The Power of Community

Mobilizing for Family and Schooling

By (author) Concha Delgado-Gaitan

Publication date:

13 November 2001

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742515505

Fifteen years ago, Concha Delgado-Gaitan began literacy research in Carpinteria, California. At that time, Mexican immigrants who labored in nurseries, factories, and housekeeping, had almost no voice in how their children were educated. Committed to participative research, Delgado-Gaitan collaborated with the community to connect family, school, and community. Regular community gatherings gave birth to the Comité de Padres Latinos. Refusing the role of the victim, the Comité paticipants organized to reach out to everyone in the community, not just other Latino families. Bound by their language, cultural history, hard work, respect, pain, and hope, they created possibilities that supported the learning of Latino students, who until then had too often dropped out or shown scant interest in school. In a society that accentuates individualism and independence, these men and women look to their community for leadership, support, and resources for children.

The Power of Community is a critical work that shows how communities that pull together and offer caring ears, eyes, and hands, can ensure that their children thrive—academically, socially, and personally. It offers a fresh approach and workable solution to the problems that face schools today.

Chapter 1 An Ethnography of Immigrants
Chapter 2 Cultural Brokers in a Growing Community
Chapter 3 Forming a Collective Voice
Chapter 4 Dynamic Connections
Chapter 5 Malleable Identities
Chapter 6 Knowledge as Power
Chapter 7 Envisioning Possibilities
Chapter 8 Time, Place, and Power Relationships
Chapter 9 The Story and the Storyteller
Chapter 10 Reflections
Chapter 11 Notes
Chapter 12 Bibliography
Chapter 13 Index

This ethnography documents how complex cultural processes that occur within Mexican immigrant communities, and between immigrant communities and Mexico are implicated in the success of children and their schools. Though faced with these challenges along with substantial cultural, language, and structural barriers, the people of COPLA persevere to unite the parents, teachers, and school administrators of Carpenteria around the common goal of improving the education of children. At a time in our history when the gap between teachers and parents, and the problems of low achievement in many schools with culturally diverse populations persists, this ethnography documents how collective action taken by adults on behalf of children can create a sense of 'belonging and connectedness' which can transform both school and community. Concha Delgado-Gaitan has chronicled a timely and much needed tale of hope.