Urban schools and immigrant families: Teacher perspectives |
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| Authors: | Thomas D Gougeon |
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| Institution: | (1) Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Policy and Administrative Studies, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., T2N 1N4 Calgary, AB, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Teachers of two urban senior high schools talk about barriers and bridges in communicating with English as Second Language (ESL) minority students and their parents. The paper focuses on student, parent, and school characteristics with respect to intercultural communication. The typical ESL student is characterized to be alienated, displaced, and in denial of other cultures. Typical parents are distrustful of Western ways, resistant to adopting new values, patriarchal, yet dependent on their children. The school system is characterized as ethnocentric and uncommitted to providing equal services to all students including ESL students. The paper then focuses on student, parent, and school needs to enhance intercultural communication effectiveness. ESL students need to feel connected at many levels of society and to develop social communication skiils, self-empowerment, and greater sensitivity to other cultural minorities. Parents need a greater connection with the school system, a greater understanding of the tensions between their culture and the mainstream culture, greater collaboration skills, and less dependency upon their children as interpreters. Members of schools systems need to develop policies that reflect a greater awareness of intercultural problems and a greater commitment to equal educational opportunities.This study is partially supported by the Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies (AACES). A version of this paper was originally presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, April 1992. |
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