Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Immigrants

Mexican Youth in the Borderlands: The Construction of Social Identity

Purpose The educational crisis among the Mexican origin community in the U.S. is more complicated than attributing the problem to poverty, immigration status, or cultural differences. The lack of a general pattern of educational outcomes by generational status, for example, points to the need to consider the complexities of Mexican origin students’ social identity and the implications for schooling. Thus, social identity theory is used to provide the framework for understanding the interaction between the social categorizations of the self, the school context, and behavior. In addition, Chicana feminist theory is used to address the historical, cultural, and political context unique to Mexican origin students. This paper demonstrates how the understanding of what it means to be Mexican can vary from one individual to another or from one context to another. Furthermore, this paper explores how everyday school experiences shape Mexican origin students’ social identities and how, in turn, those social identities influence educational outcomes.

Method This paper analyzes student interviews from the Student Life in High School Project; a longitudinal study of the transition to high school, which followed 98 students of Latino, Polish, or African American ancestry attending three different schools. The high school used for this paper is a school with a 100% Mexican origin population. The interviews were coded and analyzed using grounded theory methodology in order to identify common and varying themes. In addition, this paper uses case studies to document student trajectories and how their social identities develop and change over time.

Results The case study analysis illustrates the flexible nature of students’ academic identities and how schools play a critical role in shaping social identity and meanings around being Mexican. For example, an immigrant student experienced a dramatic positive change in her academic performance over the transition to high school despite prior poor performance. The high school context constructed her immigrant identity in much more positive light than her elementary school creating an atmosphere of support and belief in her academic skills. Other themes identified include the role of peers in negotiating school context and academic identities, the role of teacher relationships during transitions, and students’ complex view of their ethnic/racial identities.

Implications This paper informs social work practice in the schools and on a policy level in an effort to address the serious problem of educational failure among Latinos; which affects other outcomes such as health and poverty. Social workers have an important role to play in current debates around school reform efforts, which often neglect social and psychological aspects of schooling. This paper is concerned with how the school environment works to define social categories in ways that can be oppressive, or conversely, empowering, and what meaning students give to their experiences in school given their social locations. An understanding of how schools can shape the social identities of students and the consequences those identities have for learning can help to inform both school reform efforts and daily social work practice with Mexican youth.

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