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Enhancing Puerto Rican culture for mainland school children
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to create in the Bilingual Puerto Rican Teachers an awareness of his/her role as a transmitter of Puerto Rican cultural values. This dissertation proposes the development of a Teaching Handbook which teachers can use to amplify his/her knowledge of his/her own culture and which can serve those teachers that are not Puerto Rican as a learning/teaching guide. The investigator conducted a review of literature which includes: (a) aspects of the culture learned through literature; (b) aspects of the culture not necessarily found in literary sources and is acquired. The investigator presented the results from the findings of the present study that reveal that the majority of Puerto Rican teachers in the United States come here for different reasons. Later they became teachers in different parts of Western Massachusetts. Each one of the teachers agreed that they are and should be transmitters of the culture. Other findings were the fact that some students had problems or cultural shocks in the new country. For example: language, climate, foods and in high school a greater problem communicating with other students and teachers. Those parents that were interviewed agreed that they came to this country to help their children in receiving a better education. Another of the parental worries of those parents that were interviewed, was that their children's adaptation to the new school system was difficult. The parents were concerned that the education of their children should include the Puerto Rican culture. They saw it as something that they could learn in the schools via the teacher. The investigator introduces a model for a handbook to serve as an outline for the transmission of cultural knowledge to Puerto Rican teachers and non-Puerto Rican teachers and the students they teach. It was concluded from the study that through the proposed cultural workshops, bilingual teachers will be able to acquire a wider knowledge of Puerto Rican culture. Through the handbook s/he will get a clearer idea of the possible way in which s/he can communicate this knowledge to his/her Puerto Rican students.
Subject Area
Elementary education|Education history|Multicultural Education
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez-Alejandro, Elsa M, "Enhancing Puerto Rican culture for mainland school children" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233148.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233148