The educational experience of Hispanic immigrants in the United States: integration through marginalization

Professional School Counselor Perceptions of Systemic Barriers Affecting Latino Students: Implications for Socially Just Preparation and Practice

“…Consistent with prior literature (Stromquist, 2011), these systematic barriers ranged from conflict (both intra-and intercultural) to school-family communications and attitudes to issues of language barriers and documentation status. It is important to note that two school counselors demonstrated a significant lack of understanding of the systemic barriers facing Latino youth.…”

“…Although deemed important to Latino youths' well being (Neblett, Rivas-Drake, & Umaña-Taylor, 2012), the cultural practices and beliefs of Latinos are often inconsistent with the dominant practices in U.S. mainstream culture (Stromquist, 2011). This creates challenges and marginalization for Latino students to successfully navigate the individualistic values and practices within the U.S. education system.…”

“…For example, K-12 schools are incorporating classes on multicultural education to enhance student respect for diversity within the classroom (Stromquist, 2011). Additionally, counseling professionals are reinforcing protective factors such as self-esteem to combat issues of oppression against Latinos (Edwards & Romero, 2008).…”

“…Furthermore, levels of acculturation and cultural identity have been shown to predict academic functioning in Latino students, such that Latino youth who are less acculturated to U.S. mainstream values tend to have lower academic success (Guyll, Mado, Prieto & Scherr, 2010). Low levels of academic success among Latino students may originate from a variety of sociocultural and ethnic reasons, many of which are still prominent in our diverse and contemporary society, including language barriers, school-family communication barriers, and oppression and discrimination (Stromquist, 2011).…”

“…Latino youth represent one of the largest growing ethnic populations of all school-aged children in the United States (Passel, Cohn, & Lopez, 2011;Stromquist, 2011). In 2010, Latino students ages 17 and below compromised 17.1 million children, or 23.1% of this age group nationwide (Passel et al, 2011).…”