The Students We Share

Reviewed by: The Students We Share: Preparing US and Mexican Educators for Our Transnational Future by Patricia Gándara and Bryant Jensen Sarah Albrecht Gándara, Patricia, and Bryant Jensen, editors. The Students We Share: Preparing US and Mexican Educators for Our Transnational Future. SUNY Press, 2021. Pp. 312. ISBN 978-1-4384-8323-8. The Students We Share: Preparing US and Mexican Educators for Our Transnational Future, edited by UCLA Professor Patricia Gándara and BYU Associate Professor Bryant Jensen, addresses the critical need for effective teaching of the nine million transnational students shared between the United States and Mexico. The book begins with a foreword by Darling Hammond, an expert in the field, and an introduction by the editors. These sections orient readers to the topic and highlight the book’s primary argument that teaching is the key to transnational student success, behind which all other resources and stakeholders must focus. The audience is teachers, administrators, scholars, teacher educators and policy makers. Given the central argument, the book’s purpose is to provide the training and resources needed for Mexican and US teachers to successfully prepare students for transnational academic, social and economic engagement. Figures and tables supplement all but chapters 4 and 5, providing useful visual representations of textual information and often graphically comparing systems between the two countries, such as teacher salaries or characteristics. The index is thorough, and, in keeping with the book’s transnational theme, includes dual English and Spanish entries when translations are noted in parentheses, making content easily accessible. The Students We Share is divided into three parts. Part 1 is “Teacher Preparation Across Borders.” Chapter 1, by Santibáñez, focuses on differences in Mexican and US educational systems such as teaching styles and parent involvement, noting that no programs exist for transitioning American Mexican students to Spanish-only schools and making recommendations for teacher training. Chapter 2, by Álfaro and Gándara, examines lessons learned from the groundbreaking International Teacher Education Program collaboration between Cal State and Mexico’s Secretariat of Education and how these lessons can be applied in the new Formadores de Docentes Binacionales program between California and Baja California. Finally, chapter 3 by Ruiz Bybee, Jensen and Johnstun, describes a qualitative study on how teacher courses in Mexico prepare pre-service teachers for transnational students. It finds little to no reference to migration or transnational students in teacher education and recommends an updated pre-service curriculum and more collaboration between US educators and researchers and Mexican pre-service teachers. [End Page 473] Part 2 is “Transnational Teaching.” Chapter 4, by Hamann and Zúñiga, addresses what teachers on both sides of the border need to know to successfully teach transnational students, including that these students have diverse familial, cultural and academic backgrounds and, crucially, that they should be considered international rather than one or the other nation’s responsibility. Chapter 5, by Gallo, is an ethnographically-based study of transnational students. Results showed that newly-arrived US students in Puebla, Mexico, had no transitioning to academic Spanish and were often isolated, with teachers receiving no pre- or in-service training on how to teach them. Researcher recommendations included teacher training focused on asset-based pedagogy, piloting dual-immersion schools in Mexico that would also support Mexico’s English program, and increasing bilingual education in the United States to help students transition between the two countries. Chapter 6, by Jensen, presents a thorough explanation of equitable teaching practices such as sufficient instructional time, broad-based and locally-relevant teaching quality, and their relationship to transnational student academic achievement. Chapter 7, by Román González and Sánchez García, is a qualitative study on American-Mexican student, teacher, and administrator experiences with transnationalism that proposes teacher mirroring of student experiences to improve student outcomes While it does not offer binational solutions like the other studies, the study does conclude that Spanish as a second language programs are needed in Mexico, and that Mexican schools should take advantage of the culture of educational involvement that transnational parents bring. Part 3, “Bridging Policies,” centers on policies that might or do affect transnational educational systems. Chapter 8, by López and

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