In my reading of Valdes, Capitelli, and Alvarez (2011), a lot was brought to my attention that I was unaware of in the education of children who do not speak English as their first language; more specifically Latino children. In the reading, I was met with ideas and terminology I was unfamiliar with; these terms include “brain drain and minority integration.” In order to better grasp the background knowledge of the reading and fully understand the purpose I must explore!
The first term I researched, was the idea of “brain drain” (Valdes et. al., 2011). Brain drain was discussed in the reading and I only know this as a term for a puzzle game—naturally in dug deeper. According to Anup Shah (2006), brain drain is the mass exodus of skilled or educated individuals out of a particular population. I assert the name comes from the draining of educated or “brainy” individuals leaving a less skilled or educated population.
I recall my brother discussing this about individuals who attend the University of Rochester for Medical School—very often individuals will obtain a intense education here and take it out of the area—the resource is then drained. This transitory nature makes it hard for population; and as Shah (2006) describes “compromise[s] the system’s knowledge, memory and culture (n. pag.).”
Another term discussed in Valdes et. al. (2011) reading was the idea of migration integration. I can infer that I would have something to do with assimilating new comers into a region or country; however, I wanted to know more. According to Spencer P. Boyer, minority integration is the host countries ability to accommodate the minority populations in order to establish correlation or parallel and eliminate otherness. By establishing connection, we can avoid bigger issues of human trafficking and xenophobia.
I feel I have a better understanding of the background of how bilingual and multi-linguistic student enter our classrooms. With this knowledge of brain drain and minority integration, I understand the trials students and their families face when entering a new country with a different language. We as educators need to look from our students perspectives and understand they may feel like outsiders not only in the classroom but in their neighborhood and community as well. We need to consider the open ended-ness of the question how would we feel if… [no one talks like me, looks like me, prays like me]…?
Boyer, Spencer P. (April 16, 2009). Center for American Progress. In Learning from Each Other: The Integration of Immigrant and Minority Groups in the United States and Europe. Retrieved September 21, 2011, from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/04/immigrant_integration.html.
Shah, Anup. (April 14, 2006). Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. In Brain Drain of Workers from Poor to Rich Countries. Retrieved September 21, 2011, from http://www.globalissues.org/article/ 599/brain-drain-of-workers-from-poor-to-rich-countries.
It helpful to read your connection with the term "brain drain." Sometime the connections we personally have with terms often are easier to comprehend than connections defined in text, which brings me to further think about the question you proposed at the end of your blog. I feel that through ways like reading (picture) books with our class we can open an awareness by reading, discussing, and having text-to-self and text-to-world connections to raise the comfort level and also realize that it is not only the peers who come from other countries that can be place in an "other" category it is something we all share. We all have some part of us that makes us different. Some of our differences might make us more uncomfortable or timid than others, but its important to shine light our differences so that an awareness and sensitivity can be raised.
ReplyDelete"Minority integration is the host countries ability to accommodate the minority populations in order to establish correlation or parallel and eliminate otherness." Reflecting upon this definition and my current view of American society and schools I do not believe that we are meeting the needs of our minority populations, especially those who are ELLs. During my student teaching I had several classes that consisted of all dual language. I agree with how this program was run at the school: to teach the students, mostly through Spanish, how to live, function, and survive in the. While English was incorporated into lessons for specific content knowledge, it was rarely used otherwise. These students were able to be successful in the classroom and in their everyday life, but I am not sure they were very successful on their standardized tests. There should be a way for us to properly integrate ELLs into our education system without it being mandatory that they be proficient in the English language from day one.
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