Resilient Cultural Practices in Mexican Immigrant Families: Children's Helping and Parental Goals and Aspirations

This study examined 20 parental interviews of third-grade children in U.S. Mexican-heritage families in California, focusing on their children's helping at home, parents' goals for their children, and the values they hoped to instill in their children. The families varied in their experience with Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI), a way of organizing learning that is consistent with the traditions of Indigenous and Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas. Based on previous research in Mexico, we expected to find differences between the families related to familiarity with middle-class ways of organizing learning (associated with increased schooling) or familiarity with LOPI. Instead, we found that children in all families were helping at home and that when parents spoke about the goals and values they hoped their children remembered, they consistently spoke about the importance of community, family, and respect in a pattern that is consistent with the ideas of LOPI regardless of increased school experience. We explored the idea of resilient cultural practices in immigrant communities and the development of a repertoire of cultural practices, drawing on multiple traditions in different situations. This contributes to the idea that different cultural forms of organizing teaching and learning need not be mutually exclusive. It also supports the idea that efforts aimed at continuing historical cultural traditions can maintain these cultural practices over generations, even in the case of migration and increased participation in other cultural institutions (like school).