint on how these students came to negotiate their identities asintegral participants of school learning activities, as they were often talked aboutand not spoken with (e.g., the assumption that Octavio’s parents were illiterate).

CONCLUSION

With the basis for our findings and discussion grounded on socioculturaltheoretical arguments, we maintain that identities are ever-changing and subjectto negotiation. As Roth et al. (2004) reminds us, the “power to act (agency) is afundamental characteristic of human beings; it allows individuals not merely toreact to their material and social worlds, � � � but also enables their own transfor-mations” (p. 51). We also emphasize that identities are essentially embedded inthe historical, political, cultural, social, and interpersonal contexts and practicesone engages. With these arguments in mind and returning our attention tothe particular case of recent-immigrant Hispanic ELLs immersed in English-dominant classrooms, we assert that the possibilities for these students to exertwill and autonomy and to affirm themselves as active social agents (Giroux &McLaren, 1994) may be harshly abridged by school practices that strictly prede-termine ways of using language, ways of interacting, and ways of being that maynot in any way represent them nor reflect their out-of-school experiences (seealso, McCafferty, 2002); thus imposing rigid boundaries on home and schoolidentities. Although, clearly, the school and the teacher expressed good intentionsfor improving the achievement of these Hispanic students by conducting parent–teacher conferences and exploring ways the parents could help the children withtheir homework, our study demonstrates the complex nature of promoting ELLs’school achievement.

We suggest that mediating factors facilitating the integration of home andschool identities for these students become an integral part of classroom practices.These mediating factors should include teachers’ efforts to (a) create occasionsfor family and community lives to intersect with school experiences, (b) acceptlinguistic/cultural hybridity (e.g., combined use of the native language andEnglish for instruction, allowing code switching) as a viable and authenticway of being and communicating so that students may not learn to value onelanguage/culture over another, (c) structure classroom activities so as to promotea multiplicity of perspectives (i.e., voices), and (d) provide opportunities forHispanic ELLs (and their families) to adopt identities of competence in theclassroom. These mediations, and the like, may increase possibilities for studentsand their families to exercise agency. Moreover, they should permit them toweaken the demarcations that continue to separate their life histories and cultural

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repertoires from the institutional context of educational activity. Perhaps then,recent-immigrant Hispanic ELLs will begin to find deeper meaning and signifi-cations in their being at school, to exert a compelling voice in classrooms, andultimately, to transform their educational circumstances.

NOTE

1The term minority is defined here as referring to an ethnic group occupying a subordinateposition in a multiethnic society, suffering from the disabilities of prejudice and discrimination, andmaintaining a separate group identity.

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