| Affiliations: | Race and Ethnic Studies Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Paula Michelle Ochoa
p.michelle.ochoaa@tamu.edu Sociology |
| Faculty Mentor | Sarah Gatson, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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TBA |
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Team Size:
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8
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| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Students who decided to participate in this project will have the opportunity to learn how to conduct interviews, code qualitative data, will be invited to participate in conference presentations, and be invited to travel on-site to conduct field research.
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Team Needs:
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Preferred requirements: – Knowledge of the U.S.-Mexico border – Have lived in the U.S.-Mexico border area – Good Communication skills – Active listening – Searching for information – Willing to ask questions – Time management – English-Spanish translation – Have facility of crossing the border Mandatory Requirements: |
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Description:
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Border commuting is the physical action of crossing borders while transbordering or transborder lifestyle refers to the straddling of both physical and non-physical boundaries, existing at the same time in multiple spaces (Anzaldua 1987:iii; Chavez 2016:61-62; Stephen 2007:6 and 19). This study uses transborder or transfronterize to describe people who experience this social phenomenon. Existing research on this population has mainly focused on the impact of transborderism on college students and post-secondary schools. This gap in the literature calls for exploring the effects of transborderism on younger students, their families, and the K-12 education system. The guiding questions for this dissertation ask, “In what ways does the transborder lifestyle impact families with K-12 students in the U.S-Mexico borderlands?” followed by “What kind of strategies do transborder families use to navigate the U.S. educational system?” and lastly, “How have K-12 teachers in the U.S-Mexico borderlands addressed transborder families’ contextual experiences?” To address these questions, mixed methods will be used to investigate and analyze the contextual effect of the transborder lifestyle in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Semi-structured interviews and survey responses from transborder families and teachers of transborder students in K-12 from the Brownsville-Matamoros borderlands will be collected to examine the experiences of transborder students, parents, and teachers. By exploring transborder student development, transborder parent navigation strategies, and transborder schooling in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands we can begin to assess the impact of transborderism on families with K-12 border commuter students and their experiences with the U.S. educational system. Furthermore, the results can also be useful in the study of reshaping societies through place and space mattering. |