Endangered species: the hope for students in Mexican Chicago

"This dissertation is an ethnographic study that documents the educational experiences of Mexican Boys and Men (MBM) in a predominately Mexican immigrant neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. A Chicago Public High School (CPS) and the local community are ""analyzed as an account in which young [Mexican American] males have had a history of criminalization and punitive social control"" (Rios, 2011, p. 21). The primary research question examines: to what extent did the Zero Tolerance discipline policy in and out of Chicago Public Schools influence the MBM ""dropout or pushout"" crisis? The ethnography’s four methods of data collection were individual interviews, focus groups, participant observations, and review of documents for three research sites. Grounded in my positionality as a community ""native/insider"" (Villenas, 1996; Delgado, 1998), I audio-recorded the testimonies of twenty current and former male students from Tenorio High School (pseudonym) and from the ""Si Se Puede"" Church (pseudonym) in ""México Town"" (pseudonym) during the academic-year of 2012-2013. The findings demonstrated that Chicago’s key institutions have a long history of criminalizing Mexican Boys and Men via Zero Tolerance policies, which directly influences the “drop-out or push-out” problem at Tenorio High School in ""México town."" Moreover, the stories of young Mexican American male students complicates the master narrative of ""the Latino threat"" rhetoric that labels Mexican immigrants as ""dropping out of school, becoming gang members, and causing problems"" (Chavez, 2008, p. 38)."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Saucedo, Miguel A

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pak, Yoon K.
• Andersn, James D.
• Lujo, Alejandro
• Stovall, David O.

• Education
• Mexican Chicago

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Miguel Angel Saucedo

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90884

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90884