The Not-So-Hidden Curriculum: How a Public School System in the United States Minoritizes Migrant Students

ABSTRACT

This article casts light on how one public school system in the United States minoritizes migrant students by perpetuating systemic class and racial biases. Migrant students are the children of migrant workers who migrate across the United States seasonally to work in agriculture or fisheries. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 educators, we identified three main areas of class and racial biases that we call the not-so-hidden curriculum: First, the school system presumes (and rewards) English competency from migrant families, an expectation we call expectation of English language competency. Second, the system expects entitled and intensive learning from students. This type of learning assumes that students can advocate for themselves in their interactions with teachers and peers. The schools in the school system expect students to spend most of their time and energy on academic activities. Third, the system expects entitled and intensive educational parenting. In this parenting approach, parents are supposed to act as co-educators and co-decision makers with teachers and focus their energy and time on their children’s education. The interviews illustrate several incompatibilities among these ideologies and migrant students’ realities, especially their economic, social, and linguistic challenges. We discuss the implications of our findings on migrant students’ social mobility, future research, and migrant education policy.

Acknowledgments

We thank the study participants for taking the time to share their experiences and perspectives. We owe great thanks to our research assistants, Elisabeth Carse and Emma Frushell, who delved into this project with diligence, passion, and care. We express thanks to our colleagues on the Institutional Review Board at Emmanuel College, who reviewed the ethics procedures for this study. We also thank our partners and children, who have contributed to our passion and dedication to addressing social problems and injustices that negatively impact the lives of marginalized children. Finally, this project would not have been possible without the Emmanuel College Faculty Development funds for fieldwork, interview honoraria, and research assistant stipends.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Every Student Succeeds Act, 20 U.S.C. § 6301 (2015) defines a “migratory child” as

a child or youth who made a qualifying move in the preceding 36 months

(A) as a migratory agricultural worker or a migratory fisher; or

(B) with, or to join, a parent or spouse who is a migratory agricultural worker or a migratory fisher (p. 99).

2. Fifty percent of farmworkers are parents (NCFH, 2020).

3. As a result of social, financial, and educational barriers, migrant youth are considered “the most undereducated major subgroup in the United States” (Romanowski, 2003, p. 27). These obstacles translate into a significant achievement gap between migrant and nonmigrant students, which often results in negative life outcomes such as lower paying jobs, economic struggles, and social marginalization (Moskal, 2016; Stromquist, 2012); however, it is important to note that in spite of the significant barriers and biases in the public school system and society, many migrant students have achieved great success academically, professionally, and socially as a result of their resilience, determination, and hard work (Garza et al., 2004; Parra-Cardona et al., 2006).

4. Arzubiaga et al. (2009) defined the term im/migrant as individuals who are labeled as immigrants, migrants, and/or refugees and may or may not be documented and/or authorized citizens of the United States. This social label is not mutually exclusive but adequately describes the population from which we drew our sample for this study.

5. The MEP is a federally funded program that was designed by the Johnson Administration during the War on Poverty in the 1960s to provide administrative, advocacy, and family support to migrant students and their families (Branz-Spall et al., 2003).

6. Despite our efforts, we were not able to track down the original evidence gathered by the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janese L. Free

Janese L. Free is an associate professor of sociology in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Emmanuel College. Her research interests lie in the areas of youth placed at risk, migrant education, streetworkers, and violence prevention and intervention programs related to marginalized youth. She was formerly a victim advocate for a state prison system and a program coordinator for a nonprofit organization that created a social and legal community response to intimate partner violence.

Katrin Križ

Katrin Križ is a professor of sociology in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at Emmanuel College and a Professor II at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her research interests lie in children’s and young people’s participation in child protection, higher education equity, and migrant education. She has published widely on child welfare systems and marginalized children from an international perspective.