This book elucidates the amazing life journeys of academically successful migrant students. Most literature on Hispanic students - especially the children of migrant farm workers who have been referred to as the 'invisible children' or the children of 'ghost workers' - has focused on the sociocultural factors that have contributed to their low level of achievement, high attrition rates, and other academic failures. Such studies lead to a deficit model, portraying Hispanic children as deficient in a variety of ways, and through its negative focus perpetuates these failures.Offering vivid case studies of successful students, this book offers a corrective, helping teachers, education students, and researchers understand the factors that lead to success in minority language children. The authors develop the lessons of student success stories into recommendations for schools and for educational policy. Readers gain from this book the stories of real students, the challenges they faced, and the means by which students and schools may overcome language and cultural barriers to educational success.

This book elucidates the amazing life journeys of academically successful migrant students. Most literature on Hispanic students - especially the children of migrant farm workers who have been referred to as the 'invisible children' or the children of 'ghost workers' - has focused on the sociocultural factors that have contributed to their low level of achievement, high attrition rates, and other academic failures. Such studies lead to a deficit model, portraying Hispanic children as deficient in a variety of ways, and through its negative focus perpetuates these failures.Offering vivid case studies of successful students, this book offers a corrective, helping teachers, education students, and researchers understand the factors that lead to success in minority language children. The authors develop the lessons of student success stories into recommendations for schools and for educational policy. Readers gain from this book the stories of real students, the challenges they faced, and the means by which students and schools may overcome language and cultural barriers to educational success.

The New Americans describes the life of immigrants and transnationals in the Lower Rio Grande Valley where poverty is the 'training ground' for people's resilience and capacity to adapt to different social and economic settings. At the heart of their ability to survive and succeed is their ability to form a strong personal and ethnic identity that allows them to accommodate new life styles without losing their self-respect. Trueba shows how the resilience and diverse cultural experiences of transnationals and immigrants enable them to succeed in school and in their work and communities. Trueba articulates Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy with the sociohistorical school of psychology led by Vygotsky, theories that are complementary and enhanced by the analysis of instructional activities. The book is enriched by exercises suggested at the end of each chapter, by a glossary, and by questions for final examinations that permit instructors to measure student proficiency.

The New Americans describes the life of immigrants and transnationals in the Lower Rio Grande Valley where poverty is the "training ground" for people's resilience and capacity to adapt to different social and economic settings. At the heart of their ability to survive and succeed is their ability to form a strong personal and ethnic identity that allows them to accommodate new life styles without losing their self-respect. Trueba shows how the resilience and diverse cultural experiences of transnationals and immigrants enable them to succeed in school and in their work and communities. Trueba articulates Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy with the sociohistorical school of psychology led by Vygotsky, theories that are complementary and enhanced by the analysis of instructional activities. The book is enriched by exercises suggested at the end of each chapter, by a glossary, and by questions for final examinations that permit instructors to measure student proficiency.