Best practices and biggest obstacles in educating Hispanic migrant students

UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Paula Gullion Lewis (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
Advisor
Karen Wetherill

Abstract: Hispanics are now the largest minority ethnic group in the United States. Many Hispanics come to this country seeking migrant employment, moving from place to place, job to job. Unfortunately, children of Hispanic migrants often encounter great difficulties in our educational settings. Likewise, American educators generally experience problems in offering quality education to Hispanic migrant students. Research has outlined the factors that are the greatest barriers to educating Hispanic migrant students. The broad categories of obstacles as defined by literature are language, culture, lack of parental involvement, and mobility. Educators of these students are better prepared to instruct them when these obstacles are taken into consideration and addressed with a number of changes in both policies and instructional practices. This study focused on schools within two school systems in rural southeastern North Carolina. This research revealed the extent to which teachers recognized and experienced obstacles to their instruction of Hispanic migrant students. The study also identified the current practices teachers found to be effective as well as their recommendations for changes for improvement. Results here support the conclusions that there are several factors that contribute toward migrant educational difficulties, the most overwhelming of which is the language barrier. While many practices that literature recommends to combat the obstacles of Hispanic migrant education were found to be in place and effective, other suggestions for improvement have not been implemented. Specific recommendations for change have been made based on the findings of both the current literature and the research conducted.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
Children of immigrants--Education--United States, Children of migrant laborers--Education--United States, Mexican Americans--Education
Subjects
Children of migrant laborers -- Education -- United States
Children of immigrants -- Education -- United States
Mexican Americans -- Education

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