Chapter 9: Mexican American Schoolchildren in U.S. Public Schools: A Review of Social Science Research on the Mexican American Family’s Cultural Capital

The Mexican American family has been blamed in the social science literature for the educational shortcomings of Mexican American students. The faulty assumption posited in the social science literature is that the social and cultural features of the Mexican American family have a detrimental effect on educational attainment or academic performance. Several arguments are found in the social science literature that identify strict upbringing, economic instability, and language barriers as key factors in the underachievement of Mexican American students (e.g., see, Aguirre & Hernandez, 1995; Montiel, 1970; Murillo, 1971; Ramirez, 1967). Of the arguments found in the social science literature, the cultural deficit argument attributes low academic performance, high dropout rates, and low college enrollment rates for Mexican American students to nearly all characteristics of the Mexican American family or Mexican culture (Delgado-Gaitan, 1992; Valencia, 1997).