Description
Book SynopsisFifteen years ago, Concha Delgado-Gaitan began literacy research in Carpinteria, California. At that time, Mexican immigrants who labored in nurseries, factories, and housekeeping, had almost no voice in how their children were educated. Committed to participative research, Delgado-Gaitan collaborated with the community to connect family, school, and community. Regular community gatherings gave birth to the Comité de Padres Latinos. Refusing the role of the victim, the Comité paticipants organized to reach out to everyone in the community, not just other Latino families. Bound by their language, cultural history, hard work, respect, pain, and hope, they created possibilities that supported the learning of Latino students, who until then had too often dropped out or shown scant interest in school. In a society that accentuates individualism and independence, these men and women look to their community for leadership, support, and resources for children. The Power of Community is a critical work that shows how communities that pull together and offer caring ears, eyes, and hands, can ensure that their children thriveacademically, socially, and personally. It offers a fresh approach and workable solution to the problems that face schools today.
Trade ReviewThis ethnography documents how complex cultural processes that occur within Mexican immigrant communities, and between immigrant communities and Mexico are implicated in the success of children and their schools. Though faced with these challenges along with substantial cultural, language, and structural barriers, the people of COPLA persevere to unite the parents, teachers, and school administrators of Carpenteria around the common goal of improving the education of children. At a time in our history when the gap between teachers and parents, and the problems of low achievement in many schools with culturally diverse populations persists, this ethnography documents how collective action taken by adults on behalf of children can create a sense of 'belonging and connectedness' which can transform both school and community. Concha Delgado-Gaitan has chronicled a timely and much needed tale of hope. -- Jeffrey Lewis, University of Wisconsin, Madison
A profound achievement. The reflexivity that is part of both Concha Delgado-Gaitan's ethnographic research and her writing provides a model of mutual respect and trust between researchers and researched which future studies of community language, literacy, and education would do well to heed. -- Marcia Farr, University of Illinois at Chicago
A valuable ethnography of the educational challenges and successes experienced by children and their parents in a Mexican immigrant community in the United States. * Journal Of International Migration and Integration *
The Power of Community is essential reading for educators, activists, and community development experts who want to understand the diversity and complexity of immigrant Mexican families' struggles, challenges, and strategies to provide their children with a good education in an educational system that does not address their value and needs. The book shows that meaningful change and empowerment are possible from the grass-roots level, and gives a model for other communities' self-empowerment. -- Karen Ann Watson-Gegeo --, University of California, Davis
Table of ContentsChapter 1 An Ethnography of Immigrants Chapter 2 Cultural Brokers in a Growing Community Chapter 3 Forming a Collective Voice Chapter 4 Dynamic Connections Chapter 5 Malleable Identities Chapter 6 Knowledge as Power Chapter 7 Envisioning Possibilities Chapter 8 Time, Place, and Power Relationships Chapter 9 The Story and the Storyteller Chapter 10 Reflections Chapter 11 Notes Chapter 12 Bibliography Chapter 13 Index
