ARTICLE IN PRESS

Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48

www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Teaching and learning in rural Mexico: a portrait of student

responsibility in everyday school life
Lynn A. Bryana,, H. James McLaughlinb
a
Department of Science Education, University of Georgia, 212 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602-7126, USA
b
Department of Elementary Education, University of Georgia, 427 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Abstract

In this study, we examined on the sociocultural environment and personal experiences of children from a rural
Mexican escuela unitaria (one-room, one-teacher school), because many of our immigrant children come to the US from
rural Mexican communities. We present a portrait of everyday school life in which students assume responsibility: (a)
for oneself, (b) to classmates, (c) for making decisions related to curriculum, and (d) to family and community. The
findings have implications for challenging teacher beliefs about culturally diverse students and for supporting
educational professionals in developing more culturally responsive teaching.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Mexican education; Rural education; Student responsibility

1. Introduction and many of the families share common ancestry.

El Bosque, Veracruz is similar to thousands of
small towns in the mountainous landscapes of
rural Mexico. While the area is rich in natural
resources with fruit trees, fertile land, and fish
from the River Actopan, El Bosque is economic-
ally poor. Simple stucco dwellings line the main
dirt road through town. There are no telephones
and computers in the homes, not even in the
school. Family dwellings are close in proximity
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: lbryan@coe.uga.edu (L.A. Bryan),
jmcl@coe.uga.edu (H.J. McLaughlin).
Most families survive in El Bosque by picking
mangoes, papaya, and chayote, and by raising
corn, beans, and chickens. Each year, 15–20 men
from El Bosque migrate within Mexico or to the
United States. This year, some of those families
may find their way to a new life in Georgia.
With a prosperous agricultural industry and an
emerging status as a center for manufacturing and
exporting, the State of Georgia had the third-
highest rate of increase in the Latino population of
any state in the United States from 1990 to 2000
(300%), and the highest rate from 2000 to 2002
(18.7%). The population self-identified as ‘‘Mex-
ican’’ increased 426% from 1990 to 2000. The

0742-051X/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2004.11.004
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
34 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
county in which we reside, Clarke County (where
the University of Georgia is located), has experi-
enced a 332% increase in its Latino population
since 1990 (US Census Bureau, 2000, http://
www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html). The
challenges associated with the rapid change in
demographics, especially in Georgia, have sparked
a call in all fields of education to develop a more
sophisticated understanding of the educational
and cultural backgrounds of Latino learners in
order to support their learning through culturally
relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Howard, 1999;
Ladson-Billings, 1994; Valdés, 1996).
Pedagogy that meets the needs of culturally
diverse immigrant children in our classrooms is
rooted in a guiding principle of equity and
excellence. Numerous US national and statewide
standards-based reform documents emphasize this
principle. For example, in the National Science
Education Standards, the National Research Coun-
cil (1996) states: ‘‘Science in our schools must be
for all students: All students, regardless of age, sex,
cultural or ethnic background, disabilities, aspira-
tions, or interest and motivation in science, should
have the opportunity to attain high levels of
science literacy’’ (p. 20). One of the central
purposes of the Standards for English Language
Arts is ‘‘to ensure that all students are offered the
opportunities, the encouragement, and the vision
to develop the language skills they need to pursue
life’s goals, including personal enrichment and
participation as informed members of our society’’
(National Council of Teachers of English, 1996, p.
1). Similarly, The Principles and Standards for
School Mathematics include a fundamental asser-
tion that, ‘‘All students should have the opportu-
nity and the support necessary to learn significant
mathematics with depth and understanding. There
is no conflict between equity and excellence’’
(National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
2000, file://localhost/Volumes/NCTM%20Stan-
dards/Standards/document/chapter1/index.htm).
The excerpts from this sample of content standards
for teaching and learning embody an ideal that all
students can achieve understanding in subject
areas if given the opportunity, and reject the
notion that anyone should be excluded from
opportunities to learn and succeed in school.
Certainly, the goal of achieving equity and
excellence in the education of all students is not
limited only to US classrooms, nor does it apply
only to Mexican immigrant children. Teachers and
teacher educators around the world encounter
challenges associated with changing demographics
and designing instruction to meet the needs of
students from various backgrounds that differ
from the mainstream. Recent international studies
have examined issues of teaching and learning with
respect to immigrant children—e.g., Pakistani
students in the UK (Huss-Keeler, 1997); various
immigrant groups in Spain (Santos-Rego & Pérez-
Domı́nguez, 2001); ethnically diverse students in
England (Mac an Ghaill, 1996); Asian students in
the UK (Bhatti, 1999); Asian children in the US
(Park, 1995, 1997); Aboriginal children in Aus-
tralia (Hewitt, 2000); Aboriginal children in
Canada (Ruttan, 2000); Japanese students in
Canada (Yokota-Adachi & Geva, 1999); and
Moroccan children in the Netherlands (Eldering,
1997). In each of these studies, children who
immigrated to a new country came with social
practices from their communities and families that
were not compatible with the nature of schooling
in their new country. Diverse student groups bring
with them their own ways of knowing, thinking,
and communicating that are representative of their
sociocultural environments as well as personal
experiences (Ballenger, 1997; Lee, 1999; Lee,
Fradd, & Sutman, 1995). At the same time,
teachers and teacher educators hold beliefs and
expectations about these students, which may
result in instructional practices that limit immi-
grant children’s opportunities for an equitable and
excellent education (Author, 2002).
If immigrant students’ ways of knowing, think-
ing, and communicating are not honored in the
classroom, they receive the message that the ways
in which they learn and the cultural knowledge
they bring to the classroom are not valuable
(Ballenger, 1997). Is, then, science, language
arts, mathematics, or any other subject truly
for all? Culturally relevant pedagogy must
incorporate sociocultural knowledge of the lives
and experiences of the students for whom the
pedagogy is being developed (Gay, 2000; Osborne,
1996).
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L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
2. Purpose
In order to learn more about the schooling
experiences of Mexican immigrant children, we
developed a four-phase, multiple-case research
agenda that focuses on la vida cotidiana (everyday
life) in four rural schools and communities in the
state of Veracruz, Mexico. The overarching
purpose of our research is two-fold. First, we
aim to contribute to the paucity of English-
language research that focuses on the sociocultural
environments and personal experiences of children
in small rural schools—a context in which many
Mexican immigrant children gain their schooling
experiences. We expect that our findings will
support educational professionals in anticipating
and facilitating diverse students’ passages into
potentially unfamiliar cultures of schooling. Ad-
ditionally, we endeavor to expand the knowledge
base about teaching and learning in rural Mexican
schools. This research will be especially informa-
tive for the professional development of: (a)
Mexican teachers, particularly first-year teachers
whose government-appointed assignments are
most often in rural schools, and (b) teachers who
strive to develop pedagogy that is relevant to the
lives of Mexican immigrant children.
In concert with the outlined purposes, the
central question that frames our research agenda
is: In the context of la vida cotidiana (everyday
life) in each of four rural Mexican schools, what
are the sociocultural aspects of schooling and
community that influence learning in the class-
room? Additionally, three subquestions guided us
in examining the central question: (a) What are the
roles of students and teachers in school life? (b)
What are the roles of students and teachers in
community life? and (c) What is the relationship
between community and school? This paper
reports findings from Phase I of our research, a
study in one rural site named El Bosque (a
pseudonym).
3. The contexts of El Bosque
In Mexico, students generally attend school for
200 days, four hours a day. The school year runs
35
from late August to early July, with a number of
holidays dotting the calendar. ‘‘Complete’’ pri-
mary schools in Mexico consist of grades one
through six (some isolated schools have fewer than
six grades). As a result of rapid urbanization over
several generations, many Mexican children attend
schools where they have a different teacher for
each grade level. However, there remain tens of
thousands of multigrade schools (multigrados), in
which one or more teachers each instruct more
than one grade. Of these multigrade schools,
thousands are one-room schools (escuelas unitar-
ias), with one teacher for grades one through six.
El Bosque is an escuela unitaria. Nationally, nearly
40% of all schools are either escuelas unitarias or
multigrados, but in some states the percentage is
much higher (Ezpeleta & Weiss, 2000).
3.1. Overview of the community and school of El
Bosque
El Bosque is located approximately 30 miles
from the capital city of Xalapa, Veracruz. Ap-
proximately 270 people live in the small commu-
nity. In spite of the poverty, there is a sense of
unity in the town and strong support for educa-
tion. El Bosque’s primary school is set among
colorful stucco and cement block houses in the
middle of the main street in town. In front and to
one side, there is a cement courtyard that serves as
a site to play ball games, offer food and drink to
the children at the morning break, and perform
public ceremonies for events such as Father’s Day
or the Fiesta for the Patron Saint. Inside, there is
one large room, approximately 200  600 , with a
back door that leads to the recently built bath-
rooms and a small green space behind the school.
The primary school in El Bosque has about 30
students in six grade levels, led by a teacher named
Alberto. In the classroom, students are grouped by
age, with between two and seven students in each
group seated at desks. One-half of the room is
devoted to these desk arrangements, with two
large chalkboards on adjoining walls. The
other half is more open; it is the space reserved
for a small ‘‘natural history museum’’ (consisting
mostly of animal skeletons), the class meetings led
by students, discussions of educational videotapes
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
36 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
shown on a television set donated by Alberto to
the school, and small-scale construction projects.
Maestro Alberto. Alberto has been a maestro
(teacher) in rural Mexican schools for 25 years.
When we generated these data, he was in his sixth
year at the school in El Bosque. He is a quiet man
whose face reflects his seriousness of purpose.
During more than a hundred hours of observation
in the school, we never heard him raise his voice
beyond a normal projection, rarely saw him smile
while teaching, and seldom heard him offer praise
to the students. At the same time, he is a man in
constant action: monitoring the room; reading
with fourth grade students at their desks; drawing
geometric figures for the second graders’ math
lesson; exhorting the sixth grade students to
continue working; helping third graders construct
a data table for their habitat observations; and
leading a choral response in a grammar activity
with the first graders.
Although there is a federal curriculum, Alberto
believes that he should adapt the curriculum to
incorporate local knowledge and students’ re-
sponses to activities. For example, one afternoon
we took a ‘‘science hike’’ with the students, along
the riverbank just outside of town. When we
inquired about how he would follow up in the next
day’s lesson, Alberto said: ‘‘That depends on them
(the students), on how intense the experience
was—or what they talked about. And also from
the stories that they are going to write and draw,
and they are going to summarize or they can
comment on their work—or what they are going
to talk about at home’’ (Interview, 2/7). Alberto’s
response reflects his ability to be flexible in
planning, as he often makes decisions about
activities depending on how students respond to
what happened.
Alberto’s philosophy of teaching fits well within
the context of teaching students in six grade levels,
which requires him to rely on students doing their
work while also helping peers and younger ones.
Often, students must generate ideas and build an
understanding before his intervention. Because of
these characteristics, we consider Alberto to be an
‘‘experienced constructivist’’ teacher (Simmons,
et al., 1999) in whose classroom ‘‘teacher and
students negotiate understanding of key ideas
based in student’s ideas and content’’ and who
emphasizes ‘‘connections constructed by students
with [the] teacher’s guidance to [the] real worldy’’
(p. 954).
4. Research on Mexican schools
Rockwell (1991, 1995, 1998) and Bertely and
Corenstein (1998) have summarized the range of
qualitative research studies conducted in Mexican
schools over the last 25 years. A number of studies
have taken place in secondary schools (grades
7–9), such as those by Herr and Anderson (1997)
and Laible (1998). Zorilla (1997) and others
analyzed education in prepas or bachilleratos
(grades 10–12). Some researchers have compared
schooling in Mexico and the US (Cifuentes &
Murphy, 1994; Macı́as, 1990; Pugach, 1998;
Rippberger & Staudt, 1999, 2003). It is important
here to note Levinson’s insightful study of student
culture and the formation of a ‘‘schooled identity’’
in a Mexican secondary school (Levinson, 1996,
2001). Levinson rightly resisted the temptation to
import reproduction theory and other ‘‘radical
European sociological categories’’ to the site of
rural schools in Mexico (Levinson, 2001, p. 333).
At the same time, he employed a detailed analysis
of everyday school interactions and students’
beliefs about the processes of schooling to reflect
critically on the state’s purposes and on students’
socioeconomic trajectories in life.
Rockwell (1998) noted that one of the strongest
lines of research has come from people in the
Department of Educational Research and from
the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in
Social Anthropology, both in Mexico City, which
focuses on the culture of schooling in public
primary schools (grades one through six). Re-
searchers engaged in this sort of documentation
have emphasized different aspects of schooling.
Much of the research focused on teachers’
practices and on the conditions of teaching. These
studies portrayed a frequent lack of sufficient
resources, especially in poor rural schools, and the
difficult working conditions and bureaucratic
hurdles that teachers often face (Aguilar, 1995;
Ezpeleta, 1992; Sandoval, 1995). Other researchers
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L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
have studied how teachers adapt the national
curriculum and use time during the school day
(Edwards, 1995), and how they teach subjects such
as science (Candela, 1995, 1997).
The research most closely related to our work is
that of de Haan (1998), Ezpeleta and Weiss (2000),
Galván (1998), Martin (1994), Paradise (1994a, b),
and the authors in Rockwell’s collection (1995), all
who conducted in-depth ethnographic studies of
academic and social interactions in Mexican
elementary schools. To Rockwell (1998), this sort
of research requires a ‘‘move toward articulating
the multiple and complex cultural processes
actually documented in everyday school life’’
(p. 11). Galván’s (1998) study of the interactions
of teachers and parents and de Haan’s (1998)
Vygotskian analysis of learning in an indigenous
community are fine examples of ethnographic
work in one community.
Ruth Paradise’s influential work (1994a,b)
documented the relations between students and
teachers in an indigenous Mazahua community.
Paradise grappled with the issue of ‘‘cultural
compatibility’’ (and incompatibility) between
school life and community life. Like many rural
schoolteachers, some of those in Paradise’s studies
were ‘‘outsiders’’ born and educated in urban
areas. They had to learn about parents’ perspec-
tives on education, and teach the federal curricu-
lum while trying to adapt it to local conditions.
The teacher in our study was also from the outside,
a commuter from a nearby city who accepted the
norms and patterns of life in El Bosque while also
challenging the students and families to work
together and build up the school. His approach fit
neatly within the long history of rural teachers as
social change agents in Mexico (Vaughan, 1997).
Finally, Ezpeleta and Weiss’s (2000) analysis of
13 small rural schools, including four escuelas
unitarias, offered an in-depth look at how teachers
organize their time, represent the content, use the
national textbooks, and utilize direct instruction.
They found that teachers in multigrade classes
took a variety of approaches, sometimes grouping
students by age, sometimes across ages, and
sometimes by ability level, loosely defined. In the
community of Rancho Viejo in their study, the
teacher used a combination of grouping and
37
encouraged some cross-age interactions, as was
true in El Bosque.
These examples of previous qualitative research
have enhanced our understanding of schools in
Mexico. However, most studies published in
English were undertaken in urban sites or in
secondary schools. Also, research on rural primary
schools usually occurred in schools with more than
one teacher, and rarely analyzed sociocultural
issues related to students’ actions in school. This
leaves a gap in what we know about Mexican
schooling, a necessary gap to fill considering that
many immigrant children in the US come from
rural Mexican communities. The main thrust of
our work is to extend knowledge by documenting
the everyday lives of teachers and students in
multigrade rural schools—crucial sites for indivi-
dual and community development in Mexico.
5. Methodology
5.1. Theoretical perspective
This study is grounded in a theoretical perspec-
tive that coordinates educational literature on
sociocultural perspectives (Cobb, 1994; Konold,
1995) and cultural models (Gee, 1990). As
researchers have gained insight into the social
aspects of learning, they have become increasingly
aware that social and cultural understandings lie at
the heart of making meaning (Cobb, 1994;
Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991). These social and
cultural understandings, or ‘‘cultural models,’’
influence communication in the classroom and in
the community (Gee, 1990). Similarly, cultural
models influence our understandings as we observe
classrooms and interact with and participate
within communities. Hence, this lens applies to
both the sociocultural influences on the partici-
pants as well as the contextual, collaborative, and
social organization of the research itself. We
employed a sociocultural perspective because we
believe that: (a) what we observe participants
doing and saying can only be understood in terms
of the norms of the society of which the
participants are a member; and (b) a broader
cultural perspective will help us understand why
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
38 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
certain practices and interactions occur (Cobb,
1994; Gee, 1990; Konold, 1995).
5.2. Research design
This study is part of an on-going research
agenda conducted using an interpretive, multiple-
case study research design in which each of the
sites constitutes a case of teaching and learning in
the everyday life of rural Mexican classrooms. A
multiple-case study design allows us to develop an
in-depth understanding of the interpretations and
experiences as they naturally occurred for the
research participants, while preserving the idio-
syncrasies and complexities of each particular case
(Stake, 1994).
5.3. Site selection
We chose El Bosque as the site for this study for
several reasons. First, we were interested in
examining teaching and learning in a rural
Mexican school because many immigrant children
from Mexico gain their first schooling experiences
in rural school. Second, teacher education faculty
from the Escuela Normal Veracruzana (ENV), the
primary teacher education institution in the state
of Veracruz, recommended El Bosque as a possible
site for research. Our colleagues at ENV thought
that El Bosque would be a particularly rich case to
examine, because the teacher, Alberto, was a 25-
year veteran teacher in his sixth year at the school
in El Bosque. In 1999, the second author began
visiting the school to become familiar with the
community members, the school, the students, and
Alberto. After six visits of varying lengths (one
week to six months) to the community over a two-
year period, we commenced our research. We
believe El Bosque is a particularly telling case of
teaching and learning in rural Mexican schools,
but we do not claim that it is, in any form, a
typical case.
5.4. Data sources
We employed several data collection methods
including non-participant observations, partici-
pant observations, video taping, interviewing, still
photography, and collection of written documents.
Non-participant observations. We conducted 50
total hours of non-participant observation in El
Bosque during February 2001, June 2001, October
2001, and May 2002. The second author con-
ducted over 100 h of observations during the
previous four years. We collected field notes
concerning class environment, class activities,
and teacher and student activities; reactions and
interpretations about observations; and quotes of
students’ comments during small and large group
discussions.
Participant observations. We participated in
several local events including family and commu-
nity meals, fiestas, and mountain hikes. All
participation was initiated by invitation from the
teacher, families, or community groups such as the
Comité de Madres (Mothers’ Committee).
Videotaping. During our visits in February 2001
and June 2001, we shot 22 h of video footage of
naturally occurring classroom instruction and six
hours of footage in the local communities.
Immediately following each visit, we reviewed
each videotape, recorded events in chronological
order (every 1–30 s of footage), and documented
our analytical memos about key events, ideas, and
emerging patterns.
Interviewing. We conducted eight informal con-
versational interviews with Alberto. We audio-
taped three interviews, and translated and
transcribed the three interviews immediately fol-
lowing each visit. Extensive field notes were
recorded for the remaining five informal conversa-
tional interviews.
Still photography. We recorded 250 still digital
images of classroom and community life in El
Bosque.
Written documents. We collected Alberto’s
planning notebook that included his daily plans,
written reflections, and questions generated by his
students.
5.5. Data analysis
We carried out the data analysis by repeatedly
reading the written data sets and repeatedly
reviewing the video footage. We sought patterns,
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L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
developed categories and subcategories to help
organize the data, and coded the data. Our
analysis of the data was directed by continuously
revisiting the guiding questions for this study.
To strengthen the confirmability and credibility
of findings, we pursued confirming and discon-
firming evidence from the multiple data sources
(Erickson, 1986). We confirmed findings
and conducted member checks of all data with
Alberto.
6. Findings and interpretations
Students in El Bosque engaged in many of the
same activities as in any school with which we were
familiar. They read textbooks, wrote in response
to teacher-directed prompts or questions at the
end of a chapter, answered the teacher’s questions,
asked their own questions, and turned in home-
work that had been assigned. Students also played
during recess, talked to each other during appro-
priate and inappropriate times, sang songs, and
told stories. However, we also saw everyday
activities that differed from most schools in which
we have worked in the US Many of these activities
took place as a result of the classroom structure of
multiage grouping, the cultural influences of a
rural Mexican community, and the role of Alberto,
the teacher. All of the activities involved ways in
which students took on responsibility: (a) for
oneself, (b) to classmates, (c) for making decisions
related to curriculum, and (d) to family and
community.
6.1. Responsibility for oneself
Students in El Bosque were explicitly respon-
sible for monitoring their own behavior in school.
One of the major agreements that children make to
themselves and publicly share at the beginning of
each school year is called a compromiso (commit-
ment). Walk into the one-room school in El
Bosque and one will see a chart that includes
hand-written entries by each child that summarize
the compromiso made to improve his/her behavior
or character in some way. There is a column
labeled, ‘‘A cumplir’’ (to complete), and a column
39
labeled, ‘‘Cumplido’’ (completed). Below are a
few examples of the unedited text of the stu-
dents’ compromisos (Field notes, 2/9; Digital
Photo, 2/9):
Rosita: Mi compromiso es aser mi comición y
aser mis tareas y cuidar las cosas de la escuela y
no ponchar los balonesy
Katerina: Mi compreto a que aga mi comición
todos los dı́as es abrir las cajas de los vaños
ayudarle a Lupey
Rosita: My commitment is to do my job and to
do my homework and to take care of the things
in school and to not puncture the ballsy
Katerina: My promise is to do my work
everyday and to open the doors of the bath-
rooms and to help Lupey
Marcella: y y tanvien me comportmeta a no
peliar.
Marcella: y and also I promise not to hit other
student.
When the occasion was applicable, Alberto
advised a student to reflect on his/her compromiso
rather than reprimanding the student with firm
commands or scolding. For example, when
Eduardo (a husky, fourth grade boy who some-
times was aggressive with other children when not
concentrating on his studies) was provoking
younger children to misbehave in class, Alberto
referred to Eduardo’s compromiso to talk less
when doing his work. Alberto asked Eduardo
whether he remembered what he had committed
to do. Eduardo replied, ‘‘Sı´, maestro’’ (‘‘Yes,
teacher’’) and the episode was over (Video RB5,
6/14).
Alberto also promoted students’ development of
responsibility to oneself in the form of self-
monitoring. Children had the autonomy to move,
converse, group, and regroup themselves during
most of the instructional day. Alberto did not call
out names or come to students’ desks simply
because they were talking or out of their seats.
Instead, he routinely encouraged students to
monitor the progress of their own academic work,
in both private and public settings. For example,
the following exchange between Alberto and
Angel (a fifth grader) took place as Alberto was
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
40 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
casually walking between visits to student groups
(Video CP4, 2/8):
Alberto: Qué haces, Angel? Alberto: What are
you doing, Angel?
(Angel looks up from his seat.) (Angel looks up
from his seat.)
Alberto: Qué, qué haces? Alberto: What, what
are you doing?
Angel: Nada. Angel: Nothing.
Alberto: Nada? Entonces, mejor si vas Alberto:
Nothing? Then, it’s better to go
a tu casa si no vas a trabajar. home if you’re not
going to work.
Alberto’s tone during this exchange was not
harsh, but rather direct and serious. He did not
joke around with students, and he did not use
sarcasm in conversations with them. Alberto
simply communicated his expectations to the
students. In the case of Angel, Alberto expected
him to complete a family tree during this class
period. The short exchange between them was
enough for Angel to halt the unimportant things
he was doing and get to work. Toward the end of
class, Angel eagerly approached Alberto with
the completed assignment, and the two of them
sat in the room discussing Angel’s family tree
while the rest of the class was outside for the
morning break.
Another way that Alberto encouraged students
to be responsible for themselves was through
students’ public performances in class. Alberto
often incorporated in his lessons opportunities for
students to present their work to each other.
Students were required to stand at their desk and
address their classmates. Alberto often asked
questions and commented to the ‘‘performers’’ in
a way that encouraged their development of self-
monitoring skills. Students were challenged to
become more aware of the importance of what
they say and the quality of their responses. For
example, students regularly kept a diario, a daily
journal in which they recorded what they did in
school, what they were learning, questions they
had, and on occasion their response to some
community occurrence. Every two or three days,
different students read aloud to the whole group
from their diario. As in other situations, Alberto
held the students to high standards and often
publicly critiqued their effort (but never their
actual writing skills). He said ‘‘Muy pobre’’ (‘‘Very
poor’’), when a student’s journal showed insuffi-
cient effort, and then directed the student to write
more (Video RB7, 6/14):
Muy pobre, en el sentido de que hablan de que
llegaron, que se
Very poor in the sense that you are saying that
you arrived, that you left, fueron, que se
jugaron, pero no dan detalles de que hicierony
+ qué tema y qué aspecto serio?
that you played, but you’re not giving details
about what you were doing (academically)—
what theme and what serious aspect?
Alberto often communicated to his students that
they should be responsible for their own learning:
‘‘Write more about what you are doing in school,
not at home or out of school;’’ ‘‘Write more what
you’re learning;’’ ‘‘Write more what you’re trying
to learn’’ (Video CP2, 2/7; Video CP4, 2/8; Video
RB8, 6/15). His requests that they reflect on and
discuss their learning fostered students’ metacog-
nitive awareness—in order to be responsible for
one’s learning, one has to be aware of the process
of learning.
In addition to using public performance as a
way of holding students accountable and nurtur-
ing students’ thought in their diario responses,
Alberto also used public performances to teach
students to take responsibility for their own
opinions. Students in El Bosque were often
allowed to make choices about how they would
group themselves for activities, what components
of the curriculum they wished to work on, who
they wished to serve as class leaders, and other
important decisions that influenced the daily
operations of the class. When students voiced a
choice, Alberto often required the students to
present a rationale or evidence to support their
choice. When students gave a brief or inadequate
rationale, Alberto encouraged them to extend
their responses: ‘‘You still have thirty seconds
to speak. What more can you tell us?’’ (Video
CP2, 2/7).
Everyday life in the classroom of El Bosque
afforded students numerous opportunities to take
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
and/or develop responsibility for themselves. By
allowing choice in the classroom, Alberto commu-
nicated to the students his confidence in their
competence to handle responsibility. His critique
of their work communicated his high standards.
The combination of choice and critique invited
students to make those high standards their own.
6.2. Responsibility to classmates
In addition to being responsible for one’s own
actions, another striking feature of everyday
school life in El Bosque was the way in which
students were responsible for each other as a group
and as individuals. Students’ responsibility for
each other as a group was often expressed in
regularly occurring asambleas (class meetings). For
example, one type of asamblea occurred several
times a year when students gathered to nominate
and determine class officers. The current class
president began the meeting by soliciting nomina-
tions for and voting on a class president. Usually a
fifth or sixth grader held this position. Once the
new president was elected, s/he took over the
meeting, which entailed taking nominations, pro-
viding a forum for discussion of nominations for
other offices, and conducting an open-ballot vote.
By the end of the voting, each student held a class
responsibility (as class president, vice-president,
treasurer, secretary, overseer of the natural history
museum, caretaker of the library, or manager of
the bathrooms, etc.). During these asambleas,
Alberto stood several meters in back of the
students, behind a low bookshelf and desks. The
only time that he interjected a comment into the
discussion was to inform the students of the
‘‘budget’’ each person had to work with for his/
her assigned responsibility (Field notes, 2/8; Video
CP6, 2/8; Video RB11, 6/10).
In addition to carrying out responsibility for
others in a large group setting, students had
responsibility for others on an individual basis.
Several times a week during the instruction that we
observed, Alberto sent students from one age
group to observe and talk with students from
other age groups. For example, students in the
sixth grade were asked to investigate what younger
students were learning. The older ones stood by
41
the desks of the younger students, listening to
them as they read. The older students were
responsible for checking the younger students’
writing, ascertaining the younger ones’ progress,
asking questions, and helping them if needed
(Field notes, 6/15; Video RB7, 6/15). This activity
appeared to our eyes to be unstructured, in the
sense that Alberto designated no timeline and
provided scant direct supervision of what oc-
curred. Nonetheless, the younger students carried
out the task of reading and sharing their writing
with the older students, while the older students
took seriously the responsibility of monitoring the
younger students’ progress.
A second example illustrates a reverse situation.
While fourth grade students were busy construct-
ing geometric models with clay balls and straws,
Alberto asked the second grade children to break
from their math work to observe the fourth
graders. The second graders eagerly but quietly
stood behind and to the side of their fourth grade
classmates to watch them construct three-dimen-
sional cubes, two-dimensional pentagons, and
other geometric figures (Field notes, 6/15; Video
RB7, 6/15). While three second-grade girls silently
observed, Katrina and Maria, fourth graders,
narrated their thought processes involved in
constructing a cube.
With all of the primary grade children attending
the same school, it was natural to see students take
responsibility for their classmates, especially when
their classmates were siblings. One touching
example of how this responsibility played out in
the El Bosque classroom involved a sibling pair,
Evarito, and his older sister, Olinda (Video CP4, 2/
8; Video CP9, 2/9; Video RB7, 6/14; Video RB8, 6/
15). Evarito was in first grade at the time of the
study and was mentally impaired (there was no
special education in this community). He spent
much of each day that we visited the classroom
writing monosyllabic words and drawing pictures
under the supervision of Alberto. Occasionally,
Evarito stood up from his seat and wandered
around the room, quietly watching other children
work on their assignments. On her own initiative
and from Alberto’s directives, Olinda frequently
asked Evarito to sit with her or talked with him if
he seemed agitated. When the class dispersed for
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
42 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
morning break, Olinda made sure that Evarito had
a snack and monitored his participation in out-
door activities (bouncing the basketball, playing
games, sitting in the shade). Olinda never appeared
to be inconvenienced with the responsibility of
taking care of her brother. She never raised her
voice to him and never appeared to ignore him.
From our perspective, no stigma was attached to
spending time with younger siblings at school in El
Bosque.
Taking responsibility for others was a common
feature of the classroom in El Bosque. Students
had a strong sense of unity within school that
mirrored the unity within the community outside
the four walls of the classroom. In his book,
Educating for Character, Lickona (1991) described
responsibility to and for others as an ethic of
interdependence, ‘‘the feeling that one person’s
problem is everybody’s problem’’ (p. 105). In the
El Bosque classroom, students as individuals
explicitly assumed a measure of responsibility for
each other’s welfare as evidenced, for example, in
the way that they took seriously the task of
teaching and learning from each other. The
regularly occurring asambleas were a manifesta-
tion of the responsibility that the students as a
group undertook to set goals and organizational
structure for the class that considered the good of
the class as a whole.
6.3. Responsibility for making decisions related to
curriculum
Although teaching and learning in escuelas
unitarias is guided by a national curriculum,
Alberto employed a number of ways to allow
freedom and require students to assume responsi-
bility in making curriculum-related decisions. For
example, students regularly prioritized the day’s or
week’s classroom activities, deciding as a group
what they should accomplish. At least once a
week, the entire class began their instructional day
with a meeting to determine what they would work
on and the priority of accomplishing the tasks. The
meetings were led entirely by students, directed by
the class president. First, the president called the
meeting to order. Then, students from all grades
offered ideas for different activities that they
wanted to work on. For example, one class
meeting was held two days before the biggest
community event of the year, the Fiesta Patronal,
which is a celebration of Lourdes, the patron saint
of El Bosque. Students developed the following list
of ideas for what to work on during that particular
school day (Field notes, 2/8; Video CP5, 2/8):
Continuar con ciencias naturales Continue with
natural science
Hablar del paseo Talk about the (nature) walk
Rifa Raffle
Adornar la escuela con flámulas Decorate the
school with banners
Escribir a las visitas Write about the visits
Carteles Posters
Two of these activities, ‘‘continue with natural
science’’ and ‘‘talk about the nature walk,’’
referred to the most recent science lesson in which
the class took a walk along the river to examine
indigenous flora. One of the activities they
suggested, ‘‘write about the visits,’’ pertained to
writing about us (the researchers) in their daily
journal. The remaining activities concerned the
children’s responsibilities for preparing for the
upcoming Fiesta Patronal.
Throughout this time, Alberto stood at the back
of the group, never intervening during the discus-
sions and voting. If a student talked out of turn or
began focusing attention on something else, an
older student, usually a sixth grader, would call the
student’s name and ask him/her to pay attention.
After a list of activities was completed, the
students who made proposals stood and addressed
the class about their reasoning for assigning
priority to their activity. After a student finished
his or her argument, classmates had the opportu-
nity to retort. Finally, Alberto interjected with,
‘‘Necesitamos una propuesta concreta’’ (‘‘We need
a concrete proposal’’). Students voted on the list,
and assigned first priority to making preparations
for the raffle, designing posters, and constructing
banners for the upcoming festival. At the end of
the day, Lena, the current class president, walked
over to the list of national standards posted on the
wall and checked off the objectives that they had
covered in the science part of the day’s class. In
Alberto’s classroom, students were expected to be
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
aware of the academic curriculum and to make
some of the decisions about how and when to
address standards within the curriculum (Video
RB12, 6/19).
Another way in which students were responsible
for curriculum-related issues was evident in the
special tasks and roles that students completed as
part of the school day. On the wall to the left of the
back door was a list of comisiones (regular tasks)
for the students to carry out (Field notes, 2/9;
Digital Photo, 2/9). These tasks were determined
during a teacher-led discussion with the students at
the beginning of the school year. Students
volunteered or were nominated to be responsible
for making sure that their assigned comisiones
were completed whenever it was time to work on
them. One of the tasks that would be unusual in
US schools was checking and cleaning the bath-
rooms. The community raised money to construct
a bathroom complex in the 1998–1999 school year.
Just behind the school, set on a concrete block, are
five small bathrooms with toilets, three shower
stalls, and two drinking fountains. The facilities
are more modern than those in any family’s house
we visited in town. On a regular schedule and as
part of a normal school day, students washed out
the fountain and toilet bowls, swept and washed
the floors, and took the towels home for their
families to wash. These comisiones are a central
feature of Alberto’s social curriculum (Authors,
2003).
In taking responsibility for making decisions
related to curriculum, students in El Bosque were
actively involved in creating a classroom environ-
ment for learning. They participated in democracy,
as described by Dewey: ‘‘Democracy is much
broader than a method of conducting government.
It is a way of life. Its foundation isy faith that
each individual has something to contribute’’
(Dewey, 1947, p. 59). Indeed, the children in El
Bosque regularly engaged in experiences where
individuals’ participation, thoughts, and ideas
were valued, and individuals had opportunities
to contribute to the collective life of their class-
room. Although Alberto was ultimately in
charge of the classroom and had the definitive
input in students’ learning, allowing student to
hold the responsibility for making curricular
43
decisions supported and empowered them in their
learning.
6.4. Responsibility to family and community
Student responsibility in El Bosque was not
confined to the classroom. As school and commu-
nity life intersected in El Bosque, so did student
responsibility within school and to the community.
For example, students had special tasks to prepare
for school and community events (which were not
seen as separate in El Bosque). They fashioned
piñatas, made banners for the inside and outside
walls, helped their family members sweep the front
walkways and clean the main street, and prepared
the equipment used for announcing and playing
music. These tasks were performed during and
after school hours. While Alberto assumed a
leadership role in community decisions about
how to organize the events, students were respon-
sible for contributing to preparing, participating
in, and cleaning up after special community
functions.
The arts were a central part of the curriculum in
primary schools that we visited. In El Bosque, the
students practiced and performed traditional
Mexican dances—the boys with colorful bandan-
nas slung around their necks and wearing white
pants, the girls with slatted fans and bright dresses
(Video RB13, 6/19). They also prepared modern
dances attuned to pop hits from Mexican ‘‘Top
40’’ radio, complete with gyrating hip movements
and hip dark glasses (Video RB9, 6/17; Digital
Photos, 6/12). The older girls often choreographed
new dances and taught them to the younger girls.
Students took pride in the details of their
performances, including props, make-up, and
costumes. For example, the hand-sewn ensemble
for a musical performance to the fast-paced,
popular hit, ‘‘La Vaca’’ (the cow), proved to be a
show-stopper, complete with cow ears, cow spots,
and cow tails for each first- and second-grade
dancer (Video RB9, 6/17). These dances were done
for groups of visiting educators and for commu-
nity events such as Dı´a de los Padres.
Students in El Bosque belonged to a shared
world inside the classroom as well as outside the
classroom. They had responsibilities that provided
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
44 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
them with positive experiences of being an integral
part of community, whether the community was
their group of classmates or the larger geographic
community of El Bosque. The vigor with which
they completed tasks or performed for public
events, and the seriousness with which they took
their responsibilities was indicative of their com-
mitment to one another and the community in
which they lived.
Students’ sense of responsibility to the commu-
nity was strong. However, even stronger was their
sense of responsibility to family. In an unsolicited
correspondence to the second author, a student
named Mariella from El Bosque provided an
update on her studies which was accompanied by
touching remarks that reflected her sense of
responsibility to her family (Personal communica-
tion, 8/02):
[S]abe ya pase al tercer semestre y le voy a achar
mas ganas que nunca, aunque en el primer
semestre no reprobé ninguna materia, espero
que en este logre subir de calificación, para ası́
poder recompensar el esfuerzo de toda mi
familia en especial de mis padres y hermanos
y claro de todas las personas que confian en mı́.
[Y]ou know I am in the third semester and I am
going to give more effort than ever, although in
the first semester I did not fail any subject, I
hope that I have managed to raise my grades
(class standing), in order to be able to repay the
support of all my family especially my parents
and brothers and all the people who have faith
in me.
Like Mariella, many of the children of El
Bosque feel a responsibility for succeeding in
school. Working hard and performing well in
school are examples of the many ways that the
children communicate respect to their families and
appreciation for the support that their families
provide.
7. Discussion and implications
In this paper, we do not want to gloss over the
daunting conditions of teaching and learning in El
Bosque, and the difficulties associated with teach-
ing in the conditions of rural Mexican classrooms.
Everyday Alberto had to be creative and resource-
ful in using the limited educational materials
(much of which he purchased from his miniscule
salary). Parents had very little money to offer the
school, although they were willing to contribute in
the form of manual labor for school projects.
Furthermore, working with more than 30 children
in six grades, in only a four-hour day, meant that
Alberto often could not spend as much time as he
desired with particular students, so he utilized peer
tutoring as a tool. Finally, with six groups of
students engaged in a myriad of activities, the
classroom could become loud and students some-
times wandered around for a time before settling
in to work.
While this is not a study of family and
community life, we wish to point out that in a
traditional rural community there can be a
dynamic tension between the goals of the teacher,
who is usually from outside the community, and
the everyday social patterns of parents. On one
hand, Alberto promoted student questioning and
decision-making during the classroom activities,
yet on then other hand, his students seldom were
allowed to take such actions in their homes.
Children in El Bosque were socialized to respect
adult authority and do as they were told, although
they functioned under few time constraints or rigid
rules.
Our research revealed that students in the rural
community of El Bosque were responsible in a
variety of ways: to oneself, to each other, for
making curriculum-related decisions, and to fa-
mily and community. As depicted in the many of
the classroom examples, Alberto played a major
role in helping children learn how to act respon-
sibly. One fundamental aspect of his teaching that
fostered students’ learning to be responsible was
how Alberto alternated between taking a directive
stance and an observational stance. During the
asambleas, for example, he observed the whole
time unless students requested that he intervene.
Then at the end of the asamblea, he directed them
to explain what they chose to do, and why. The
same pattern applied in group work—he watched
what students were doing or asked them to explain
in detail before he commented on their work or
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
directed them to do something. The onus was on
the students to be responsible without constant
intervention.
The significance of these findings for teachers
and teacher educators becomes evident when the
findings are juxtaposed against prevailing beliefs
and attitudes about students from diverse back-
grounds. Research clearly demonstrates that tea-
chers from many countries hold beliefs about
culturally diverse students based on characteristics
such as race, culture, ethnicity, language, and class
(Author, 2002). One of the most commonly held
beliefs by both practicing and prospective teachers
is the belief that students from culturally diverse
backgrounds are less capable than other students.
Such negative beliefs serve as a barrier to effective
instruction. (Carr & Klassen, 1997; Gomez, 1993;
Huss-Keeler, 1997; Marshall, 1996; Olmedo, 1997;
Ruttan, 2000; Santos-Rego & Pérez-Domı́nguez,
2001; Solomon, Battistich, & Hom, 1996; Valdés,
1996). Far too many educators attribute school
failure to what students from culturally diverse
backgrounds do not have and cannot do. For
example, teachers construct simpler goals for their
instruction and simpler methods of teaching.
Culturally diverse children are afforded less free-
dom in the classroom, given less opportunity to
interact with one another, and most often required
to passively ‘‘receive’’ their education (Solomon,
Battistich, & Hom, 1996; Stevens & Palinscar,
1992).
Our findings offer an intercultural challenge to
prevailing educational ideas related to responsi-
bility. For example, ‘‘holding students accounta-
ble’’ is generally construed to mean that students
should turn in homework and comport themselves
well in school. These notions of accountability
are present in El Bosque, but students also are
held to a high standard of being responsible to and
with others, and being socially responsible in
numerous ways. Everyday, the classroom is a site
for public responses and group deliberations;
students must think and respond to each other’s
comments, and show their work to their class-
mates. In addition, the notion of ‘‘schoolwork’’
assumes a different form in El Bosque. Children’s
central role in preparing for and participating in
community events, and their leadership in school
45
activities, means that they are workers in the
community.
Gay (2000) calls for a different pedagogical
paradigm in which teachers teach to and through
their students’ personal and cultural strengths,
intellectual capabilities, and prior achievements.
This requires knowing one’s students, especially
those of ethnically diverse backgrounds. At the
same time, it requires being aware of our own
subjectivities—’’ways of making sense of the world
that emanate from our ethnic, gender, and class
backgrounds’’ (Osborne, 1996, p. 293). James
(2001) spoke of this same dual focus of reflection:
first, learning about and reflecting on the commu-
nity and school experiences of immigrant students,
and then on our own ‘‘identities, schooling
experiences, and how all of these contribute to
(our) understanding’’ (p. 194). The way that we, as
teachers, make sense of the world constitutes the
cultural models from which we operate.
In the US and many other industrialized
Western nations, for example, cultural models of
education emphasize the individual and autono-
my. There are fundamental problems with the
rhetoric of individuality in schools. While indivi-
dual decision-making is considered a desirable
skill, many schools enact rigid rules, value quiet
classrooms where students sit in rows facing the
front of the room, and provide few opportunities
for students to take social responsibility. And it is
all too easy to equate a tight family structure and
protective parenting, which is prevalent in Mex-
ican immigrant families, with a lack of indepen-
dent thinking or individual goals. Our study
presents a portrait of everyday school life in which
students are capable of making decisions about
their learning and participating in a democratic
classroom environment—which may not match
the images that teachers hold about Latino
immigrant children and children from low socio-
economic backgrounds (Espinosa-Dulanto, 2002;
Pabon, 2002; Valdés, 1996).
Finally, decades of research in student learning
have promoted a view of learning whereby
students construct their own understanding and
meaning based on existing prior knowledge (e.g.,
Driver, 1991; Duit, 1991; von Glasersfeld, 1995;
Gunstone, 1991; Gunstone & Champagne, 1990;
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
46 L.A. Bryan, H.J. McLaughlin / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 33–48
Osborne & Wittrock, 1983, 1985; Saunders, 1992).
Students bring to each learning situation their own
conceptions in addition to theories about how and
why their conceptions make sense. Translated to
classroom practice, this view of learning often
emphasizes or is limited to the cognitive aspects of
learning—acknowledging students’ existing beliefs
and knowledge about the content. Our study
challenges teachers to expand their notions of
what it means to acknowledge students’ prior
conceptions in the processes of teaching and
learning. While recognizing and acknowledging
existing content conceptions is undoubtedly im-
portant, it stands to reason that classrooms in
which the instruction is culturally responsive will
also reflect an understanding of the sociocultural
process of learning within which culturally diverse
children are used to functioning. Students in El
Bosque, for example, are accustomed to a highly
social environment where they have broad indivi-
dual and group responsibilities. Classrooms that
allow more freedom of movement and interaction
may better facilitate the learning and social styles
of rural Mexican immigrant children who come
from schools like El Bosque. A more culturally
responsive classroom will accommodate the inter-
actional style of learning in which students are
used to making choices and having responsibility,
as opposed to more traditional classrooms that
remove or limit student responsibility. Culturally
relevant pedagogy must incorporate sociocul-
tural knowledge of the lives and experiences of
the students for whom the pedagogy is being
developed.
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