Research Question:
How have educators over time explored the importance and success of first generation students in the United States, and how has this had an impact on their achievement compared to students who are also multilingual but have not grown up under these favorable conditions?
Relevance:
Recent evidence shows that first generation students have a significant advantage in achievement because their parents transmit values of motivation which lead them to perform better academically. At the same time, many first generation students, particularly in poor, urban areas may be disadvantaged simply because of their family background brings forth many setbacks in academia.
I first became interested in this topic early in the semester when learning in Education Reform: Past & Present how prominent one’s home life is in deciding one’s success. I grew up in a small town in Connecticut, raised by two Italian parents who immigrated to the United States 26 years ago. I began speaking Italian when I was born, and still hear stories today about how I walked into Pre-K and spent the first week trying to engage in conversation in Italian with other children, all the while receiving many blank stares. I think for a long time there has been a stigma associated with first generation students, or immigrant students in general – one that elicits they will be at a disadvantage because they may have to work twice as hard to do as well as a U.S.-born student. However, while my parents were never able to teach me proper English as they have never taken an English class, I lived each day knowing that the sacrifices they made to stay in the U.S. were for my sister and me. I was taught to put everything into what I did and to be strong in the face of defeat. I learned these values- bravery, courage, a strong work ethic – because I watched my parents exemplify them before my eyes as I watched them lived in a country they still, at times, find to be foreign. These principles transcended into my life in academia – I learned to put 100% into all I do, and thus, while never having the kind of parents who knew about the college process, understood the United States schooling system, or were able to help me with my schoolwork, I did well because I knew that I was being supported by them in other ways, because they had taught me through their actions how striving for greatness can pay off.
I believe this situation is not only limited to my own experience, but also showcased in the experiences of many other first generation students who have been exposed and surrounded by a different culture, way of life, and a myriad of motivation from the sacrifices and efforts of their parents. These social factors that are embedded in the home of most of these first generation students truly can drive them to work harder in school and ultimately succeed more than U.S.-born students because they have that additional weight on their shoulders. Dr. Hao, who was interviewed for an article in NBCLatino which studied this phenomenon, stated: “Immigrants who come to the U.S. are self-selective; they overcome difficulties to create a better life, and foreign-born immigrant parents transmit this motivation, values and expectations to their children,” she explains. Children absorb these expectations and their actions demonstrate a ‘mom and dad made all this sacrifice for me, I better do okay’ type of behavior” (Lilley 1). This subject, commonly referred to as the “immigrant paradox”, should be studied further because over a quarter of U.S. students are first generation Americans, and they account for some of the most successful of students who have left academia and gone into the workforce to become leaders in the world. Their contributions to the U.S. labor force help to boost the economy and ultimately benefit the nation as a whole.
This being said, it would be a mistake to assume that all first generation students succeed more in education than their American peers. There are many who, because of their family background or their location, success is not in the cards. This exemplifies the other side of the story, one where students may experience setbacks because they were not brought up in an environment that was conducive to the American way. Over time, programs have been put in place to branch out to these students to assist them in school.
Research Strategy:
Once I had examined my own experience with the theory I’m looking to test, I did a simple Google search to see what I could find. The first article I read was published by NBC Latino which performed the first study to prove that first generation immigrants normally do better than U.S.-born children. I then researched a number of journals and reports that furthered and broadened my subject matter. I came across studies that explained the correlation between success and first generation youth that delved into the complexities of family life.
My plan in continuing to research this topic is to find articles and reports that rebut the notion that first generation students tend to succeed by expressing the ways that some of these success stories are not typically found in urban areas where poverty is great and success is rare as well as to observe the way educations have looked at first generation students. I will research for reports that express the way first generation students have been treated in schools over time and the ways in which the assimilation of culture affects not only the first generation student, but the rest of the classroom itself.
I will look back into Paul Tough’s Whatever it Takes and use some of his examples of addressing how the home truly is the number one factor in deciding one’s success in education and life. Ultimately, I would like to look at how over time these two competing points have transformed to show how the multilingualism of a person, their experiences, and immigrant parents have a significant affect, both good and bad, on students.
Bibliography:
- Christensen, Gayle, and Petra Stanat. Language, Policies and Practices for Helping Immigrants and Second-generation Students Succeed. Rep. N.p.: NALDIC, 2007. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
- This report will strengthen the second theory I am looking at – one that sees the negatives that evolve in education in the lives of first generation students. It gives a great historical analysis to express the challenges first generation students face.
2. Kao, Grace, and Marta Tienda. “Optimism and Achievement: The Educational Performance of Immigrant Youth.” (1995): n. pag. University of Pennslyvania SelectedWorks. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
- This article took my research one step further by explaining in depth what the NCBLatino article tested. It gives a lot of detail by articulating the differences between immigrant families and American families. It also explains the reasoning behind how first generation youth succeed over some of their other peers.
3. Lilley, Sandra. “Study: First Generation Immigrant Children Do Better in School than US-born kids.” NBC Latino. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
- This short article and study initially sparked my interest in studying this topic further. It gives statistics on the number of first generation immigrants in the U.S. and discussing the study that was done to prove how the “immigrant mentality” has helped to further the lives of first generation students in education.
4. Tough, Paul. Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, Co. Print.
- I will use Tough’s book to bring out the theories that prove how significant home life is in deciding one’s achievement in education.
As we discussed, you may wish to reframe your research question around a comparison of different specific immigrant student/family experiences of schooling at a specific time period. You were interested in Stephen Lassonde’s in-depth study of New Haven Italian students and families from 1870-1940 (see my review essay and also his book in Trinity Library)
Lassonde, Stephen. Learning to Forget : Schooling and Family Life in New Haven’s Working Class, 1870-1940. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
Dougherty, Jack. “Learning to Forget: A Rite of Adolescence?” Reviews in American History 34, no. 2 (2006): 201–7. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30031556.
But the advantage of framing a comparison is that it would give you something new to analyze and write about, rather than simply rehashing Lassonde’s fine book. We discussed three possibilities:
1) look at Italians in two different places at the same time (eg Covello and others on NYC)
2) look at Italians and another ethnic group at the same time/place (see example of one education chapter about Poles, Italians, and Af Americans in Lives of their Own, John Bodnar et al)
3) compare Italians in New Haven up to 1940 with a more recent wave of immigrant students in places similar to that city, to see how schools have (or have not) adapted
As we spoke further about the research you’ve already done above, approach #3 makes sense. Your new tentative RQ sounds like:
How have the families of first-generation immigrants experienced schooling, and how have schools adapted to their needs, for Italians in New Haven in the early 20thC and also (fill in the blank)?
If you want to start by looking for other recent immigrant experiences in New Haven, then consider searching the New Haven press:
New Haven Independent search back to 2005
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/
see also
http://www.nhregister.com/
and see also our other search strategy databases