This qualitative study examined the dropout crises from the perspectives of Mexican American dropouts labeled as learner disabled who were receiving special education services. Such study is imperative as this group increases both in school and in special education classes. There were two research questions that guided the study: 1. What are the perceptions of Mexican American dropouts who participated in a special education program regarding their educational experiences? 2. What were the factors that influenced these students’ decisions to drop out of school? From the participant interviews, historical academic documents, and rich-descriptive information gathered from the students’ voices, three themes were revealed as the primary reason for dropping out of school: non-responsive school culture, lack of supportive environment, and social factors. It was evident in the data collected that the school culture was unfavorable toward their learning and in meeting successful graduation requirements. Under non-responsive school culture, the following subthemes emerged as underlining factors to their dropping out: (a) low expectations, (b) non-caring for the student, (c) ineffective curriculum content, and (d) social issues at school. School-related factors such as the lack of a supportive environment revealed the following subthemes: (a) symptoms of school failure, (b) negative learning environment, and (c) culturally non-responsive instruction. Other attributing factors for dropping out of school included family structures and peer pressure. While each of the participants had unique experiences, each attributed non-responsive school culture, lack of supportive environment, and social context as major factors for dropping out of school. Therefore, the significance of this study lies in the potential to impact Mexican American student achievement in the reduction of dropouts.

The current study was designed to examine the influence of cultural orientation on alcohol involvement among Mexican-American adolescents. Also, this study assessed whether cultural orientation predicted positive and negative alcohol expectancies for the effects of drinking one to two drinks or bingeing; and whether alcohol-use expectancies mediated the effects of acculturation on drinking practices. The participants were 300 Mexican-American high school students (M = 16.5, SD = 1.15; 178 female and 122 male) from a city along the Texas/Mexico border who were mostly self-identified as 2nd generation Mexican-Americans. The students completed the questionnaires regarding alcohol involvement, acculturation, and alcohol expectancies. Significant findings in the current study indicated a higher orientation to Mexican culture predicted higher levels of alcohol involvement for boys; whereas, a higher orientation to U.S. culture predicted higher alcohol involvement for girls. Also, identification with Mexican culture for girls predicted negative alcohol expectancies for low and high quantities of alcohol use.

Studies of Mexican American integration have come to a methodological and theoretical impasse. Conventional investigations have provided limited insight as they are outsider-based perspectives examining native-born minorities within the context of the immigrant experience and race-cycle paradigms. Grounded in cultural ideologies and nationalist narratives, dominant descriptions of minorities have created a conceptual straight that circumscribes the discourse to assimilationists’ models of integration. Moreover, studies of marginal groups produce negative consequences by highlighting cultural differences that tautologically reinforce the grounds for exclusions. Little grounded work has been conducted specifically looking at racialized native-born minorities and the dynamics of their generational process of integration. Through embedded ethnography and the narratives of subject participants, this research provides direct insight into processes of contemporary integration and the social structural accommodation of native-born Mexican Americans. As a means of sidestepping conceptual barriers, this discussion theoretically frames the integration of Mexican American professionals within the context of modernity and liberal human development. By responding to the above critiques, this paper presents an alternative approach to the analysis and explanation of the roots of race-cycle paradigms in the first section. The second section establishes the context for the research and explains the basis for the papers structure and conceptual arguments. As a means of moving the discourse away from established models, the third section provides a critical overview of the classical and contemporary literature on minority integration through a process of textual deconstruction. In addition, the section also constructs a theoretical dynamic between structural determinations and individual adaptations to modernity that promotes integration. The fourth section describes the non-traditional method of data collection that provides direct insight into the processes of native-born minority cultural and structural incorporation. Through participant voices, the fifth section describes how individual interactions and institutional forces are shaping the social place that Mexican American professionals have created on the borderlands of American culture and society. What the interpretive findings suggest in the last section is that they are constructing and re-defining their own social and cultural place out of the elements that modern society provides and not as race-cycle theory predicts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 610-643). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-253). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-168). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1982. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-215).

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University. / Bibliography: p. 165-168.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-151). Also available on the Internet.