A study of Mexican American cultural characteristics as perceived by members of 100 impoverished Mexican American families and its educational implications

Problem. The specific purpose of this study was to investigate two general basic questions: (1) Does the low socioeconomic Mexican American perceive himself as disclosed in the literature? (2) Are there relationships between educational achievement, perceived Cultural Characteristics and the seven specific themes: 1) Ethnic Isolation, 2) Spanish Language, 3) Fatalism, 4) Present Day Orientation, 5) Limited Aspirations, 6) Machismo, and 7) Family Solidarity? Procedure. Two questionnaires were developed by this investigator for use with ninth grade students and parents in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. The validity evaluation of the instruments was made by a five member panel of experts who have done extensive work in the field of Mexican American education. The questionnaires were checked for reliability using the test-retest method in the Houston Independent School District, Houston, Texas. One hundred randomly selected ninth grade students from Corpus Christi, Texas, were administered the instrument by this writer. Seventy-six parents of the selected students were interviewed by a two-member bilingual team from the same neighborhood. [...]