Bridging the differences: Cultural background of Mexican students entering U.S. schools
Making the transition from life in Mexico to life in the United States can be difficult for students of Mexican origin. Schools and teachers can make that transition easier by understanding students' cultural backgrounds and by employing a few simple strategies.
Students transferring from Mexican schools face difficult stresses and barriers. In many cases, they are entering a new mindset characterized by transnationalism in which their family maintains strong family connections to Mexico, but they must also build a life in a new culture and a new language in the U.S. Often Mexican families settle in places where family and friends from their Mexican town of origin reside, so they draw on these connections to forge a co-ethnic community in the U.S. If their legal status as immigrants is in question, then the added stress of this difficult mode of incorporation into the U.S. may add to their struggles in the acculturation process.
Life in rural Mexico
The starting point for any discussion of cultural differences must begin by emphasizing that the majority of Mexican students coming to the U.S. are from rural areas. Life in rural Mexico is difficult in part because of the lack of access to public services, including the same educational opportunities that a student may find in urban areas. At the same time, it may be argued that life is less stressful than in urban areas. The child lives, studies, works, and plays in an environment where he or she is constantly surrounded by a large, extended family and people known by the child. Time may not be measured by clocks. Dietary habits, including the use of utensils, are not the same as for city dwellers. People from rural areas in Mexico are sometimes ridiculed by people from larger towns or cities, who may laugh at their speech, clothing, or mannerisms.
Bruna, Chamberlin, Lewis, and Ceballos write about rural Mexico as it relates to incoming Mexican students from Pueblo, Mexico, a poor, rural community. Remittances from families who have immigrated to the U.S. have improved the standard of living in Pueblo, but, while more prevalent than before, electricity and piped water still do not exist in every home. Due to the history of poverty in the town and the need for children’s labor in subsistence farming, education has not reached a priority value for the community. In their discussion of incoming students from Pueblo to a town in Iowa, Bruna, et. al. focus on a science teacher in Iowa and his ways of building connections between the students’ backgrounds and the curriculum.1 The teacher must first understand the lives of the students before building those critical connections.
Socio-cultural and school-level differences
- Respect for elders
- The treatment of adults and superiors, including parents and teachers, differs with Mexican students socialized in a tradition of respect for those older. The most common misunderstanding prompted by this cultural difference is the lowering of eyes in the presence of an adult or a person of authority. Learned as a mandatory behavior to show respect in Mexico, in the United States, it may be perceived as disrespectful and indicative of guilt.
- Diet and food
- Differences exist not only in the taste and textures of the food, but also the hours and quantities consumed. Many students are accustomed to a light breakfast, a snack at about 11:00 a.m., and a heavy meal at home between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.
- Climate
- Depending upon the point of origin in Mexico, the time of year they arrive, and the destination area in the United States, families may have difficulty acclimating to differences in temperature or humidity. Some students are from semi-arid mountainous regions where it is never hot. Others may be from a warm climate and not used to cooler temperatures.
- Gender roles
- Differences in male-female roles are noted, especially for children from rural Mexico, where boys and men traditionally do manual labor while girls and women take care of the home.
- Home literacy
- Parents of children of Mexican origin may not have had educational opportunities available to them. Some parents are probably illiterate, which deepens the communication gap between school and home, making it difficult to help their children adjust to the new school or help them with their assignments.
- School facilities, procedures, and policies
- There are a number of significant differences between schools in Mexico and schools in the U.S. They include:
- Sensory overload: The tendency in the United States to cover walls and available spaces with learning aids creates an overabundance of stimuli for a student from a spartan school in rural Mexico.
- Lack of familiarity with computers and other equipment.
- Riding a school bus, eating in a cafeteria, renting and opening a locker.
- Changing classrooms at the middle and high school levels; in Mexico, the teachers change classrooms.
- Behavior of faculty and staff: Behaviors shaped by cultural differences and fear of lawsuits may lead Mexican students to believe that United States teachers do not like them. For most Latinos, including Mexicans, the “personal distance,” or the culturally determined distance maintained between people, is much smaller than for Anglos. Mexican students and their parents may misinterpret your maneuvering to keep a “comfortable” space between you and them.
- Distance between home and school: Students often live at much greater distances from their United States schools than they lived in Mexico from their rural or urban schools. They are far from home, and may not know where their parents are working, all of which may contribute to their anxiety.
- Differences in minimum schooling requirements and expectations: In Mexico, secundaria (the equivalent of 7th, 8th, and 9th grades) has only been required since 1993, and school attendance is required only until 14 years of age. As a result, parents from Mexico may neither be aware of the compulsory attendance laws in the United States nor understand the expectation that everyone should complete high school. 2
How can teachers and schools bridge the differences?
Changes in living conditions, climate, and food, combined with the language barrier, nostalgia for relatives and friends, and differences in the schools all make life difficult for incoming Mexican students. The following strategies will help educators assist these students and their families:
- Teach staff and faculty how to pronounce the most common names and provide at least a minimal amount of Spanish language training.
- Implement an orientation for new students and parents, which should include the following:
- A tour of the school including classrooms, bathrooms, and the cafeteria; introductions to key staff, including those who speak Spanish; and bus stops
- Bathroom protocol
- Finding the locker and learning how to use the lock
- Key phrases in English, such as “May I go to the bathroom?”
Mexican students could help implement the orientation.
- Prepare an information packet for a new student’s teachers, counselor, and administrators. This might include a description of the student’s family, home town in Mexico, academic background, and interests.
- Parents of English-speaking students could also be given an orientation to cultural differences. English-speaking parents may expect interactions with Spanish-speaking families to mirror their interactions with English-speaking parents. Some Mexican families may not be accustomed to a child playing at a friend’s house after school or attending a classmate’s birthday party, for example. Mexican families may be used to socializing primarily with extended family and may not be at ease with their child going to a relatively unknown family’s house to play. It may take time to foster friendships outside of school, especially given the language barrier for parents who are not bilingual, but this rapport can still be built at school activities and can extend outside of school over time.
