Аннотация:Existing shortcomings in the immigrant education literature include a neglect of the formal dimensions of schooling, preimmigration education, and Mexican students. An ethnographic case study based on a cultural‐ecological conceptual framework was designed to examine these issues from a transnational perspective. This article presents findings from the project's initial phase—a study of primary (grades 1–6) schooling in an immigrant‐sending community in Mexico, including a description of the national curriculum, which was observed to be of high quality, “radical” from a U.S. perspective, and internationally oriented. The modal instructional characteristics observed were teacher direction, verbal interactivity, and group orientation. These distinct patterns of schooling observed in this case are discussed in terms of their implications for immigrant education in the United States, as well as for our continuing efforts to understand the complexity of immigrant and ethnic minority education.
