Relying on a wealth of ethnographic and statistical data, this groundbreaking volume documents the many constraints and social forces that prevent Mexican-origin adolescents from constructing the kinds of networks that provide access to important forms of social support. Special attention is paid to those forms of support privileged youth normally receive and working-class youth do not, such as expert guidance regarding college opportunities. The author also reveals how some working-class ethnic minority youth become the exception, weaving social webs that promote success in school as well as empowering forms of resiliency. In both cases, the role of social networks in shaping young people’s chances is illuminated. “In this badly needed alternative to the individualism that pervades most debates about American education, Stanton-Salazar explores how Latino teenagers’ lives are embedded within social networks from home, community, and school. This grand work shows how school programs can confound or can draw from the strengths of such networks to build better lives for all.” —Bruce J. Biddle, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Sociology, University of Missouri–Columbia “A beautifully written and inspiring book that announces a new generation of Mexican/Latino scholars. . . . This is a book which tells the tale about Mexican/Latino adolescents but, in reality, it is a book about how working-class adolescent life is socially constructed, defined, and elaborated in the United States. An eloquent rendering, indeed.” —Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez, Presidential Chair in Anthropology, University of California, Riverside “Using creative theorizing and rigorous methodology, Manufacturing Hope and Despair illuminates brilliantly the supposed mystery of persistent race/class inequities in American society.” —Walter R. Allen, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 In recent years, immigration researchers have increasingly drawn on the concept of social capital and the role of social networks to understand the dynamics of immigrant experiences. How can they help to explain what brings migrants from some countries to others, or why members of different immigrant groups experience widely varying outcomes in their community settings, occupational opportunities, and educational outcomes? This timely book examines the major issues in social capital research, showing how economic and social contexts shape networks in the process of migration, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the study of international migration. By drawing on a broad range of examples from major immigrant groups, the book takes network-based social capital theory out of the realm of abstraction and reveals the insights it offers. Written in a readily comprehensible, jargon-free style, Immigrant Networks and Social Capital is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in international migration, networks, and political and social theory in general. It provides both a theoretical synthesis for professional social scientists and a clear introduction to network approaches to social capital for students, policy-makers, and anyone interested in contemporary social trends and issues.

A team of expert academics and practitioners examines the life circumstances that impact Latino/a youth growing up in two cultures—their native culture and that of the United States. What effect does growing up in an ethnic minority and perhaps in an immigrant family have on development? That is the overarching question Latina and Latino Children's Mental Health sets out to answer. The work examines all of the myriad physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors that undermine or support healthy development in Latino American children, from biology to economics to public policy. The first volume of this two-volume set focuses on early-life experiences and the second on youth/adolescent issues, treating such topics as children's development of a sense of self, development of linguistic skills, peer relationships, sexual orientation, and physical development. The work analyzes familial relationships, often an important resource that helps young people build resilience despite the stresses of migration. And it looks at patterns of behavior, social status, and social-goal orientations that differentiate Latino/a children and adolescents from their African American and European American peers.

This is a timely second edition of the enormously significant book which changed how teachers and community activists view their own practice. This edition concludes with personal essays by teachers, professors, and community activists explaining the direct impact which Culture and Power in the Classroom has had on their lives. Unlike many texts that discuss educational failure, this book provides a historical context for understanding underachievement in our nation. Thoroughly revised to include the new thinking on diversity and learning, this edition includes a new chapter on assessment and the brain. This second edition will be welcomed by previous and new readers alike, and will help influence the approach of a new generation of teachers, whether they are based in schools, colleges or community centres.

This collection examines the ongoing social dynamic between peer realtions and academic achievement. Prominent scholars present six new studies and recommendations for policy and practice. The contributors are: Livier F. Bejinex, Diane Friedlaender, Nicole Hidalgo, Dianna Gutierres-Becha, Clayton A. Hurd, Heather Lewis-Charp, Susan O'Hara, Jason Duque Raley, Cony Rolon, Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar, James Diego Vigil, and Hanh Cao Yu.

Throughout U.S. history, education policies, practices, and politics have been described and tested to yield empirical data, often with little attempt to place findings in a larger theoretical infrastructure that could provide them with increased explanatory, critical, or even liberatory power. This collection fills that void by taking the point of view that neither research nor theory alone is adequate to the task of social explanation. Instead, Jean Anyon and her collaborators argue that they imbricate and instantiate one another, forming and informing each other as the inquiry process unfolds.

Despite their citizenship and English monolingualism, Mexican Americans have long been known to remain largely working class, which, academically, has meant that they tend to be mostly high school graduates, with low rates of college attendance and completion. Attempting to understand this phenomenon, Five Generations of a Mexican American Family in Los Angeles chronicles the home, work and school lives of the author's multigenerational family throughout the twentieth century. Using oral histories of 33 members across five generations, the Fuentes story illuminates the interaction between race, ethnicity and class at home, in the labor market and in schools, which circumscribe the opportunity and resources (or lack thereof) for academic success. Generally, findings show that these factors work together to reproduce the family's social standing over generations. Equally important, the analysis reveals how the persistence and strength of the Fuentes' heritage cultural values (buena educaci-n and familism) have insulated them from the continued threat of racial discrimination and economic hardship in American life. The Fuentes story provides the reader with a keen view of the process by which Fuentes' moved from immigrants to ethnic Americans, and shows how they have gracefully survived the harsh and unpredictable nature of being of a racial minority and the working class.