ERIC Number: EJ1031183
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1745-7823
EISSN: N/A
Hidden Knowing of Working-Class Transnational Mexican Families in Schools: Bridge-Building, Nepantlera Knowers
Kasun, G. Sue
Ethnography and Education, v9 n3 p313-327 2014
Reframing immigrant families as transnationals, this article highlights transnational families' ways of knowing. This study is based on a three-year, multi-sited critical ethnographic set of case studies of four families in the USA and Mexico. Transnational families in this study demonstrated Nepantlera knowing, or liminal, bridge-building knowing which continually endures remarkable transformations through oftentimes ambiguous and conflicting circumstances. Families experienced the world as liminal knowers, or people who lived the ambiguities of being in-between and as shape-shifters who navigated that in-betweenness. They also knew the world through their bridge-building efforts and through the risks, pain, and satisfaction of bridge-building work. Families managed multiple tensions of knowing in such an in-between space, and they were path-breaking in the ways they reached out to disparate groups by bridging differences. This article includes recommendations for educators and researchers towards creating a more democratic and equitable society by drawing from Nepantlera knowing.
Descriptors: Mexican Americans, Migrant Workers, Working Class, Immigrants, Ethnography, Biculturalism, Risk, Cultural Differences, Indigenous Knowledge, Student Mobility, Family (Sociological Unit), Student School Relationship, Researchers, Case Studies, Participant Observation, Interviews, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Mexico
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A