ABSTRACT
In this chapter we move from a focus on specific forms and narrative development to explore the impact of schooling on patterns of language socialization in the homes of Mexican immigrant families. Having witnessed multiple, complex facets of the relationship between the implicit—sometimes explicit—requirements of formal schooling and family socialization practices, we are struck by the broad range of strategies adopted by language-minority parents as they attempt to resolve the contradictions arising from their desire to preserve linguistic and cultural continuity while preparing their children to succeed in a school system that often evaluates children solely on the basis of their academic performance in English (Valdés & Figueroa, 1994). Equally striking, however, are the force and directionality of the family–school relationships we observed. Although the families differ in their approaches to defining their work in relation to school-based learning, overwhelmingly they acquiesce to the ideological framings through which professional educators—teachers, administrators, policy-makers—understand and seek to practice the family–school relationship (Griffith & Schecter, 1998; Wagonner & Griffith, 1998). In fact, in many of the homes we visited, the school's agenda serves as primary organizer of the educational work of caregivers and, in particular, mothers. Specifically with regard to extent and nature of involvement in language activities, the main order of business is how the pedagogical work that family members do at home, involving interactions with texts, fits with and supports the work of the classroom in promoting school literacy. And although 142we are in a position to provide some excellent illustrations of participants’ engagement in reading and writing for instrumental purposes (e.g., deciphering information on promotional coupons, completing forms related to various social services and benefits), we would at the same time note that in the main the school academic agenda dominates home literacy activity (cf. McDermott, Goldman, & Varenne, 1984). 1
