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Mexican American Educational Stagnation: The Role of Generational Status, Parental Narratives, and Educator Messages

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Race, Equity, and Education

Abstract

Research on Mexican American educational incorporation has shown educational stagnation between the second and third generations. Whether educational stagnation is attributable to generational differences in parental narratives that affect the academic motivation between members of the second and third generation, or negative school conditions that lead to their low educational attainment regardless of generational status, remains in question. Utilizing 41 interviews, I examine how the parental narratives and high school experiences of Mexican Americans differ by generational status, that is, for the second and third generations. My findings demonstrate that both second- and third-generation participants received encouraging parental messages to pursue higher education, regardless of parents’ nativity. Therefore, generational differences in parental narratives inadequately account for educational stagnation. Furthermore, my findings substantiate the role of educator messages in shaping the educational trajectories of Mexican American youth. I find no generational differences in how Mexican Americans perceived and responded to their racialized treatment in high school, whether they attended a diverse or majority-Latino institution. In all, I argue that educator messages are equally or more important than parental narratives in shaping Mexican American educational incorporation.

A version of this chapter was originally published as an article with the following citation: Salgado, C. D. (2015). Racial lessons: Parental narratives and secondary schooling experiences among second- and third-generation Mexican Americans. Race and Social Problems, 7(1), 60–72.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The second generation refers to the U.S.-born children of immigrants and the third generation refers to the U.S.-born grandchildren of immigrants.

  2. 2.

    While most quantitave data does not permit disaggregation by generational status beyond the third generation, Telles and Ortiz (2008) find that Mexican Americans’ limited educational progress continues into the fourth generation. I use the term educational stagnation to refer to Mexican Americans’ limited educational progress.

  3. 3.

    Educator messages refer to the messages that students receive from teachers, counselors, and administrators about their academic ability, worth, and potential.

  4. 4.

    I report educators’ race/ethnicity to specify how respondents percieved educators’ negative treatment.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Armida Ornelas, Vilma Ortiz, Ariana J. Valle, Laura E. Enriquez, Karina Chavarria, Irene I. Vega, the Race and Immigration Research Group at UCLA, and the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 264 Haines Hall, 375 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1551, USA

    Casandra D. Salgado

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  1. Casandra D. Salgado
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Correspondence to Casandra D. Salgado .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Pedro Noguera

  2. Steinhardt School, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Jill Pierce

  3. Metropolitan Center for Research on Equi, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Roey Ahram

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Salgado, C.D. (2016). Mexican American Educational Stagnation: The Role of Generational Status, Parental Narratives, and Educator Messages. In: Noguera, P., Pierce, J., Ahram, R. (eds) Race, Equity, and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23772-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23772-5_11

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23772-5

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