3.4.1 How might influences on students from outside school be contributing to the puzzling situation?

Students' meanings and behavior are influenced by many things outside the school. Television and movies, for example, frequently portray stereotypical behaviors and bombard students with images of violence and consumerism. However, the influence of media is not automatic or uniform because different students interpret and use the media differently (Dimitriadis, 2001; Fisherkeller, 1997; Nespor, 1997, pp. 162-195).

Another pervasive influence is the legal system. For example, laws that made it relatively easy for students to get access to guns allowed students in Littleton, Colorado, to act on their desires in a deadly way.

Immigration laws and their implementation are also relevant. Some parents leave their children with family members in their country of origin for extended periods of time in order to earn money in the United States. When children are later reunited with their parents in the United States, they must deal with issues of separation and reunification, while also trying to adjust to a new culture. See Artico (2000, 2003) for a study of these issues in the mid-Atlantic area.

Global influences also are relevant (Suárez-Orozco, 2001). For example, immigrant students' school experiences in their country of origin will influence the meanings, skills and knowledge they bring with them to American schools. Many students, for example, have experienced "interrupted education" in their country of origin, either because of long-standing practices there or because of war. This is a particularly challenging situation for students who arrive in the United States as adolescents.

Ann Kennedy's (2000) dissertation presented a compelling portrait of the potentially tragic consequences of outside influences on some students. She studied immigrant adolescents from Central America, Africa and the Caribbean who had been unable to successfully complete a school system's standard ESL program. As a result they had been labeled "at risk," placed in an alternative program, and were in danger of becoming dropouts. In trying to understand their difficulties, Kennedy found that they had experienced a series of traumas during their young lives. They had witnessed war and experienced gaps in their formal education in their home countries; they had been separated from their mothers early in their childhood; they were reunited during adolescence with their mothers in the U.S.; and they had to deal with a new culture and a new language. Given these challenges, it is not surprising that the students had difficulties in the traditional school system, which did little to address the traumas they had experienced.

Modern communication and transportation patterns often facilitate a family's ability to keep in contact with their country of origin or to return to it. Regular communication with people in the country of origin and frequent return is a feature of the contemporary global society. Thus, events and expectations in the country of origin may continue to influence students and their parents long after they have immigrated to the United States.

A family's economic situation, the larger economic context in which they are situated, and their responses to these circumstances can have important influences on students' educational experiences. Tapia (1998, 2002) showed in some detail how five poor Puerto Rican families in Philadelphia developed different survival strategies and how their strategies, as well as other experiences, contributed to students' educational experiences.

It is important to remember that not all outside influences on students are negative. After-school programs for children and adolescents (Ball, 1995, 2000; Heath 2001; Heath & McLaughlin, 1993c) and informal mentors (Stanton-Salazar & Spina, 2003) can have substantial positive benefits for children and adolescents. The Funds of Knowledge teacher research projects (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2004a; González, Moll, Floyd-Tenery, Rivera, Rendon, Gonzáles, & Amanti, 1993; González, Moll, Tenery, Rivera, Rendon, Gonzales, & Amanti, 1995; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992) indicated many positive influences of home experiences.

Success Stories & CIP Studies Related to Students' Experiences and Meanings from Outside School

Consider next question: 3.4.2 
Gather information on this question: 4.4.1