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Prácticas Comunicativas Interculturales entre las escuelas católicas y las comunidades latinas: Un estudio en el oeste de Washington, Estados Unidos

2017; Universidad de Los Hemisferios; Volume: 21; Issue: 99 Linguagem: Inglês

1605-4806

Julieta Altamirano-Crosby,

Parental Involvement in Education

This work was developed as a general objective: to analyze the communicative practices developed by the Catholic schools in their process of approaching the Latino communities in Western Washington, USA. The theoretical foundation is grounded in intercultural communication theory. A qualitative methodology was used that is based on the case study method and semi-structured interview techniques (applied to 33 opinion leaders), questionnaires (applied to 300 members of Latino families) and focus groups. The results reveal, the lack of information that Latino families have about Catholic schools, ignorance of the mechanisms of participation in the school system evident by various factors, among which are: the lack of cultural training among school staff, bilingual teachers and administrators and communication and the lack of dialogue interaction between administrative offices and families. These deficits create an unwelcoming environment for Latino families because they perceive that their culture and language are not taken into consideration. It is concluded, that, as cultural outsiders, the Latino maintains high levels of uncertainty and anxiety that hinder and preclude active communication, despite remedial strategies that consciously or unconsciously can be developed. On the other hand, it becomes clear that the receiving group, in this case Catholic schools, despite the concern of some their key administrative personal, have not developed systematic actions to find a resolution to this situation.