Dr . Ruben Viramontez-Anguiano and Dr. Robert Reyes

1. Parent-Liaison as Organic Leaders: An Ecological Analysis of Organic Social Networks in Developing School-Family Partnerships and Transition to College Dr. Ruben Viramontez-Anguiano and Dr. Robert Reyes Center for Intercultural Teaching & Learning

2. Acknowledgements • Introductions • Student Research Fellows • Daniel Moya, Charlotte Barnett, Sara Alvarez & Daisy Gaspar • Introduction of CITL • Understanding of the Context

3. Geographical Point of Reference Midwest Region of the United States

4. East North Central Region (Great Lakes States) Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin

5. Hispanic Population Age Distribution in the Great Lakes States 2008 ACS 1-year Estimates N=Total Hispanic Population

6. Educational Attainment of Hispanics in Great Lakes States 2008 ACS 1-year Estimates N=Total Hispanic Population 25 and over

7. School Enrollment of Hispanics in Great Lakes States 2008 ACS 1-year Estimates N=Total Hispanic Population Enrolled in School

8. Indiana, Elkhart County and Goshen demographic data2010 U.S. Census

9. Indiana Hispanic population 2010 • Indiana’s Hispanic pop.: 389,707 • • More than doubled to 6% of state pop. • • Increased by 81.7% since 2000 * • • Accounted for 43% of Indiana’s total population growth since 2000. • Indiana’s white population grew by 2.78%, Asian grew by 73.3% and the black population grew by 16% Source: U.S. Census Bureau

10. Hispanics in Indiana by county — 2010 TOP COUNTIES: Lake 82,663 — 16.6% ELKHART 27,886 — 14.1% Clinton 4,395 — 13.2% Cass 4,897 — 12.5% Noble 4,567 — 9.6% Marion 84,466 — 9.3 % Porter 13,933 — 8.5% Marshall 3,971 — 8.4% Tippecanoe 12,947 — 7.4% St. Joseph 19,395 — 7.2% Kosciusko 5,634 — 7.2% Allen 23,093 — 6.4%

11. Elkhart County and GoshenU.S. Census 2000-2010 ELKHART COUNTY 197,559 2000-2010 increase: 14,766 2000-2010 percent increase 8.1% GOSHEN 31,719 2000-2010 increase: 2,336 White 21,140 Minorities 10,579 Hispanics 8,903 % Minorities 33.3% % Hispanics 28.0%

12. Age Distribution, Elkhart County 2009 Source: 2009 ACS 1-year Estimates

13. School Snapshot: Minority Student Population 1990-2010 Source: Indiana Accountability System for Academic Progress (ASAP)

14. School Snapshot: Limited English Student Population 1991-2008 Source: Indiana Accountability System for Academic Progress (ASAP)

15. Objectives and Research Questions of The Study • The objective of the research study was to understand the role that school parent liaisons play among Latino families and schools in Northeastern Indiana. Specifically, exploring how that impacts the road to higher education. Research Questions • How do social networks impact the role of school parent liaisons within Latino family and school partnerships? • How do school parent liaisons serve as organic leaders throughout the pipeline to higher education?

16. Intersecting Theoretical Perspectives • Key Concepts or Definitions – Ecological Model/Family Systems Latino family systems Organic Leaders Servant Leadership (Latino-centric Focus) • Social Capital Model Social Networks and Social Production

17. Social Capital Theory • Means to understand how resources are acquired through social relationships and networks and how these relationships can be fostered or developed to support academic achievement • Three components of Social Capital: Possessors of social capital, sources of social capital, resources themselves (Portes, 1998) • Students have differential access to resources, norms, values, attitudes and behaviors necessary for school success through their social relationships

18. Nature of Social Relationships Strong /Weak Ties • Strong ties include relationships with family members or people with which an individual has frequent interactions in multiple settings • Weak ties include relationships with people who one encounters less frequently and typically in a very limited number of settings. These ties can be with teachers, counselors, social workers or other institutional agents

19. Respondents • The sample consisted of 7 school parent liaisons. Respondents age ranged from 23- 62 (with most in their 20’s-30’s) years old, all the parent liaisons were females, 6 respondents were Latinas and 1 European Americans, years experience ranged from 3-17 years and education ranged from 2 years of college to a bachelors degree. There were 5 Latinas of Mexican background, 1 Puerto Rican and 1 Columbian. All the liaisons were bilingual.

20. Research Design Larger ethnography of Latino families, schools and communities: Ethnography of 7 schools Semi-structured interviews of school parent liaisons and other school personnel Observation of school liaisons and Latino families Grounded theory and active participation

21. Protocol and Data Analysis The interview protocol was based on the first author’s 15 years of experience of working with Latino families and communities. The data analysis process consisted of mining the data for themes based on three overarching social network categories.

22. Immediate Context • The school parent liaisons were part of an ecological context that consisted of Latino families and their communities, schools and its personnel, and the larger community. These sub-contexts consisted of informal and formal social networks.

23. Preliminary Findings • Delineation of categories: • Relationship of liaisons and families • Relationship of liaison and schools • Relationship of liaison and the community • Emerging themes: • Relationship of liaisons and families • Liaisons as social agents • Basic needs • Emotional coping & support (i.e., sources of hope) • Vehicle for FLE • Vehicle for college access (educational pipeline) • Relationship of liaisons and schools • Perception of school culture • Relationship of liaison and the community • Liaisons as organic leaders • Link to the Mennonite community • Support on immigration issues

24. Emerging Themes: Intersection of School, Community, and Family with Parent Liaisons • Relationship of Parent Liaison and the Community • Liaisons as Organic Leaders • Links to the Mennonite Community • Support on Immigration Issues Community • Relationship of Parent Liaison and Families • Liaisons as social agents • Vehicle for College Access Parent Liaison Schools Families • Relationship of Parent Liaison and Schools • Perception of School Culture

25. Defining FLE • Family life education focuses on healthy family functioning within a family systems perspective and provides a primarily preventive approach. • Family life education professionals consider societal issues including economics, education, work-family issues, parenting, sexuality, gender and more within the context of the family.

26. Findings (cont.) • Relationship of liaisons and families • Liaisons as social agents • Basic Needs We opened an emergency food pantry in the school to accommodate the families who have lost their jobs. (PL 1) I spend a lot of my of time helping families with their families needs including medicaid, employment , parenting and other things. (PL2) For Christmas, I delivered gifts to families who may not be able to give their children anything this year. On the same day I was on the phone all morning with a family listing to her talk about the reality of abuse in her family. • Emotional coping & support (i.e., sources of hope) For one family I participated in the birthing process of their children because the mother had no one else to be with her (PL1)

27. Findings (cont.) • Social agents -Vehicle for FLE and Sources of Hope www.ncfr.org/cfle-certification/certification As the population grew, it was pretty segregated at that time. Latino students sort of stayed with themselves, such a cultural difference. It is still fairly new, mid 90s. The kids here were used to speak in English and seeing people who looked like them. Most of the kids at that time came from Mexico. So there was a language barrier, cultural barrier. In the lunch room you see the Spanish speaking students and the American students. I have seen that change a lot. Kids don't seem to notice that anymore. Here at the elementary school is normal to have kids speaking Spanish in the classroom. We are starting to have the second generation (PL 3)

28. Findings (cont.) • Social agents -Vehicle for FLE and sources of hope And so the mom said what have I done to my child because neither this country wants her and now she doesn’t fit in my country. Last year I enrolled in a parenting program hosted in the community and let the parents know that I would also be in the parenting classes. I wanted the parents to see that I was open to working with them and that I saw them as my equal (PL2).

29. Findings (cont.) • Vehicle for college access (educational pipeline) Past students, like one student who went on to college. At the beginning he was really afraid to move on. Now he is ready to graduate and that feels good. He used to talk to me about being afraid. But he is almost done. My reason for coming to work is especially to help Latinas, females. Because of the high drop out rate, the high pregnancy rate. I was hoping to make a difference in their lives. We lose a lot of girls to that. (PL 6) It was clear across all the school from K-12 that the school parent liaisons were working to progress the students. They often worked together as a team to ensure that student progressed across the pipeline.

30. Findings • Social agents • Vehicle of FLE and acculturative stress It was clear that the majority of the families were dealing with different stressors that impacted their lives. A key stressor was the reality of immigration and how it was impacting their children’s education. Other stressors including generational realities, parenting and economic factors also had an impact on students road to higher education.

31. Findings (cont.) • Relationship of liaisons and schools • Perception of school culture I think there needs to be a central person who helps coordinate how we are going to integrate this people in the community. A position that really focuses on integration, also including training of the school staff of understanding the Latino community, and then the focus on helping families understand each other. There is so much cultural miscommunication and perceptions that there needs to be an understanding. In my opinion, it has to be someone who purposely can look at this things and brings those pieces together and then train the people at the schools who are the parent liaisons on how to do this things because right now is very scattered. (PL 3) Its also how the parent liaison position is viewed. Its different. In some schools its just the translator and the one who kind of helps them out a little bit. There also needs to be some value in the expertise of those who work within the Latino community, they need to have that, and they need to be looked at. (PL 4)

32. Findings (cont.) • Relationship of liaisons and the community • Liaisons as organic leaders Liaisons were seen as leaders in the community through their services to the families. It was not uncommon to hear Latino community members share their respect for the liaisons. The majority of the liaisons did not have formal training in leaders rather, servant leadership was truly organic that had developed through social production among the different social networks in Northeastern, Indiana. • Link to the Mennonite community The Mennonite culture is very globally minded, so there is always this push of being aware of what’s going on in the world. Be aware of other people, taking care of people. So I think when immigrants came they saw them not as illegals, more as people, people in need. People that they could reach out to and help. They didn't see them as foreigners. Not so much of that attitude. (PL 4) Mennonites traditionally have the basic belief, when you look at it that we are citizens of heaven first, and not loyal to any country, and the Anabaptist and the pacifist, and setting disputes nonviolently, and so they hold those traditions high and those values high, so it doesn't matter how you came into my community, a Mennonite will traditionally welcome you and value you as a person (PL3).

33. Findings (cont.) -Relationship of liaisons and the community • Support on immigration issues The families are worried about how the new immigration laws that they recently passed in Indiana are going to change their lives…Preciselythismorning a momtold me «I can’teven drive or do anthingelsebecausetheywillgivetheauthoritytothepolice of ...» I toldher, «dont’tworryuntilithappens»...butlegallythereisnotmuch I can do [forher]. Thataffectsthestudentspsychologicallybecausethey listen whentheirparentstalk, «thatwe are goingtoleave, immigrationiscoming, and all of that...» thenwhenthestudentarriveshere [school] theydon’tknowifwhentheygo back home theywillfindtheirparents. Twoyearago, manyfamilieslefttoMexico, theywent back, because of theeconomicsituation. (PL3).

34. Conclusions and Recommendations • The need for closing the educational and cultural gap between Latino families and school will become more apparent. School parent liaisons will be the bridge of this relationship. • With Latinos making up almost half the population the intercultural realities of Latinos and European Americans at all levels of leadership will have to be a reality. • Latino communities will need to continue to be involved in the education of all Latino children in the region. • The continued success of the organic school parent liaison will also need to be a focal point in the Latino community as parent continue to participate in their children education at home and in the school. • The model of families and school with school parent liaisons that this district has developed is unique in Indiana and the Great Lakes region and could be duplicated in other districts. One could learn from the organic(s) who are their for nuestrasfamilias.

35. Conclusions and Recommendations • From a Social Capital perspective Parent Liaisons serve as a critical link in providing social support for families and a vital source of information about families to school officials. • They have strong network ties with families. • They serve as social agents in informal ways. These are added responsibilities on top of everything else. • That shows a certain level of vulnerability in the strength of the network .

36. Conclusions and Recommendations • Provide opportunities for school parent liaisons to continue their education and earn licensure to create more equality with other school personnel. • Provide training for other school personnel to learn how to better work with Latino families and their children. • Encourage more partnerships between the schools and the Latino community. • Create programs that continue to encourage parental involvement of Latino parents • Create more programs that promote the strengths of the Latino culture and their value in education

37. Conclusions and Recommendations • Develop a longitudinal study that explores the educational pipeline to higher education of Latino families in Northeastern Indiana. • Explore how immigration policies impact the educational success of Latino families and their children in Northeastern Indiana. • Continue to explore how organic leaders in the schools and community impact the educational success of Latino children • Explore how the Mennonite church can continue to have an influence on Latino families within a school context. • Explore how Christian colleges can be part of the partnership between Latino families, schools and communities.