"This book is sure to explode stereotypes with its convincing account of individual and family differences within a culture. . .also a vivid illustration of the potential for collaboration in research and school reform projects." Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University
Pushing Boundaries searches for the substance at the elastic limit of racial, social, environmental, and linguistic borders. Olga A. Vasquez, Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, and Sheila Shannon have melded their experiences of research in the Mexicano community of Eastside, California with theoretical interpretations of how these daily life experiences shed light on the relationship between language socialization and bilingualism.
Their exploration results in a fascinating account that considers language learnign and socialization in the context of real, problematic, important activities in peoples' lives. The authors describe ways in which bilingual children and their families actively and innovatively use the linguistic and cultural resources available to them. Children are seen using the language of the home, shcool, and community settings separately or in combination. In collaboration with those around them, children learn to derive meaning from a written or oral text and to use their first language and cultural knowledge as a critical component for leanriing their second language and its underlying cultural norms.
The authors show that the resources these Mexicano children have acquired in their homes and communities are a natural developmental basis from which to plan and build their formal education. They discuss ways educators can capitalize upon these resources in classroom settings.
Educators, pyschologists, public policy advocates, and scholars of sociolinguistics and urban studies will find this text insightful and useful.