Essence of good teaching not lost in analysis of Latino students’ challenges

Too often in educational policy-making or research, teachers’ voices go unheard. For whatever reasons, those who spend the most time with students are often the last ones to be asked their opinion.

Gilda L. Ochoa, associate professor of Sociology and Chicana/o Studies at Pomona College in California, addresses this gap by directing her latest work on interviews with 18 different Latina/o teachers in Southern California, ranging in age from 25 to 77 and having between one and 41 years of experience.

Ochoa’s goal is to gain insight into the education of Latina/o students directly from those educators who have the most experience and similar backgrounds in the educational system. The teachers describe their own educational experiences, family backgrounds, decisions to become teachers, and, of course, their own teaching experiences. While Ochoa gives each of the teachers individual attention, her main focus is to identify trends that shed light on the way Latino students are taught and treated in American schools.

The teachers’ personal stories are often filled with many challenges to succeeding in school and becoming professionals in a career that has often been underrepresented by minorities.

“There is a long history of programs aimed at Latina/o families, especially mothers, under the pretense that families need to be improved: they need to learn how to speak English, prepare nutritious meals and raise their children,” writes Ochoa.

While these goals may be worthwhile, the assumptions that are inherent in them indicate what Ochoa calls a “cultural deficiency perspective,” that misrepresents Latinas/os and perpetuates a viewpoint that it is the students and parents of Latinos who must change, not the educational systems.

Ochoa points to cultural differences in the educational system that contradict what many Latino families teach their children. The emphasis in American society and its educational systems on acquiring values of individualism, independence, and leaving one’s family over collectivism, interdependence and familismo come into play again and again in the testimonials of the teachers in the book. The push to assimilate often creates pressure on those Latinos who succeed in school. Ochoa asks in one chapter title, “What do we give up for an education?”

Ochoa listens carefully to the teachers she interviews and, as a first-generation Latina college graduate with two daughters who are teachers, she can relate to their stories. She draws from the collective experiences to make several recommendations for improving the educational systems, including offering more support for Latino students, undoing the academic tracking in many schools that too often divides students along racial lines under the premise that certain kids are more “college material” than others. She also recommends an expansion of the curriculum to include multicultural and power-awareness lessons that will help empower Latina/o students as they struggle to navigate a system that too often ignores their needs.

What Ochoa does best is listen. She lets the teachers speak about their experiences to put a human face on policies and practices. She avoids judgment, blame and oversimplification. She recognizes that improving the education of Latina/o students is a complex problem that requires multiple stakeholders and a collective effort on the part of those involved. By having a broad perspective and a desire to learn from those with first-hand knowledge of the issues, she provides us some great lessons. That is the essence of good teaching.

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Martin Winchester is a book critic for The Monitor. He is an English teacher at IDEA College Preparatory in Donna. Send comments to mwinchester@ideapublicschools.org.

Learning From Latino Teachers

Gilda L. Ochoa

PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons

PRICE: $24.95 / PAGES: 267

3 out of 5