This case study examines how preservice teachers make meaning of "American culture" while being cognizant of personal bonding between a Japanese ex-inmate and the community he connected with in prison--whom he refers to affectionately as his Chicano homies--in the college course "Culture and Languages of the United States." The…

The article examines how a Mexican second grade dual language teacher guided his Latinx bilingual students in exploring Día de los Muertos, a cultural practice. Through the Día de los Muertos project, parents responded in a variety of ways. Some parents learned about Día de los Muertos for the first time, other parents remembered participating in…

In the teaching of social studies, the use of funds of knowledge is beneficial for children to understand different experiences and perspectives. Families use funds of knowledge to teach their children what is important and valuable in their culture. In the case of Latino families, being bilingual is part of their history while for other families…

The U.S. South, in spite of its racist Jim Crow era laws and political history, has the fastest growing Latine immigrant population in the country. In North Carolina alone, the Latine population is responsible for over one-third of the state's growth exceeding all other population groups. Despite this rapid-growing change, the state is third to…

This study investigated effects of Home Instruction of Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), a paraprofessional home visiting program, on parents and children. The program site served low-income, Spanish-speaking families. On average, mothers were 31 years old (SD = 4.78) and children were 3 or 4 years old (M = 3.92, SD = 0.92). Participants (n…

Teachers' knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The "Family Storytelling through Dichos" approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students' backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted…

This paper represents a series of reflections on collective and individual efforts of diverse women scholars to reconcile alternative views of scholarship within the academy. We document our collective experience with embedding the concept of the "scholarship of engagement" in our practice of research, teaching, and service through a process of…

In this paper, we report the results of a longitudinal action research project in which elementary teachers used a cultural framework (individualism-collectivism) to understand differences between the culture of immigrant Latino families and the culture of U.S. schools. Making explicit the culture-based beliefs implicit in home and school…

There is a growing ideological divide in the field of family literacy between programs that are striving to colonize families with middle-class European-American literacy practices, and those based on Freire's philosophy which works toward affirming diverse family literacy practices. The Freirean alternative includes "culture circles" for the…

How do some families successfully negotiate the linguistic, cultural, and psychological challenges of immigration, while others struggle to acculturate? This volume explores the complexities of immigrant family life in North America and analyzes the individual and contextual factors that influence health and well-being. Synthesizing cutting-edge…