Episode 07: Education

# AnthroAlert

## Episode 07: Education

Originally aired 7 July 2017 on bullsradio.org

In this episode, guest Dr. Rebecca A. Campbell discusses the topic of education in an increasingly global climate.

Dr. Rebecca A. Campbell is a researcher at the University of Connecticut working on a National Science Foundation project that aims to understand cultural models and social networks and how they relate to success for women and underrepresented minorities in diverse engineering undergraduate degree programs. She is in the process of disseminating her dissertation research, which looked at issues of equity for racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups in elementary schools in the Florida Heartland.

As a result of globalization and modern society, people are moving to new places and their acceptance into new societies often engenders struggles. To look at how people are socialized into lifeways of more or less opportunity, I conducted research in the Florida Heartland during 2014-2015. I conducted a school ethnography of two elementary schools in a Florida county I refer to as Central, which has agricultural and religious roots that run deep. The agricultural heart of the county has been and currently draws people to the area for work, which can raise language and citizenship issues. The past incorporation (or lack of) of American Indians, blacks and African Americans, Latinos, and whites is also relevant to opportunities for people from various groups in the area today. Among my major findings are:

1. There is rich linguistic diversity in Central County, Florida with 5% of mothers and 5% of fathers of the 1,330 students I surveyed in the schools speaking an indigenous Mexican language (including Mixtec, Zapotec, Bajo, Nahuatl, Trique, Huasteco, and Tarasco). This raises relevant issues of linguistic accessibility, given the Migrant Advocates working in the school system speak Spanish/English. This linguistic diversity is not found in school records, as registrars sometimes re-form the language of students and parents in records by recording “Spanish” when parents report speaking indigenous languages (such as Trique, Nahuatl, Mixtec, or Zapotec).

2. Connected to the first point, the schools (and state of Florida) actively erase the racial (American Indian) and linguistic identity of their students through reporting processes and registration practices. For instance, at the middle school I observed, I found that according to school records, 10% of children were American Indian. However, the state reports and the school operates on that notion that around/less than 1% of students are American Indian (because according to the Florida Department of Education and Central Schools, you can only be Latino, not Latino and a member of a racial group).

3. Migrant Advocates aid families, especially those who are mixed-status, Mexican American Indians, with access to healthcare by providing them with information on clinics that will accept undocumented people, take cash, and offer reasonable rates. Migrant Advocates also provide information to women suffering from domestic violence and mental health issues and also take children to eye appointments. This is important because current research is lacking on health information for Latino families that are mixed-status and indigenous.

4. The schools do a good job at offering some programs that meet needs of minority students and enrich the education of all students; increased program accessibility would ensure that the benefits of these programs are maximized. School and District employees are unaware that there is a significant population of Mexican American Indians in their schools, and therefore miss out on opportunities to better serve their students through more culturally appropriate pedagogy. These realities, coupled with racial, ethnic, and linguistic difference in access to school resources, socialize children into differing futures in the local county. I offer specific applications on how the issues raised in my research can be addressed.

## Podcast link

https://anthroalert.tumblr.com/post/166543296751/anthroalert-episode-07-education-originally

## Video link

https://youtu.be/ioBTyUk8WKQ

## Album art photo credit:

Oliver Thompson

https://flic.kr/p/9zVPYB

CC License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

superscheeli

https://flic.kr/p/qMre86

CC License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

## Intro music credit:

Awel by stefsax

http://ccmixter.org/files/stefsax/7785

CC License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

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