Abstract

DESPAGNE, Colette  and  JACOBO SUAREZ, Mónica. Current challenges of the Mexican monolithic school: The case of migrant transnational students. Sinéctica [online]. 2016, n.47. ISSN 2007-7033.

Return migration to Mexico is a growing phenomenon. According to the National Migration Institute, 1.6 Million Mexicans have been repatriated between 2010 and 2014. As consequence, hundreds of thousands of families are coming back to Mexico with their children. These children (transnational students), have grown up and studied in the United States. Today, they have to adapt to the Mexican school system, study in a different language, and learn different contents and cultural codes. This paper adds a new perspective to this research from critical applied linguistics by focusing on the educational challenges monolithic schools have to face. First, it offers a demographic description of transnational students in Mexico. Second, it focuses on their identity and linguistic challenges. Third, it discusses possible theoretical solutions, such as the creation of third intercultural spaces (Bhabha, 1994; Unesco, 2006) by including students' funds of knowledge (González, Moll & Amanti, 2005) or multi-competences (Cook, 2002). Finally, we conclude with a reflection on the necessity for Mexican schools to shift their educational paradigm to be able to face the challenges of a globalized world.

Keywords : challenges; monolithic school; migrant transnational students.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )