THE LITERATURE ON THE ACADEMIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT OF PORTUGUESE-CANADIAN YOUTH

Despite the alarming statistics surrounding the academic achievement of Portuguese children in Toronto schools, as well as the growing calls of parents for action on this matter, the question of why Portuguese children have been failing in such proportions has generally been ignored by educators, researchers and interested observers of the Portuguese community. As I will illustrate in this review and critique of the literature on Portuguese–Canadian youth, very little scholarly research has been conducted both on the broad topic of the Portuguese in Canada, as well as on the specific topic of Luso–Canadian youth, or matters related to their schooling. As I will further show, this information is generally fragmented, mostly unsubstantiated by empirical research, often child-centred, or - in the case of formal studies - focussed mainly on the practices and policies of the school system. At times it is also culturally biased and contradictory. Most importantly, the existing empirical studies have generally failed to seek out the point-of-view of community members, in order to investigate how they perceive their situation and roles within this country, as well as the way in which they see these issues as contributing to the underachievement of their children.[1] In this fashion, the existing body of literature on Portuguese-Canadians has failed to provide an adequate understanding of the complex nature and causes of the educational underachievement of Luso-Canadian youth.

In a bibliography compiled by Teixeira & Lavigne (1992), one can observe that there are relatively few comprehensive and scholarly references which deal with aspects of the general history and social conditions of the Portuguese in Canada, (ex. Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1979, 1980, 1983a; Anderson, 1974; Anderson & Higgs, 1976; Ferguson, 1964; Hamilton, 1970; Higgs, 1982, 1990; Lavigne, 1987; Marques & Medeiros, 1978, 1980; Noivo, 1997).[2] Much of the remaining available information on this group is still comprised of newspaper and magazine articles, non–scholarly research papers and reports, theses, student essays, and other, non–scholarly books. Even less work has been focussed specifically on the situation of young Portuguese-Canadians, or on the issues affecting their education, (ex. Bulger, 1987; Aguiar, 1994; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Cummins, 1991; Cummins, Lopes & King, 1987; Cummins, Lopes & Ramos, 1987; Dehli & Januario, 1994; Dodick, 1998; Feuerverger, 1991; Gerlai, 1987; Januario, 1992, 1994a, 1995; McLaren, 1986). Thus, the information on the education of Luso-Canadian children continues to be scattered throughout the general historical, sociological and anecdotal references on the Portuguese community, or in a limited number of narrowly-focussed, empirical research studies.

In general terms, the available literature where the issues of Portuguese–Canadian youth and their education are discussed can be divided into three groups:

A first group of references is comprised of various reports, essays, newspaper and magazine articles which have been written by teachers, students, journalists and social service workers, either on the specific topics of Portuguese youth or on aspects related to their education, (ex. Bulger, 1987; “Carl,” 1998; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Duffy, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c, 1995d, 1995f; Ferreira, 1998; Matas, 1984; Nunes, 1989; Philp, 1995; “‘Portuguese’ students,” 1995). Within this group, there are also numerous reports and newspaper articles on the general topic of the Portuguese in Canada, where youth and their education is discussed (ex. Costa, 1995; Ferreira, 1977; Grosner, 1995; Hamilton, 1970; Nunes, 1986a, 1986b; Portuguese Interagency Network, 1984). With a few exceptions, (ex. Costa, 1995), the information contained in many of these sources is mostly anecdotal, based on personal conjecture, or compiled through limited interviews and/or by citing only a small number of references.

A second category are the cursory references to Luso-Canadian youth and their education which are scattered throughout the scholarly historical or sociological works on the Portuguese in Canada, (ex. Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1979, 1980, 1983a; Anderson, 1974; Anderson & Higgs, 1976; Ferguson, 1964; Higgs, 1982; Noivo, 1997). While these works are generally more scholarly and methodologically rigorous than those in the first group, most of these sources are now badly dated. Furthermore, their examinations of the state of Portuguese-Canadian youth were limited by the lack of available formal research on this group. With the exception of Noivo’s (1997) book, many of the discussions on the education of Luso-Canadian youth which are contained within these works relied a great deal on material such as newspaper articles, on scholarly bibliographic searches, and/or on limited numbers of interviews with students, social service professionals and community members.

A third group of references on the underachievement issue are the formal research studies which have been conducted specifically on Luso-Canadian youth, or on aspects related to their education, (Aguiar, 1994; Arruda, 1993; Cummins, 1991; Cummins, Lopes & King, 1987; Cummins, Lopes & Ramos, 1987; Dehli & Januario, 1994; Dodick, 1998; Feuerverger, 1991; Gerlai, 1987; Januario, 1992, 1994a, 1995a; Kady, 1978; McLaren, 1986; Pepler & Lessa, N.d., 1993).[3] Within this group may also be counted a number of unpublished presentations or proceedings, some of which include good discussions of the state of the knowledge of formal research on these topics (ex. Januario 1993, September, 1994b, 1995b, 1997; Nunes, 1983, 1991a, 1991b, 1993)[4]

The information provided in these sources tends to be more focussed and empirically validated than that which is presented in the first groups. However, only a few of these works have dealt directly and exclusively with aspects of academic underachievement (Gerlai, 1987; Januario, 1992, 1993, September, 1994a, 1994b, 1995a, 1995b, 1997; McLaren, 1986). In addition, the scope of these reports was also much more limited. Finally, few of these sources examined, in any great detail, the social and economic context in which Portuguese students exist and generally did not delve into the ways in which this context might have contributed to the variables that were under study. I will now describe how the sources which comprise these first two groups of references characterize the issue of academic underachievement, followed by a summary of the most important works within these groups.

Much of the attention on the education of Luso-Canadian children has only been focussed since the release, in the mid-80’s and early 90’s, of the Toronto Board of Education Reports, which provided statistical validation of the community’s underachievement problem (ex. Board of Education, 1962; Brown et al. 1992; Cheng, et al, 1989; Larter & Eason, 1978; Larter, et al., 1986; Royal Commission on Learning, 1994, pp. 95-96). Consequently, the scholarly sociological or historical general references on the Portuguese - most of which were published prior to this period - generally do not address the issue of underachievement, in either a direct, or thorough fashion. In fact, many of the earlier (pre-1992) scholarly and non-scholarly references generally concentrated on describing aspects of the negotiation of the cultural duality, which Luso-Canadian children experience while navigating the conflicting norms and expectations of their traditional families and mainstream Canadian society (ex. Anderson & Higgs, 1976, pp. 175–183; Bulger, 1987; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Nunes, 1986b, pp. 29–38). Consequently, in those infrequent instances where academic underachievement was discussed, this was examined mainly in the light of these cultural conflicts, (ex. Bulger, 1987; Coelho, 1973, 1977), or as the result of parental practices, rather than as a problem linked to school policies and decisions. Thus, one element common to all of these references was their relative lack of critical evaluation of the role of the educational system, in producing educational failure and in intensifying – or even giving rise to – acculturation difficulties. Furthermore, in placing a focus on the children, on their families and on their adaptation problems, these sources have also made a number of assumptions regarding Luso-Canadian youth which, because they do not relate directly to education, fall outside the scope of this paper. These are discussed in Appendix 1.

In general, the sources in the scholarly general literature on the Portuguese and in the non-scholarly references attribute the underachievement problem to four main causes:

A number of authors have written that Portuguese families express a series of attitudes, practices and economic realities which disadvantage their children, with regards to education. These are:

• Luso-Canadian parents remove their children from school in order to have them contribute to paying off a home mortgage, or for other reasons, such as to marry them off, to keep them from acquiring what are seen to be bad “Canadian” habits from their peers, etc. (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 134).

• Luso-Canadians parents have little knowledge of the school system and consequently do not become involved in their children’s education, (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980; Grosner, 1995, p. 33)

• Luso-Canadian parents are not able to communicate with their children’s educators (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 140)

The scholarly & historical sources generally described a trend in the community towards favouring work and the vocational trades over schooling and academically-oriented careers. One of the most frequent and popular explanation for this trend is that Portuguese parents put their own children at a disadvantage by "mortgaging" the future of these young people for their own immediate economic gain, especially to pay off the family home. This observation is often used to make a more generalized value judgment, that Portuguese parents, in general, do not value education (Anderson, 1974; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Hartwig, 1979; Neves, 1977).

2. Educational problems caused by cultural differences in values and the ensuing cultural duality amongst Luso-Canadian youth.

Some of the pre-1990 references also promoted the idea that the Portuguese cultural practices and norms which marked the Luso-Canadian family and which the child brought to school - the so-called “cultural baggage” - were also at fault in causing the academic underachievement of Portuguese children. Some references berate Portuguese-Canadian parents for not valuing education, in general, and for not encouraging their children to higher schooling. Other authors focussed on the ensuing “cultural duality” which these differences created amongst young Luso-Canadians and which affected their academic decisions. Burnet and Palmer (1988) summarize this tendency, during the early 70’s, when describing the educational problems of Luso-Canadian children:

For the most part the children from recently arrived non-English-speaking families performed well in the schools [....] Children of immigrants whose level of education was low did pose some problems, however [...] the Portuguese, whose formal education in the 1960’s averaged 3.7 years for men and 2.8 years for women, drew special attention. Hence, concern about linguistic skills quickly became concern about “cultural deprivation,” a lack in the home of attitudes and facilities conducive to achievement in the schools. (pp. 116-117)

Thus, the explanations for Luso–Canadian academic underachievement within these earlier sources in the non-academic literature often reflect this “cultural deprivation” point-of-view.

• Portuguese-Canadians generally have low educational expectations, (Anderson, 1974; Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 38; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Hartwig, 1979, Neves, 1977).

• Portuguese-Canadians value the accumulation of immediate financial resources over the pursuit of education. This is sometimes illustrated by Portuguese parents who prematurely remove their children from school, in order to put them to work, (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, pp. 80, 100, 177-178, 204; Anderson, 1974; Coelho, 1973, 1977; Hartwig, 1979; Neves, 1977; Noivo, 1997).

• A perceived low intellectual ability amongst most Portuguese children, (Matas, 1984).

As I have discussed in the previous chapter on Luso–Canadian academic underachievement, there are many indications that Portuguese youth have had great difficulties with the English language. In 1962, 48.4% of the total number of Portuguese immigrant children in the Toronto school system were said to have been reading below their grade level, (Coelho, 1973, 1977; Board of Education, 1962). In the early 1980's one out of every three high school students in Toronto with Portuguese as their first language was in a vocational program, where most students are at a grade 5 level in reading and mathematical skills, (Matas, 1984).

Many teachers and observers have associated and confused this problem with English–language skills with a lack of intelligence (Leishman, 1978). Laura Araujo stated in 1978 that,

Children of Portuguese immigrants get short–changed in Ontario's school system because their weakness in the English language is confused with slowness. (Brazao, 1978).

Those who have difficulty with English, get left behind. They are enrolled in schools where they learn a trade and are soon put to work. Its a little more money to help in the purchase of a home. In this fashion, dreams of a better future are dissolved. (My translation) (Bulger, 1987, p. 18).

It is partly for this reason that some educators hold the grossly simplified, (and blatantly racist) explanation that Portuguese children do not have the intellectual capacity to cope with the curriculum. For example, in a 1984 article in the Globe and Mail, the principal of the former West Park Secondary School, a west–end Toronto, basic–level institution with a high Portuguese-Canadian student ratio, was paraphrased as saying how students of all ethnic groups find it difficult to cope with academic subjects because they have very little ability to retain things and often have difficulty coping with abstract concepts or generalizations, (Matas, 1984).[5]

4. Disadvantaging practices of the school system in placement and provision of services to Luso-Canadian students

A number of authors also brought up certain practices of the school system, (many of which are no longer practised), which, in the past, disadvantaged many Luso-Canadian youth. These included inadequate age-placement, the lack of E.S.L. teachers, a more relaxed discipline of Canadian schools and streaming.

Anderson and Higgs (1976) wrote one of the earliest and most extensive analysis of the Portuguese presence in Canada. Although primarily historical in nature, their work describes aspects of the processes of adaptation of the various generations comprising the Portuguese communities of this country. They also present accounts of some of the main problems which the younger generations face upon entering into their new environment.

Since this book was written at a time when the presence of large numbers of Portuguese in this country was still a relatively recent fact, it generally does not depict the disproportionate absence of Luso-Canadian students in colleges and universities as a problem. The authors assumed - as did many people in the Portuguese community at the time - that this was a temporary phenomenon. Indeed, in a number of places, the authors voiced their expectations that many young Luso-Canadians would soon be entering into post-secondary education (Anderson & Higgs, 1976. pp. 50, 183).

However, in various parts of their work, they give recognition to a budding community underachievement problem by describing the presence of low educational ambitions amongst the community’s youth:

The young people are reaching Grades 9 or 10 in high school. Many are taking vocational courses. The young men are entering skilled trades, carpentry and welding, or are training to become electricians or auto mechanics; the young women are entering hairdressing, secretarial work, clerical work in banks, or seeking careers in social work, nursing or teaching (Anderson & Higgs, 1976. p. 187)

Among Portuguese Canadians, it is not generally believed that extensive education is necessary to adjust well to Canada [...] There is no clear class basis for parents’ encouragement of their children to continue their studies, for in many cases they do not consider education beyond elementary school to be necessary in order to find employment.(Anderson & Higgs, 1976. p. 36)

The authors further describe a number of difficulties related to the practices of the school system, at the time. They mention how older Portuguese children were often put at a disadvantage in their new schools, by being placed in earlier grades, with much younger children (Anderson & Higgs, 1976. p.139). They also related how others experienced the “humiliation” of being forced to return to school after having worked for a number of years in Portugal. Finally, the authors remarked how Portuguese-Canadian fathers don’t become involved in their children’s schooling, and how the lack of official language fluency often impedes communication with teachers (p. 140).

Despite the extensive scope of the information contained in this source, many of the observations on young Portuguese–Canadians that were made in this book have since become dated. Having been written in the early 70’s, most of these comments refer to child immigrants, rather than to the great numbers of Luso-Canadian children who have since been born in this country. These observations also suffer from the lack of primary research on this topic. Many conclusions were based on the anecdotal evidence of individuals - often students - and on material from the media. For example, in summarizing the findings of articles in The Spectator of Hamilton, a comment is made which most probably no longer applies today,

School teachers with many Portuguese students in their classes note that each year one or two of the girls are taken out of school to marry a young man in a match initiated by their parents. (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 134).

In another instance, it is affirmed that young people coming to Canada under the sponsorship of an older brother or sister have made a faster and more successful adjustment to the school and social environment than those who immigrated with their parents, (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 140). Yet, the question of how the complex issue of adjustment was measured was not discussed.

In fairness, the authors mention how little attempt was made to analyse the educational patterns which were only then becoming evident. As they state at one point, “the whole history of education and ethnicity in Canadian life is a complex one which calls for much research...” (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, p. 137).

Another comprehensive general reference dealing with the Portuguese in Canada is Alpalhão and Da Rosa's (1980) examination of the Portuguese in Quebec.[6] This book examines, in a detailed and scholarly fashion, the process of the immigration and adaptation issues of the Portuguese in the province of Quebec.

This work also treats the analysis of the circumstances of the second generation in a more comprehensive fashion. It avoids the kinds of untested blanket assumptions which marked much of the general literature (see Appendix 1). For example, in describing the state of duality of young Luso–Canadians, the authors do not assume that these become "Canadianized" quickly and easily:

...the children, who are more attached to their new homeland, feel torn between their own tastes and those of their parents and suffer from a certain insecurity about their destiny and their future. (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, p. 146).

Alpalhão and Da Rosa (1980) also remarked on the presence of an underachievement problem amongst Luso-Canadian youth in Quebec. They mentioned how the average education level of young Portuguese in Quebec was lower than that for the province, in general (p. 167). They stated:

This Portuguese community has a reputation as a group of hardworking people who respect the social order. There are some, however, who see as negative the emphasis placed on economic concerns as opposed to the lesser interest shown in the culture of origin and in education. In general, young people tend to limit their schooling to the required minimum because they prefer to find jobs which can guarantee immediate earnings. (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, p. 80)

In the choice of studies, one still finds a tendency towards vocational courses as opposed to an academic option which would normally lead to a university career. (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, pp. 165-166)

In attempting to account for this phenomenon, they described the tendency of many parents to favour work over schooling:

For immigrants, children’s schooling continues to be regarded as a means of acquiring social prestige and guaranteeing the future rather than as a factor in integration. However, as we have already pointed out, many immigrant parents are still content to have their children receive a minimum of schooling and enter the labour market as soon as possible (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, pp. 165-166).

They also commented on the conflicting values of the community and the receiving society and on how the high degree of value placed upon home ownership and economic progress sometimes lead Luso-Canadians to focus on working (pp. 100, 177-178, 204).

Yet, as was the case in Anderson and Higgs (1976) book, this work was not about education. Alpalhão and Da Rosa's (1980) general analysis devoted relatively little attention to schooling issues, or to the educational ramifications of the process of the adaptation of youth. Consequently, it dealt mostly with value differences between the first and second generations. Furthermore, no primary research on parental or youth attitudes and practices was available upon which to rely. For the most part, conclusions were formulated from a sampling of the material which was available at the time. This lead to at least one instance of a comment which appeared to contradict earlier statements about the preference of parents for giving their children a minimum of schooling:

We must underline the efforts made by the Portuguese group to maintain their culture of origin and to share in the cultural values of the new milieu. This is particularly evident in their concern with education and the social advancement of their children. Many Portuguese children are subjected to a very intensive curriculum, usually chosen by the parents, who find their fulfilment in the achievements of their children and who frequently tend to enrol them both in official schools and in the Portuguese school, sometimes adding private lessons in ballet, drama, piano, etc. (Alpalhão & Da Rosa, 1980, p. 167).

A final limitation of their work was the question of the applicability of their observations to the situation of Portuguese–Canadian youth in English Canada. Since the language and culture of Quebec society are more closely akin to the Portuguese than is the case in English–Canada, (in that both are Latin-based), it is hard to guess what specific impact this may have upon the educational and adaptive circumstances of Luso-Canadian youth in that province. For example, one immediate difference is the higher incidence of differentiation and “discrimination” which Luso-Canadian youth in Quebec seem to report (See Chapter 10 of the present study).

Another extensive reference on the Portuguese in Canada was provided by Hamilton (1970). This work is a scholarly general report on the Portuguese community that is based almost entirely on historical, anecdotal and media material. The report was written for the Toronto Board of Education, as a resource to aid teachers to better understand their Portuguese pupils.

Hamilton (1970) describes only in passing the presence of lower educational expectations of the part of the Portuguese and situates this squarely within the realm of a clash of cultural norms, between a rural traditional culture and a modern liberal one. As Hamilton says in one point:

Special problems of transition are faced by a people such as the Portuguese who have moved from a largely rural class background with low educational standards and an authoritarian family, state and church life to an urban milieu speaking not only a new language, but maintaining different employment and mass educational standards and expressing an often secular life style. A clash of cultures has resulted as the ‘Canadian way of life splits the generations in immigrant families’ (Hamilton, 1970, p. 75) (Quotation marks in original)

This conflict of opposing traditions and life styles is an especially poignant issue for the many young people. Accustomed to a highly structured family, church, and school environments, they find themselves torn between the often contradictory demands of both becoming Canadian and yet remaining Portuguese. Often older children are expected to leave school to earn a living... ...Such practice is customary for many Portuguese at home, and even within the school age population a clash of cultures soon occurs (Hamilton, 1970, p. 77)

Hamilton (1980) also alludes to certain “barriers and communication gaps, which reinforce the immigrants’ isolation within his own community” (p. 81).

Unfortunately, the emphasis of Hamilton’s (1970) work was on Portuguese history, society and political realities. It offered little useful information on the Portuguese in Canada, and virtually nothing on the situation of Portuguese children in the classroom. Furthermore, no empirical data describing the specific situation of Luso–Canadian youth in Toronto schools was collected or presented. For example, this report could well have included the administration of a short questionnaire to Luso-Canadian parents or students.

In fact, even with Hamilton's extensive collection of information on Portuguese society, some of the few inferences on Portuguese youth in Portugal remained inaccurately substantiated or based on assumptions. For example, in describing the relative weight which traditions hold in determining the life of adults and the career choices of youth in Portugal, he states,

The distance between Portuguese and Canadian experience is difficult for even the most reflective mind to grasp. In Canada, for example, the relation between fathers and sons is often described in terms of a 'generation gap'. In Portugal, the opposite is true. When a student is asked to indicate his occupational goal, he is likely to reply 'like my father' rather than specifying an actual occupation. Like father, like son. This is the meaning of an oral tradition for the individual Portuguese of rural extraction. (Hamilton, 1970, p. 80)

Hamilton’s observation of the reproduction of economic roles amongst the Portuguese is somewhat warranted, given the fact that the second generation have generally been reported to follow their parents’ occupational directions and class positioning (Anderson & Higgs, 1976, pp. 82, 187; Noivo, 1997). However, Hamilton erred in ascribing this tendency to the effects of “tradition” and in failing to look at the social and environmental determinants to occupational choices. Put simply - until very recently - a father's field of work has traditionally been the only economically available path which was open for most young people in rural Portugal and the only ready source for occupational “role modelling”. For example, a study of work perceptions in that country indicated that, in comparison to the United States and Australia, Portuguese students had the least work experience; a fact that was attributed to the high unemployment rate in this developing nation, (Nevill & Perrota, 1985). Other studies have shown that in the rural areas, the only available avenues for economic or social progress for those children who would not inherit property has historically been the priesthood, or emigration (mostly to Brasil) (Durães, 1987; Vieira, 1990). Finally, a 1988 study conducted on Portuguese high school students illustrated that Portuguese boys clearly preferred jobs that provided high salaries and prestige, while girls chose those that were judged to be the most feminine and that also provided the most prestige, (Mullet & Neto, 1988).

Another important reference on the Portuguese in Canada was a report conducted for the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto which attempted to study the relation between rural immigrants and Toronto's community services, (Ferguson, 1964). This report is an account of a two year project which the Institute undertook to study the way in which Portuguese and Italian immigrants lived, as well as the various needs and difficulties which social workers observed concerning the former’s adaptation to life in Toronto, in the early 1960's. It is interspersed with interesting case histories, which the author uses to illustrate her points.

In this report, Ferguson described how the Portuguese and Italian communities were facing a serious drop-out problem:

School officials are particularly concerned about the drop-out problem among children of immigrant parents, which, they feel, is higher than average, although no statistics are available for comparison (Ferguson, 1964, p. 86).

Ferguson (1964) also quoted a Board of Education Report which showed that Portuguese students were amongst the five language groups who were found to be functioning below their grade level (“Board of Education,” 1962).

As in many of the references which we are discussing, Ferguson ascribed the drop-out problem to parents who removed their children from school prematurely (Ferguson, 1964, pp. 77, 86).

Children are part of the family working unit and are expected to contribute as soon as possible to the family income (Ferguson, 1964, p. 86).

However, Ferguson described a few cases which indicated that parents sometimes removed their children from school, for reasons other than to assist the family financially. For example, she cites one case of parents who wanted to remove their 15 and 16 year-old daughters because they were wanting to adopt habits and preferences, such as wearing lipstick and attending parties with boys, which were non-traditional for the family, (p. 77). In another case, a 14 year-old boy had begun taking time off from school to deliver newspapers in the afternoon, because his mother was unaware that she was eligible for Mother’s Allowance (p. 77).

Ferguson, (1964) attributed the decision of parents to remove their children from school to their lack of knowledge of the need for education, as well as to the difficult socioeconomic situation of many new immigrants from rural origins:

There are many requests for work permits for children between the ages of 14 and 16 and because family incomes are low, school authorities find it difficult to refuse. If parents were sufficiently aware of the need for education, they might be willing to make more sacrifices, and if parents earned more, economic pressures might not be so great, and they would not be so dependent on children’s pay cheques (Ferguson, 1964, p. 86).

Ferguson (1964, p. 35) described the attempt to quickly purchase a home as one of the biggest reasons for the difficult financial situation of many immigrant families. According to the author, many Portuguese and Italian immigrants became highly indebted with a mortgage, since upon entering this country with virtually no material or financial resources, they regarded home ownership as the primary means to their security:

New immigrants find themselves here with no possessions, nothing but their hands. They bend every effort toward saving for a home, which gives them security, some roots and some status in the community. Without it, they are no-bodies (Ferguson, 1964, p. 35).

Finally, Ferguson (1964, pp. 82-86) made a prophetic warning about increasing automation and the way in which this would decrease the availability of unskilled positions, in the future, for both immigrants and their children:

...it appears to be an obvious, positive, and inescapable fact that a large number of rural immigrants will suffer seriously from unemployment in the not too distant future (Ferguson, 1964, p. 85).

The school drop-out problem is serious among immigrants as well as among native born. Among these young people are the potential professional and skilled workers which Canada needs so urgently now and for a few years to come. Special attention is needed to the matter of keeping them in school and making it possible for them to develop their talents (Ferguson, 1964, p. 108).

Ferguson (1964, p. 109-119) gave a number of recommendations designed to lessen the adaptation problems of these immigrants, which included informing immigrants of the impending effect of automation upon employment (p. 113), finding methods of upgrading the general education of these groups, (p. 113) and the creation of scholarships for promising immigrant youth (p. 117)

As in the case of the previous works, many of Ferguson's observations are also now outdated. Furthermore, although she includes some discussion of the difficulties encountered by Portuguese–Canadian youth at school and at home, her field of focus was limited to operative problems and those aspects of immigrant adaptation which involve the intervention of social workers. In practice, this means that, as in many other works where case studies are utilized, there was the tendency to illustrate certain points utilizing only the most extreme examples. Furthermore, although Ferguson stressed the importance of education and communication, there was also little mention of the role which schools and school programmes (ex. E.S.L.) played in bettering the educational prospects of immigrant children.[7]Throughout the report, little distinction was also made between Italians and Portuguese, so that in many of the examples that were used, the author did not stipulate to which group it referred.

Ferguson (1964) also makes certain assumptions about the way immigrant children adapted to their new environment. For example, she did not describe any aspect of the internal cultural conflict in the younger generation:

"If [the immigrants] are married their children grow up as Canadians and have little interest in the old country." (Ferguson, 1964, p. 34)

At least one recent work has thrown doubts into this blanket assertion. Antonio Arruda’s (1993) study, of 17 adults in Vancouver found that many of these subjects either did not lose, or were attempting to recapture, their Portuguese identity. Furthermore, the participants at a 1986 conference which was entirely conceived and organized by Portuguese-Canadian youth concluded,

The retention of the Portuguese identity of ancestral values and cultural roots is important to Luso–Canadian youth today. They do not want to shed their roots, but they feel they are in a cultural tug–of–war. (Luso–Canadian, 1986)

Recent years have also seen the creation of Luso–Canadian clubs in the two Toronto Universities and many other youth also participate in the clubs and associations of the Portuguese community. Finally, it was Portuguese students who lobbied for the teaching of the Portuguese language at Toronto’s Harbord Collegiate (a Secondary School) (Azevedo, 1992).

Anderson (1974) also wrote an extensive description of the social network which determined the process of immigration of the Portuguese to Canada. Through a study based on 200 interviews, she argued that networks of informal and family contacts provided the opportunities for employment and housing that have allowed Portuguese immigrants to come to this country and to achieve "success". She also made mention of the nature of life for the Portuguese in Toronto – including comments on the situation of the 2nd generation.

Yet, her work suffers seriously from the presence of unproven and unstated assumptions. For instance, she took economic success to be the only criteria for success in life for Portuguese immigrants. She also defined the dubious economic success that Portuguese have found in this country through recourse to superficial markers, such as a well maintained home:

"The Portuguese manual workers were chosen for this study for several reasons. They are highly regarded generally in Toronto by employers because they are hard–working persons who fit well into the majority of manual jobs. In the neighbourhoods in which they settle they have achieved an excellent reputation for a high level of home ownership and for maintaining their property in excellent condition. Although many of the immigrants have few years of formal education, they not only support themselves but frequently are economically successful, especially by contrast to their North American educational counterparts." (Anderson, 1974, p. 3)

In describing home ownership and the well–kept condition of one's home as the only criteria for success, Anderson ignored other factors of personal accomplishment; such as certain qualities of family and social life which the Portuguese take as a measure of fulfilment and which other authors such as Noivo (1997) and Nunes (1986a, 1986b) have argued they sometimes sacrifice in their struggle to obtain financial stability. Anderson also glossed over serious social issues of the Portuguese in Canada by ignoring the material, physical and economic privations, sacrifices of lifestyle and frequent exposure to disability in the workplace, which most Portuguese endure in order to achieve home ownership. This was done, even though her respondents clearly indicated the importance of this aspect of their lives to her,

"Although many men in the sample came originally to better their standard of living, they do not necessarily consider that they have bettered their way of life."(Anderson, 1974, p. 178)

In a more recent study, Noivo (1997, p.88) also observed how the second-generation individuals whom she interviewed considered themselves inadequate and felt that they had failed to succeed academically and occupationally in this society.

Laura Bulger, (1987) was another author who wrote on issues affecting the second-generation. Bulger’s (1987) work is comprised of two essays, drawn mainly from the personal conjecture of the author. These are focussed mainly upon issues of adaptation, acculturation and identity of of Luso-Canadian young people, as well as on the problems which this engendered. The author briefly described the history of the founding of Canada, as well as this nation’s Multiculturalism policy. She further elaborated upon how these influence the sense of identity of second-generation Luso-Canadians.

Bulger (1987) characterized Canadian society as one which offers many Luso-Canadians of the second generation more economic freedom and political plurality, but which allows them much less social freedom:

Outside of the home, no one objects strongly or contradicts in public, for fear of being impolite; no one displays great intimacy or emotions, because of the fear rooted in an anglo-saxon puritanism; no one gesticulates, for fear of being looked upon badly or asks personal questions, for fear of being indiscrete. The adolescent perceives this social conditioning and conceals himself, humbled, behind a strange comportment, that manifests itself in various ways, either through an excessive timidity or through exhibiting a forced <<canadianism>>, refusing to be <<Portuguese>> or to speak Portuguese (Bulger, 1987, p. 11) (My translation)

She described Canadian society as “...a materialistic society, where the utilitarian and profits negate the human aspects,” (Bulger, 1987, p. 9) (My translation). Within this context she affirmed that Luso-Canadian youth seek not only “...economic independence but also social access and political participation” (p.9) (my translation).

However, she also commented on how members of the second-generation are ultimately marginalized within their new environment, and detailed how the conflicts caused by their duality often leave young Luso-Canadians with a lack of motivation to succeed:

Confronted, however, by customs that had begun to wane in their country of origin and by a new code of conduct that is imposed upon them, without it, however, being a part of their experience; rich in options but indecisive regarding choices, even because the motivation which is their parent's pride, is lacking to them; marginalized within their own environment where they grew up and insecure about a past that they little know and that, at times, they often wish to forget, the youth of this second generation have difficulties in affirming themselves as citizens of their new country. (My translation) (Bulger, 1987, p. 20).

As Bulger described at one point, this marginalization is often brought about by the status of these youth as “hyphenated Canadians,” who belong to an ethnic group which is socially and economically less privileged (Bulger, 1987, pp. 10-11)

Bulger’s work made a tentative link between the influence of a socially and economically dominant society on the identity development of second-generation Luso-Canadians and their ultimate success. However, it was inadequate as an analysis of educational issues. As in previous references where the issues of youth are discussed, the implicit message of Bulger’s work was that the impending problems of this generation are solely attributable to the effects of the clash of cultures and its subsequent duality. As she related:

In this second generation, are deposited all of the expectations and in it is also identified the conflict of a phenomenon for which our historical situation predisposes us. For them, the loneliness is as wide as their progenitors, perhaps even heavier because they find themselves at the confluence of various directions, without knowing which path to take (Bulger, 1987, p. 19) (My translation)

Moreover, in describing educational difficulties, Bulger made only one comment, which described how school related barriers often lead traditional Portuguese parents to give up on their children’s education and on their future:

“You have to get used to living in this country.” “Here one doesn’t live as back there.” “Explain to your parents that they have to get used to a healthy diet.” Repeat the school counsellor or the social worker. And the children, who didn’t understand yet their status as “immigrant children,” children of immigrants, make a gesture like they understand. They are docile, sometimes, others, rebellious, as all adolescents. But the educational system is complicated. Those who have difficulty in English, these get left behind. They are enrolled in schools where they learn a trade and soon they are put to work. It’s a little bit more money to help in the payment of the house. And this is how dreams of a better future are dissolved. (Bulger, 1987, p. 18) (my translation)

Bulger closes her discussions by citing how the written testimonials of those in the second-generation reveal “...great disturbance and suffering” (p. 20).

In summary, Bulger’s (1987) analysis was too brief and generalized to clarify the problem of underachievement. The author also placed the exclusive emphasis for the successful integration of the Luso-Canadian second generation into mainstream Canadian society almost exclusively on the outcome of the negotiation of their cultural duality. In this fashion, she generally neglected to comment on educational barriers, the influence of economic and social marginality upon the duality of Luso-Canadian youth, as well as on how these factors influence the creation of role-definitions within traditional Portuguese families.

One of the few Canadian sources which deals directly and exclusively with the education problems of Portuguese youth in Canada was written by Ana Maria Coelho (1973; 1977), a teacher in the Cambridge (Galt) school system. Like Hamilton’s (1970) work, this report was written as a resource tool directed at teachers wanting to increase their understanding of their Portuguese students. However, unlike Hamilton’s work, this essay did not focus on Portuguese history and culture, but rather presents a brief, narrative account of the major adjustment problems of Portuguese youth in school, home and community, and some of their causes.

Coelho’s (1973) report was one of the few early works to describe some of the school-related barriers which disadvantaged Luso-Canadian children. The author mentioned how during the early 70’s, when the report was produced, most Luso-Canadian child immigrants were thrust into the Canadian school system with no consideration of age-appropriateness. She described how many Portuguese children were reading and speaking below their grade level (p.4). She also described the lack of school resources, such as E.S.L. and special reading classes, the dearth of qualified staff to deal with language minority children and the discipline problems which resulted when Portuguese immigrant children began to take advantage of the more lax discipline in Canadian schools.

Yet, although this author mentioned these school-related barriers - as in Ferguson’s (1964) and Hamilton’s (1970) work - the emphasis in this report remained in detailing how the attributes of traditional, rural Portuguese culture prevented the successful integration of these children in Canadian schools and created the conditions for a culture conflict. She stated:

The problem of transition is essentially twofold: A change from rural to urban and the conflict between the two cultures (Coelho, 1973, p. 5).

In making this point, she cited information from both of those authors, as well as the media, to describe the worst excesses of some of these families, such as daughters being “beaten senseless” by their fathers for suspicion of promiscuity (Correl, The Toronto Daily Star, June 7, 1969, Cited in Coelho, 1973). In paraphrasing a line from Ferguson’s book, she stated:

Consequently, the problem faced by the school is not only second language learning, but a social and psychological problem. (Coelho, 1973, p. 5)

In describing a growing underachievement problem amongst Portuguese children in Galt, Coelho ascribes this issue directly to the practice of parents removing their children from school prematurely:

Today Galt school officials are particularly concerned about the drop-out problems among Portuguese children. There are many requests for work permits for children between the ages of 14 and 16. Often the child is quite anxious to remain in school. The main reason is that parents feel that the children should supplement the family’s income. Children, to the Portuguese, are part of the family working unit and income. They usually are expected to turn over their complete pay cheque until they plan to marry. (Coelho, 1973, p. 6)

Yet, in making this observation, she also went further to provide a heavily value-laden interpretation for this action and directly accused Portuguese fathers and mothers of not caring about the welfare of their children:

The tragedy of it all is that some of these children are very ambitious and talented. Many are university material but their whole future is risked because of family selfishness, not necessarily financial need.

The father would much rather have a large figure in his bankbook and materialistic wealth, than scholarly children." (Coelho, 1973, p.6)

Coelho’s substantial assumption about the situation of financial largess amongst Luso-Canadians during the 70’s was made in direct contradiction to Ferguson’s (1964) comments of the precarious economic circumstances of many people in this community; a curious position, given the fact that Coelho obviously used Ferguson’s report as background material for her own work.

Coelho's (1973, 1977) essay was useful as an introductory source for teachers wanting to learn more about the culture conflict of their Portuguese students. However, as a source of analysis on the academic underachievement of Portuguese students, it was extremely resumed, generalized and inadequate. Furthermore, as in Hamilton’s (1970) work, no attempt was made to gather primary data to support the observations that were made. The author also gave little weight to examining how the practices of the school system which were identified created and perpetuated students’ “social and psychological problem.”

More seriously, it was heavily tainted with value-laden, unsubstantiated, culturally-biased assumptions about the supposed “inadequacies” of traditional Portuguese culture. This feeling culminated at the close of this work, where the author insinuated that the problems of Portuguese students will only be resolved, when they are able to rid themselves of the vestiges of their Portuguese cultural values:

But there is a spark of hope, for culture is not a static entity [...] Migrants make adjustments in their new environments, and in so doing create new values and attributes (Coelho, 1973, p. 8).

In the end, Coelho makes it obvious that her interpretations were heavily influenced by the ubiquitous encroachment of her own negative family experiences. She confesses,

"Many of the conflicts discussed in this paper have some hope of being resolved. Others will continue to exist for many decades to come. The young immigrant must cope with them or revolt against them in order that he may find his peace of mind. As one who has been put though the grind mill, I can honestly say that I cannot deduce any magic solution." (Coelho, 1973, pp. 7–8)

This point highlights one of the major limitation which characterized both Coelho's work, as well as some of the material which is based solely on limited numbers of interviews with second-generation Portuguese-Canadians. This is the tendency for many authors writing on the Luso-Canadian family to regard adolescent problems (for example, educational difficulties, or conflicts between parents and youth) strictly in terms of culture conflicts. For example, many of Coelho's observations could as easily have been made of mainstream Canadian children who were going trough the normal turmoil of adolescence:

"He begins to regret this commitment to the family. He yearns for independence and self–identity. This often is the basis for a family split.", (Coelho, 1973, p. 5)

This tendency was also apparent in one of my own earlier publications, which I wrote while still an undergraduate Geography student, and which examined the adaptation problems of the Luso–Canadian family, (Nunes, 1986a). More extensive and updated than Coelho's (1973; 1977), this work examined the particular obstacles and difficulties experienced by each of the different nuclear family members, in turn, including the children. This is also the only work to–date which has attempted to elaborate, from a psychological perspective, on the process of acculturation of Luso–Canadian youth, on their school-related difficulties, and also the only available source (besides Ferguson’s, 1964, work) which attempted to formulate specific recommendations for alleviating the adaptation problems of Portuguese–Canadian families.

Within this work, I discussed many of the same school barriers which were described by Coelho (1973, 1977), such as lack of E.S.L., the inappropriate placement of older students in earlier grades, and the inability of most Portuguese parents to assist their children with educational matters (Nunes, 1986, p. 37). I further mentioned my belief at the time that the lack of parental incentive was the root cause of the poor scholastic advancement of Luso-Canadian youth:

Problems in maintaining a high scholastic achievement and very often pressures from the parents to begin contributing financially to the family are behind a high Secondary School drop-out rate (Nunes, 1986, p. 38).

I went on to make a prediction about the future of the community’s youth, by stating that although, “young Portuguese-Canadians now in school will be more willing to enter university,” (Nunes, 1986, p. 43), in actual fact “few will permeate into [these institutions]” (p. 38).

However, while this work invariably helped to augment the few references on Luso-Canadians which were available at the time, like Coelho’s (1973; 1977) report, the focus of my book was on problems of adaptation, rather than education. For example, the section dealing with problems of Luso-Canadian youth dealt almost exclusively with their internal cultural conflict:

The immigrant Portuguese child’s greatest challenge is to deal with the tenuous yet crucial problem of their ethnic group identification (Nunes, 1986, p. 30)

Also like Coelho’s work, this examination was mainly anecdotal and consequently suffered from a lack of empirical validation. While this reference avoided much of Coelho’s culturally biased comments and assumptions,[8] the discussion around youth centred mainly around the problems which result from the cultural conflict between parents and their children, as well as on the importance of a healthy resolution to the individual youth’s ethnic group identification (pp. 32-36). Furthermore, most of my observations were based on only a few interviews and limited bibliographic research (which included Coelho’s 1993 work). Consequently, this discussion on youth adaptation was written almost entirely from my interpretation of my life experiences and those of my closest peers.[9]

One of the most recent general sociological examinations on the Portuguese was conducted by Noivo (1993, 1997).[10] This author interviewed 35 Luso-Canadians - 10 each from the first and second generations and 15 from the third-generation - in an effort to chronicle the marital and parent-child relationships of these three groups. The author described how the “social injuries” of class and gender inequalities, migration, generational conflicts and minority group status juxtapose amongst Luso-Canadian families to negatively affect their quality of life (Noivo, 1993, pp. 66, 68-69, 1997, pp. 7-31). She went on to illustrate how the marriage between the “immigrant project” (pp. 54-59) (to succeed economically, purchase a house, etc) and “family projects” (pp. 28, 46-48) (to create a better environment for family life) often leads to multiple contradictions, visible and invisible injuries amongst its members, and the compromising of the dreams and aspirations of these individuals, (most particularly for women, the elderly and youth). As the author concludes:

...migration ended up placing tremendous strains on kin ties, particularly on sibling relationships. Carrying out family and migration projects simultaneously masks many social contradictions and constitutes, intensifies and doubles social burdens. (Noivo, 1997, p. 135)

Noivo (1997) also described how the intersection of “family projects” and “immigrant projects” often leads directly to the co-opting of the younger generations in the projects of the older individuals, in ways which stifle their schooling and social mobility.

It is the family trajectories and life experiences of previous generations that largely determine the lifestyles of the younger members. (Noivo, 1997, p. 134)

The second-generation individuals within Noivo’s (1997) study eventually internalized their parents’ vision of what constitutes a better economic life - sacrificing their personal academic advancement to the family’s economic project and maintaining their own children in an artificially high standard of living (p. 57). As a result, of the 10 second-generation members which she interviewed, 7 had dropped-out of high-school and had been required to pool their monetary resources with the family (p. 56), mainly by being obliged to submit their pay cheques to their fathers (p. 66). As Noivo summarized:

Very few second-generation members have actually fulfilled the aspirations of the first generation. Instead, most continue to rely substantially on the socioeconomic resources of their aging parents.[...] the overall educational, social and economic lives of the third generation are alarming. Yet, none of the parents in this study seem to grasp the structural barriers to class mobility, nor are they ready to (re)examine their methods of “helping” their children, and to question their and their children’s perceptions of what constitutes a good (family) life.(Noivo, 1997, p. 134)

The author also described how, second-generation parents were insecure and tended to blame themselves both for their own and their children’s low educational level:

Because the majority see Canada as an open and mobile society based on merit and equal opportunity, many parents also feel personally responsible for and embarrassed of their children’s poor academic achievement. Like other working-class members, they interpret “their” failure to move up the social ladder as individual inadequacy and not as a structural problem. Accordingly, these parents ordinarily voice strong regrets for “having made nothing” of themselves, for “not having gone to night school,” and for “not having been given the opportunity to continue studying.” But, most persuasively stress - as if to vindicate their injured self-image - “it’s going to be different with our children. (Noivo, 1997, pp. 88-89)

She further described how these second-generation parents placed a great deal of emphasis on providing their own children all the opportunities and resources which they felt they had lacked, as well as on encouraging these children into high-paying, high-status occupations, such as doctor and lawyer (p. 89).

However, Noivo (1997) also relayed grave concerns that, because of this treatment, the 3rd generation are living in relative indolence and ignorance of their vulnerable educational and economic position. Of the fifteen youths which she interviewed, only one was financially independent (Noivo, 1993, p. 71) and most were living pampered and sheltered by their parents, well above their means. The author describes her fears that an entire generation in the community is heading for an economic calamity:

First, a great number of third-generation members are neither pursuing an education nor acquiring marketable skills. They remain oblivious to the current trends and demands in the labour market, namely to the fact that increasing automation will result in the elimination of the kinds of jobs working-class immigrants have generally held. Second, whereas these largely unskilled working-class youths expect to get personal fulfilment and gratification from their work, they are also used to a lot of leisure time and to relatively higher consumption than their class position allows for. Many appear fervently determined “to enjoy life instead of just working hard and saving” (their emphasis). Finally, I found it appalling that no one, not even their parents, seems to realize the seriousness of the situation, or seems troubled by the uncertain occupational/material future of the third generation. (Noivo, 1997, pp. 94-95)

Noivo’s (1993, 1997) study represents the most recent general sociological examination of the Portuguese and, as such, its findings are more contemporary and up-to-date. The author skilfully narrates a picture of the complex interrelationships between class, economic position, family obligations and educational success.

However, this work also shares some of the limitations of previous work on the Portuguese in Canada. While the discussions of the educational situation of the various generations are more complex, and hence more valuable, than those in previous general references, nonetheless, they remain interspersed throughout the narrative on the family dynamics and intergenerational relationships. Given the relative importance which the issue of education was shown to have within this study, it might have warranted a more detailed examination.[11]

Similarly, virtually no reference was made of the effects which school structural factors may have played on the decisions of the second-generation members to abandon school, to take up their parents’ family projects. In this sense, Noivo seems to have given tacit assent to their beliefs that the responsibility for their failure was entirely on their shoulders. At one point in her study, Noivo describes how the second generation suffer from a lack of self-worth and self-respect, largely because of their failure to progress:

...like most parents, the second generation wants their children to acquire “cultural capital” in the form of a higher education and marketable skills, perceived as enabling them to eventually get those “good” jobs that bring economic security and social respectability. But unlike most middle-class Canadian parents, the second generation suffers the type of class injuries discussed in chapter one, namely lack of self-worth, social respect, and dignity. These parents tend to blame themselves both for their own and for their children’s low educational and occupational levels. Because the majority see Canada as an open and mobile society based on merit and equal opportunity, many parents also feel personally responsible for and embarrassed of their children’s poor academic achievement. Like other working-class members, they interpret “their” failure to move up the social ladder as individual inadequacy and not as a structural problem.Accordingly, these parents ordinarily voice strong regrets for “having made nothing” of themselves, for “not having gone to night school,” and for “not having been given the opportunity to continue studying. But, most persuasively stress - as if to vindicate their injured self-image - “it’s going to be different with our children.” (Noivo, 1997, p. 88-89)

And yet, even here, the author seems unclear as to whether these parents hold any accountability against the school system. Noivo (1997, p. 89-90) affirms - in an apparent contradiction in her narrative - that those second-generation parents in her group placed almost all responsibility for their children’s educational progress on schools and teachers:

Those I met placed almost all responsibility with schools and teachers. (Noivo, 1997, p. 89)

...second-generation parents attempt to “make-up” for their self-perceived inability to motivate and assist their children intellectually by authoritatively “forcing” them to study. When this method fails, parents seemingly realize their mistakes and end up feeling even more inadequate and guilty. This is particularly true of mothers, who are accused by spouses, older children, and other kin of not enforcing adequate and stricter study habits and schedules on youngsters. Not surprisingly, these mothers tend to react by transferring the blame to others, namely to teachers and schools. (Noivo, 1997, p. 92).

One important critique of much of the preceding material was provided by Arruda (1993), who decried the lack of balance in much of the available information on Luso-Canadian youth and its obsessive focus on conflicts and problems. As Arruda berated:

Although Portuguese families began arriving in Canada in the mid-1950’s, there appears to be little systematic treatment of Portuguese-Canadian childhood and adolescent experiences in this country. Canadian and New England works that do investigate children and youth on their own terms seem to have paid little or no attention to investigating any issues other than their problems of adjustment to a new country. Indeed, one offering from Southern Ontario, Papers on the Portuguese Community (1977) is so saturated with “problems” that had translated copies been sent to the Azores and northern Continental Portugal, forward-looking parents might have remained longer within their perceived miséria. (italics in original: author) (Arruda, 1993, pp. 8-9).

Arruda argues convincingly that, by focussing upon problems of adjustment, and by overlooking cultural diversity and social change within Portugal and the immigrant community in Canada, the previous literature has constructed a “monolithic composite” (p. 9) of a Portuguese-Canadian family (Arruda’s paper will be discussed in the section on empirical studies).

Further observations on the education of Luso–Canadian youth are also found in numerous newspaper, magazine and journal articles, and various social service reports which have been written on the Portuguese in Canada.[12] Many of these newspaper articles and social service reports were written after the mid 80’s. Consequently, they tend to address the issue of academic underachievement more directly. In particular, the reports which were compiled by the Portuguese Interagency Network (a Toronto umbrella organization) generally discussed Luso-Canadian students’ academic problems in light of the economic and structural limitations of the Portuguese family (Costa, 1995; Grosner, 1995; “The Portuguese,” 1984).

The 1984 report “The Portuguese Community: A Reflection of Current Trends” conveyed the results of a questionnaire which the Portuguese Interagency Network administered randomly to 210 Portuguese households, in Toronto’s Wards 2 and 4. The results indicated that, from the 169 households which responded to the question on dropping-out, 44 children had left school early, (“The Portuguese,” 1984, p. 6). The author of this report gives his/her opinion that this is considered high, and mentions that these figures confirmed earlier Toronto Board of Education statistics regarding early-school-leaving amongst the Portuguese. The reasons given for dropping-out were listed as “academic” (37.5%), “economic” (25.0%), and “preference for work” (29.2%) (p. 6). The report also made some observations, regarding this issue:

• There was a lack of confidence in educational achievement, in the Portuguese community.

• Children were found to be marrying at a very early age, and this practice was seen to be encouraged.

• Parents and students were not aware of funding for education, in the form of grants and loans.

• There was the perception that a university education was beyond the means of parents and impossible for their children.

• Parents’ level of education were found to be very low, (approximately 70% of respondents had completed grade 4, or less, while 7% had no schooling at all (p.5). This meant that these did not provide viable role models for their children.

This report also describes the overepresentation of the individuals sampled at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale and attempted to link this reality to the lack of academic advancement of community youth, (p. 7-9). In particular, the report mentioned how their insecure economic positions, coupled with their need to purchase a home, often induced many young people to abandon their studies for the working-world:

When they first came to Canada, they moved into apartments or shared facilities with other families which they found very restricting in various ways. Thus, in order to maintain family sanity and sometimes just to find accommodation with enough space, the Portuguese often purchase homes. This places a financial burden on the family which they can only meet by both parents and sometimes the older children going out to work (“The Portuguese,” 1984, p. 9).

Having been based on a survey, this report is more empirically-based than much of the previous literature. However its range of scope within the education field and the questions that were asked were very limited. Consequently, some of its conclusions were unclear. For example, there is no clarification of what was meant by “academic” or “economic” reasons for early-school-leaving. Furthermore, as in much of the previous material, this report is also dated.

In the end, the author makes a number of recommendations about the need to promote awareness in the community about the value of education and parental involvement in school associations, as well as the revision of the policy of streaming. Significantly, one of these recommendations is that another study be conducted specifically on children in the community (“The Portuguese,” p. 21).

The report by Grosner (1995) is a general introduction to the Portuguese and Brazilian communities and, as such, does not discuss education issues extensively. Mention is made of the underachievement problem, as well as to the lack of participation and encouragement of Portuguese-Canadian parents:

Traditionally, the perception has been that Portuguese-Canadian parents do not value education and do little to encourage it, a belief created by the fact that many parents do not seem to participate in activities connected to their children’s schooling, and by reports of parents who encourage their children to enter the work force as soon as possible (Grosner, 1995, p. 33)

However, the author goes on to state that there is still no evidence to suggest that Portuguese parents value education any less than other parents, since no research has been conducted (p. 34). The author also cites the systemic barriers of the education system, such as streaming, the lack of E.S.L. instruction, the lack of teachers of Portuguese background, low expectations on the part of instructors, biases against the language and culture of Portuguese students, cultural biases in psychological tests (that are utilized in the recommendation of children for special education), and a curriculum which ignores the students’ cultural and historical background (Grosner, 1995, p. 34).

However, although more recent than the previous 1984 report by the Portuguese Interagency Network (“The Portuguese,” 1984) , this latest profile of the Portuguese and Brazilian communities is broadly focussed and provides no new information in the way of education.

The newspaper articles which were written following the early 90’s were mainly centred around the concerns of community members regarding what they saw as the disadvantaging policies and practices of the school system (ex. “Carl,” 1998; Duffy, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c, 1995d, 1995e; Ferreira, 1998; “Insucesso escolar entre os,” 1994; Levy 1995; Matas, 1984; Nunes, 1995; Philp, 1995; Ponte, 1994; “‘Portuguese’ students,” 1995; “Será,” 1994; Vieira, 1995). Many of these articles described the results of the various educational statistics that were emerging from the Toronto Public School Board, as well as the community’s reactions (ex. Matas, 1984). The coverage of the education concerns of the Portuguese-Canadian community was especially intense following the release of the 1991 Every Secondary Student Survey, (Brown, 1993; Brown, et. al, 1992; Cheng, et. al., 1993; Yau, et. al., 1993) (Duffy, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c, 1995d, 1995e; Ferreira, 1994; Nunes, 1995). Other newspaper stories described the work of the Portuguese-Canadian Coalition for Better Education, (Ferreira 1995a, 1998; Levy, 1995; Ponte, 1995; Vieira, 1995). Still other newspaper reports - especially those from the Luso-Canadian media - discussed the community’s own responsibility on this problem (Duffy, 1995f; “Insucesso escolar alarma,” 1994; “Insucesso escolar entre nós” 1992; “Mesa,” 1995; “Não dá,” 1994; Ribeiro, 1995; “Será,” 1994).[13]

In general, the reaction that was prevalent in the community media, while stopping short of condemning Portuguese parents directly for taking their children out of school, raised general and broad questions about the role of the community within the education problem. For example one article in the popular Toronto Luso-Canadian paper A Voz called for the community to also look outside the schools, in order to find the answers to the problems described in the 1991 Toronto Board Survey, (Brown, et. al, 1992; Cheng, et. al. 1993; Yau, et., al., 1993):

It would be ridiculous to think that there existed a conspiracy against us...! To start with, it would be best to say what we should not do. We should not ignore the facts, or use this report to, once again, start fighting amongst ourselves or start denigrating or attacking our institutions - like the family, or even the schools - which are bad, and I believe which teach little, [but] they are this way for all of the other 16 ethnic groups. It would be ridiculous to

think that there exists a conspiracy against us, [that was] organized by the “Board of Education.” (“Será, 1994) (My translation: Author) (Underlined in original)

Another article within the same edition stated the problem in this back-handed fashion:

We were all present at the release of a report based on surveys that were more or less scientific and that informed us that our youngest - those who are today in the ranks in the Secondary Schools - display... ... one of the lowest rates of academic success. And this, whatever they may think, those who still believe that it is more important to have two houses, than a good [degree] and a good academic preparation, is alarming. (“Insucesso escolar alarma,” 1994) (My translation: Author).

Other writers in the community, while recognizing the barriers imposed by the school system, (ex. streaming), focussed their energies on informing Luso-Canadian parents of the need to become more involved in their children’s schooling and to actively work against the negative practices of local schools, (Ferreira, 1995b; Ribeiro, 1995). One of these, in particular, Katherine Ponte, a second-generation law student at the time of the release of the 1991 Toronto Board Survey (Brown, et. al. 1992), used her regular column in the newspaper Família Portuguesa to become a tireless critic of the education system, (Ponte, 1994, 1995). She was also one of the key individuals behind the creation of the Portuguese-Canadian Coalition for Better Education, when various people and groups from the Toronto Portuguese community coalesced around her efforts to present a petition to the 1995 Ontario Minister of Education, David Cooke. The petition asked for assistance in making the educational system more accountable to this community (Ferreira, 1998; “Petition,” 1995; Ponte, 1995).

As the community newspaper articles suggested, some of the explanations for Luso–Canadian academic underachievement which are raised in the general literature are common amongst many people in the Portuguese community; particularly the belief that some Luso-Canadian parents place economic concerns over their children’s education (see Chapter 9 “Role of Parents”). However, a few empirical studies have raised questions regarding the validity of this widely-held belief.

In one report conducted in 1970 on the Portuguese in Metro Toronto, Pinto (1970) described how all of the Portuguese parents interviewed for his study had stated that a child should continue his or her education for as long as he or she desired. Similarly, in both Januario’s, (1992) and Noivo’s (1997) studies, the parents interviewed made statements that, they hoped that their children could acquire the education that they didn't achieve. In fact, the second-generation parents in Januario’s study mentioned that they were ready to support their children as long as necessary, in order to achieve this goal. In a part of the questionnaire from present study which was not utilized in this dissertation, 78% of those people who answered cited a university education as a sufficient level of schooling for their children (although these were sampled mainly from those people who are active in clubs and associations) (Nunes, 1998a). In a report completed in 1982 by the Toronto Board of Education, in which the degree of importance which grade 8 students placed on education was compared by ethnicity, Portuguese-Canadian students rated education to be significantly more important than money or jobs (Larter, et al., 1982). Furthermore, these Luso-Canadian students gave a slightly higher rating for education than the Canadian respondents. Similarly, a large majority of students in a study by Cummins, Lopes & King (1987) agreed that their parents showed an interest in their studies and would like them to have an academic career.

If we accept the finding of Noivo, (1997, p. 57) that second-generation Luso-Canadian youth “internalize the first generation’s vision of what constitutes ‘a better (economic) life’” and desired economic priorities, then we might assume that the answers of the students in the last two studies might possibly reflect their parents’ attitudes towards education. Regardless of this debate - and the prevalence of people’s opinions regarding this matter - the important point is that the evidence is often contradictory concerning parental attitudes.

The points of view contained within the anecdotal, historical and sociological references are also contradicted in part by the observations and conclusions from the few empirical studies which have been conducted specifically on Portuguese youth. In general, those studies share the common tendency of placing a great deal of emphasis upon the practices and attitudes of the school, as the major factors in the determination of academic underachievement.

In summary, the available information on the topic of the academic underachievement of Luso-Canadian youth continues to be scattered amongst numerous scholarly and non-scholarly general references on the Portuguese community. This information is not detailed and mentions little of the education issues of these children. It is focussed mainly on the adaptation difficulties of Portuguese youth and upon describing the "cultural” and “values conflict" between themselves and their families. In this fashion, the literature has promoted a "child–centred" and "cultural deficit" assumption of the academic problems of Portuguese children; an explanation which advances the idea that certain negative aspects of the Portuguese cultural heritage are the root cause of their academic failing. This point of view has generally been supported by the reports and newspaper articles about the community, which ascribe the problem mostly to the lack of promotion of education, on the part of Portuguese-Canadian parents.

However, the information contained within these references - most of which were written before the widespread dissemination of the results of the 1991 Every Secondary Student Survey (Brown, et. al, 1992; Cheng, et. al., 1993; Yau, et. al., 1993) - is neither detailed nor has it been substantiated by primary research. Furthermore, with the exception of those newspaper articles which were released following the publication of that Survey, the authors of most of these scholarly and non-scholarly general references have largely failed to critically examine the structural, political, social and economic factors in society-at-large and within the educational system, which may play a part in creating underachievement.

While few scholarly works are available on the general topic of the Portuguese in Canada, even fewer primary research studies have been conducted which specifically examine Luso–Canadian youth, or on issues that are directly related to their education (Arruda, 1993; Cummins, 1991; Cummins, Lopes & King, 1987; Cummins, Lopes & Ramos, 1987; Feuerverger, 1991; Januario, 1992, 1994a, 1995a; McLaren, 1986; Pepler & Lessa, N.d.). There are also a number of theses and dissertations which examine various themes impacting on the education of Luso-Canadian children (Aguiar, 1994; Dodick, 1998; Gerlai, 1987; Kady, 1978). Unlike the case with most of the general literature, these are works which detail the results of empirical research projects, which explore one aspect or another that impacts upon issue of underachievement. In addition to these, there exists at least one other extremely valuable study, which was conducted in the United States on Portuguese children in one New England school, (Becker, 1990).[14]

One important feature of these reports is that, they are all highly critical of the role of school policy and practices, in structuring academic failure. In particular, the authors of these studies have placed an emphasis on illustrating how the policies, procedures, rituals and expectations of educators define the role and identities of their Portuguese students and contribute to the latter’s academic underachievement. Hence, the findings of these researchers tend to add a new dimension and clarity to the conclusions offered in the general literature sources, or openly contradict many of the assumptions within these works (ex. Becker, 1990; Januario, 1992; McLaren, 1986).

The most extensive study as yet conducted on the academic underachievement of Portuguese-Canadian students was Peter McLaren’s Schooling as a ritual performance, (1986). In this study, McLaren examined how the formal and informal, overt and covert ritual systems of a predominantly Portuguese, working–class, Catholic Middle–School in Toronto's West End, structured the roles and identities of its students, towards the twin aims of producing workers and making Catholics. Utilizing an analysis that was situated within ritual and performance theories, McLaren detailed the process by which Azorean students in his target school were moulded and prepared, through the ritual system erected by school officials, to fulfil the latter's lowered expectations of them. In accomplishing this, he positions ritual studies within a theory of educational praxis, and incorporates into his analysis such diverse fields as anthropology, liturgics, performance theories and educational research.

McLaren (1986) began this work by describing some of the theoretical constructs behind the study of rituals and schooling, then went on to provide a broad cultural profile of the Portuguese and the problem of underachievement within the Toronto community’s youth. He next moved to a description and analysis of the ritual systems which he observed in his target school, through the elaboration of a framework describing the different “states,” or “behavioural clusters or complexes,” of rituals which he observed (McLaren, 1986, p. 83). These he named the “streetcorner” state (pp.84-88), “student” state (pp. 88-89), “sanctity” state (pp. 89-90), and “home” state (90-92). He then proceeded to utilize this framework to help to describe examples of the school-based rituals, symbols, patterns of walking, talking, working and playing which he observed amongst students and teachers and to discuss their implicit relationships within the wider cultural system, whose implicit aim - he concluded - was the reproduction of an acquiescent working-class. These rituals included such phenomena as “micro rituals” (ex. individual lessons), “macro rituals,” (an aggregate of lessons, or the ritual of passing from one grade to another), “rituals of revitalization,” (staff meetings, emotional discussions between students and teachers, school-wide masses), “rituals of intensification,” (rituals which are meant to recharge and unify students or staff emotionally) and “rituals of resistance,” (passive and active acts on the part of students, to resist the coopting pedagogy and method of instruction) (McLaren, 1986, pp. 79-81). McLaren concluded his work with some recommendations and reflections on the issues which he had discussed.

Throughout his work, McLaren (1986) contrasted examples of the different “states” and the implicit, unstated intentions which each embodied. For example, in describing some of the rituals encompassed by the “student state,” McLaren observed:

The political and cultural characteristics of the student state left physical as well as psychic marks upon students. The rigid, mechanical, invariant and eros-denying gestures of the student state mirrored the essential ideology transmitted through the root paradigms of “being a good worker” and “being a good Catholic.” While listening to the daily “lecture-style” instructions, students would sit up straight and tall, their eyes frozen on the teacher. When working on an assignment, students fixed their eyes to the opened books or sheets of paper on their desks. Slouching or leaning back on chairs, interrupting a lesson with a raised hand, standing up during a seatwork exercise, or staring out of the window for more than a few minutes invariably incurred strict reprimands from teachers (McLaren, 1986, p. 218).

In contrast to this image of the “student state” as oppressive and culturally indoctrinating, McLaren offered his observations of students within the “streetcorner state” and painted these instances as liberating tools of the resistance of these young people to the culturally annihilating and implicitly hegemonic school agenda:

While in the streetcorner state, students are indulgently physical and exhibit an unfettered exuberance. Activity in the streetcorner state sometimes bears a close approximation to primary experience: bodies can often be seen to twist, turn and shake in an oasis of free abandon, as though locked within some experiential primordium or primal state of non-differentiation. There is often a great deal of physical contact. Behaviours have an ad hoc and episodic characteristic to them, often appearing unbound and ungoverned (McLaren, 1986, p. 85).

What McLaren attempted to show in this study was not simply that these working-class Luso-Canadian youth were abandoned academically by their school, but rather that this institution played an undeclared, yet active, role in constructing the academic failure of its students. McLaren summarized the effect of the teaching rituals which he observed in this school, on the self–concept of its students:

Instructional rituals functioned mainly to sanctify the workplace, to hedge the cultural terrain with taboos, to shore up the status quo, and to create a student body conditioned to accept such a state of affairs. Ritualized classroom lessons tacitly created dispositions towards certain student needs while simultaneously offering to fulfil those needs. For instance, students were made to feel inadequate due to their class and ethnic status and hence the school offered to help socialize them into the "appropriate" values and behaviours by tracking them into designated streams and basic level courses. (McLaren, 1986, p. 215)

Another important contribution of this work was McLaren’s success in uncovering what were deprecating and often blatantly racist attitudes amongst the teachers in this school, regarding their Luso-Canadian students. These were often brought out by teachers to explain and account for the former's academic failure. As McLaren described one staff meeting:

During one meeting, a staff member exhorted those present not to expect too much from this year’s crop of students, claiming that teachers couldn’t be expected to fill sixty-ounce bottles with ninety ounces of wine. By this he meant that Portuguese students - presumably because of their language and cultural differences - couldn’t be expected to learn as much as middle-class Anglo-Saxon students. Staff meetings thus became occasions during which the tacit categories that located Portuguese students as academically inferior were credentialized and made legitimate. The paradigmatic status of cultural deprivation theory was therefore enhanced through the imputed consensus that Portuguese students were ‘inferior’ to middle-class students in manifold ways - the most pronounced deficit consisting of academic achievement. Through informal gossip on the part of teachers, the Portuguese student was made into a type of subcultural underdog - a member of an underclass or Untermensch. (McLaren, 1987, p. 119) (Italics in original)

Under the shibboleth of 'cultural deprivation', the concept of the Portuguese student as an 'alien' from a subaltern class became part of the ideological ensemble or set of canonical categories of teacher thinking and therefore part of the teachers' corpus of classroom knowledge. Through informal teacher dialogue over sandwiches and coffee, the stereotype of the Portuguese 'deviant' was able to invade the lexicon of professional chitchat.

In addition to communally confirming categories of deviance with regard to students, staff meetings also had a determinate effect on the school's hidden curriculum. Meetings such as these were part of the unstated pedagogical plot of redeeming Azorean students from the horror of their 'mediaeval' culture–forms, their 'vagrant' attitudes, and their 'primitive' raw being." (McLaren, 1986, p. 120)

On one occasion, a senior staff member used the term 'wolf in sheep's clothing' to describe a group of students. A definite feeling was evoked that the Portuguese student was 'primitive' in some fundamental way. Thus, the emergence of the feral stereotype." (McLaren, 1986, p. 121)

Students were reified as lacking in socialization or as pathologically deficit in cultural graces: in(sic) short, they were regarded as constitutionally disposed towards academic retardation and atavistic behaviour –the Lockean view of children as unformed adults in need of civilizing taken to a hideous extreme. One smiling teacher tried 'humorously' to sum up the situation by describing the students as products of 'bad sperm'" (McLaren, 1986, p. 122)

McLaren’s study represented one of the few major research projects which has been conducted exclusively on the underachievement problem of Portuguese students and, in this sense, it is a pioneering work. It is also useful as an analysis of how wider-world relationships of power, coercion and the advancement of implicit agendas are played out within a classroom setting, between teachers and minority students, to the eventual disadvantage of the latter. Unfortunately, as an analysis of ritual and reproduction, McLaren’s study has a number of serious and irredeemable flaws.

The most important and obvious of these limitations is that McLaren did not take into consideration the obvious cultural differences in nonverbal behaviour between his Portuguese students and their mainstream Canadian teachers (Hall, 1959; Wolfgang, 1984, 1992), nor how these might have accounted for the differences which he ascribed between the “streetcorner” state of his Azorean students and the “student” state promoted by his more reserved (presumably) Anglo-mainstream teachers (ex. p. 91). For example, in depicting the scene at a school dance, he describes in primal, exotic and animalistic terms, what to many Portuguese might be considered normal patterns of behaviour amongst their normally more expressive and exuberant Latin youth:

While bodies were on sexual display during the fast dances, there remained a sense of sanctified prurience. Some teachers admitted feeling threatened by the fluidity, pleasing eurhythmics and unrestrained indulgences of student performances. Laughter was explosive and feet tapped the ground in a delicate frenzy. Several students started to emit wild groans and before long the whole gym was an orgy of pre–verbal utterances. Students formed small circles and danced around the gym. Some bodies joined together in contagious hysteria: writhing, twisting and sliding across the floor in a human snake. Boys slow danced tenderly with girls although girls usually danced with other girls. One teacher admitted being 'shocked' and 'horrified' at witnessing some boys dancing with other boys.(McLaren, 1986, p. 154)

The language which McLaren utilized in this passage appears not to explain Azorean “streetcorner” behaviour so much as it illustrates McLaren’s own beliefs about what constitutes moral depravity.

Adversely, at other points in his analysis, he did not make the distinction between the behaviour of troubled teens and “Azorean streetcorner behaviour”:

The cultural objectives of the instructional rites were often in conflict with those of Azorean streetcorner behaviour. For instance, politeness and obsequiousness in responding to authority are not traits that fare well in the streetcorner state.(McLaren, 1986, p. 169)

In this instance, what McLaren seemed to be implying was that streetcorner behaviour in Azorean culture, (or the behaviour of "comunitas" as he termed it - loud and boisterous repartee, p. 86, 92), does not include politeness and deference to authority; a patently ridiculous observation and one which many of those familiar with Portuguese culture would vehemently contest.

McLaren’s failure to correctly interpret the “rituals” of his students was particularly highlighted by the fact that the author did not conduct any research in the homes of the Portuguese-Canadian children which he was observing (p. 90). This lack of knowledge of the home-life of his students is ultimately reflected in his lack of a true understanding of the culture of his Portuguese subjects and, possibly, in an inability to truly comprehend their attitudes regarding their education. For example, McLaren never attempted to gauge student’s attitudes regarding their ethnic identity, vis-á-vis their mainstream teachers; a factor which often has a bearing on the types of non-verbal behaviour, rituals and “microinteractions” which are expressed by minority members (Cummins, 1994). Similarly, the author did not trouble himself to find out whether the rituals of resistance which he observed might also have been expressed within the home (in which case, they might not have been interpreted as such by the author). Despite this serious omission, at one point in his work McLaren, himself, described the importance of understanding the context behind observed rituals:

It is exceedingly difficult - if not impossible - to attempt any interpretation of ritual without first understanding its relational aspects, that is, without examining the contexts (historical and situational) within which the ritual is enacted. Furthermore, a substantive evaluation of the ritual system of a school is more than undertaking a sign hunt or a symbol hunt; rather, it is to locate the parameters of the hunt itself in the sociopolitical milieu of the wider society - one in which notions of power and cultural distribution are taken seriously (McLaren, 1987, pp. 81-82)

This failure also led the author to an analysis of the Portuguese community which was brief, superficial and riddled with unseemly and often erroneous stereotypes (pp. 52-62). For example, in walking down the streets of Toronto’s Portuguese community, what most caught his eyes were the:

...colourfully painted homes and the profusion of rust-splotched cars... ...front yard gardens that were decorated with small shrines made from bathtubs turned on their ends and buried halfway into the ground; the plaster statues of the Virgin entwined with blinking, coloured lights... ...and the fences constructed from concrete blocks and decorated with pottery shards, broken glass and pop bottles (McLaren 1987, p. 52).

Another major weakness of this study was that McLaren (1986) ascribed the perpetuation of the oppressive ritual systems in his school almost exclusively to class and religious bias, while attributing relative little importance to racially- and ethnically-motivated attitudes and assumptions on the part of their mainstream teachers. In this fashion, the author generally avoided an analysis of the culturally- and racially-relativistic attitudes behind the perpetuation of dominance.

This occurred despite the fact that many of the teachers which he interviewed freely shared their opinion that they regarded their Portuguese students to be culturally and racially distinct (often even non-white) and also gave these cultural and racial differences as the reasons behind their students' underachievement. For example, McLaren (1986) relates the belief that Anglo–Canadians as a whole view the Portuguese as non–white, and also as inherently and racially inferior to their own numbers:

Canadians are apt to describe Azoreans not as the exploited poor but as an exotic race who would add to the Canadian stock a much needed element of 'colour' and 'industriousness.' Yet, among some Canadians there exists a growing paranoia about being 'outbreeded' by darker–skinned nationalities. (McLaren, 1986, p. 53).

McLaren's apparent indifference to racial and ethnic imperatives in the school was also reflected in his own treatment of his subjects. McLaren was often not aware that he was communicating in his passages, the same racial and ethnocentric assumptions which he occasionally attributed to the teachers in his school. For example, in contrasting his “dark” Azoreans students to their "white" instructors, the author appeared to be saying that he, himself, considered his Portuguese subjects "non–white":

The liminal initiands (the Azorean students) are often feared by the generally white, middle–class instructors (the Azoreans are dark, exotic, physical; they are gypsies, outlanders, relegated to a pariah status). (McLaren, 1986, p. 99)

McLaren also indiscriminately and surreptitiously interrupted his dialogue to gratuitously provide graphic vignettes which repeatedly accented violent, sexually explicit and crude behaviour, on the part of the Portuguese students in his school, (ex. p. 61, 87, 145, 155, 187). Since the author almost never bothered to explain the relation of these passages to the preceding narrative, or to the complex of rituals which he was trying to isolate, most often, their purpose was not clear and they seemed to have been inserted merely to engage and titillate the reader. McLaren’s mocking tone further heightened the impression that he was trying to paint these students as the very "degenerates" which their teachers felt them to be:

It was amazing to see so much activity among the students so early in the morning. Movement was pronounced, even exaggerated. After searching in vain for a handkerchief, a kid about 12 sporting the moustache of an 18 year–old, blew his nose directly on the pavement. I was worried that someone might slip on his invention. (McLaren, 1986, p. 87)

In offering these passages in this careless and insensitive fashion, McLaren himself seemed to be perpetuating the same image of the “feral” stereotype of his Portuguese students that he criticized amongst his teachers (McLaren, 1986, p. 121).

In summary, the flaws in McLaren’s work greatly overshadow the contribution which this study has made to the question of Luso-Canadian underachievement. Particularly disturbing was McLaren’s emphasis on the rhythm of his work, over its substance. Instead of clarifying the difficult issue of oppression by ritual and symbolic interaction, this author’s unquestionable virtuosity with the English language served mostly to mask over the serious and fundamental misinterpretations which precipitated throughout this book. Ultimately, this work did not really come to terms with the issue of the academic underachievement of Luso-Canadian youth, since it virtually excluded the point-of-view of these young people and their families. Worse yet, having been written entirely from the author’s personal (and biased) perspective, it further excluded and denigrated the very group which it was intended to examine.

One valuable qualitative study, conducted in the United States in an urban New England high school with a population of recent and early arrival Portuguese immigrant students, reached similar conclusions to McLaren, regarding the importance of practices and attitudes in the school system (Becker, 1990). In this study, Becker related how the implicit educational policies and practices of educators in that school actively derailed the school’s explicit multicultural policy and practices, in a fashion which negatively shaped the ethnic identity of its Portuguese students. These policies and practices stigmatized Portuguese students and directly contributed to their academic underachievement, through "self–fulfilling prophesies" (p. 51).

...Portuguese students quickly lost their sense of ethnic pride. This loss also affected their school performance...Failing grades further encouraged early school dropout. (Becker, 1990, p. 53)

Portuguese students in this school were regarded as "low brow", truant, low in self–esteem, excessively obedient, too docile, inordinately respectful of teachers, and as lacking in interest in both education and in the social life of the school. Portuguese students were also consistently the most underachieving and the most likely to drop out.

At the same time, teachers also re–interpreted what have traditionally been seen as positive Portuguese cultural concepts in a negative light: The penchant for hard work became viewed as anti–intellectualism; close family ties became interpreted as exclusionary tendencies; respect for authority was seen as docility; protection of females was regarded as sexist and discriminatory; fear of blacks was racism; non–political involvement was un–American, (Becker, 1990, p. 51), (This type of re–interpretation was also found to be occurring by Januario (1992).

Becker described what she saw as racist attitudes against the Portuguese, on the part of educators:

"When the teachers' feelings about the Portuguese were examined closely, many revealed patterns of racism, ethnocentrism, and cultural superiority." (Becker, 1990)

Furthermore, Becker described a racial hierarchy in the school which, if not directly created by teachers, was nevertheless explicitly promoted by these. Portuguese ethnicity was conferred the least prestige by the teachers, while blacks, (who have traditionally been regarded as the most undesirable group in the racial hierarchy of the United States), were regarded as the most popular and desirable.

Becker detailed how, as a result of these negative evaluations, Portuguese students displayed a dichotomy of ethnic identitification, where pride in ethnic origin was openly displayed at home, yet was played down in the school. She described the effect of the school's ethnic denigration on students who had been in the United States the longest,

"Aspects of the early students' ethnic identity revealed an ambivalence stemming, in part, from ethnic pride nurtured in the home, and ethnic rejection as reflected in the implicit policies of the high school." (Becker, 1990, p. 52)

At home, by contrast, the early arrivals not only spoke Portuguese almost exclusively, but pointed with pride to their Portuguese heritage. They showed pictures of their homeland, told stories about their villages, and kept embroidery, special costumes for feast days, unique musical instruments, and even recipes on display. Although most of the early arrivals could speak English and Portuguese with equal ease, they used Portuguese with me at home and English in school, regardless of the language I used with them. (Becker, 1990, p. 53)

Becker saw the denigration of the Portuguese as one means of identifying and isolating them as a distinct ethnic group in the school.

This author also described how, on the one hand, the practices and attitudes of this school mediated against the maintenance of a Portuguese ethnic identity, on the other, those Portuguese students who comprised the earliest arrival group were still not accepted as "American," even after they had assimilated Anglo–American culture. Becker elaborated,

"Total assimilation into the Anglo group was, however, prevented by the Anglo students' unwillingness to accept the Portuguese, and by the teachers' continued labelling of the early arrivals as Portuguese. A fairly common form of approbation used among Anglos and blacks alike in the school was the expression 'Quit acting like an immigrant' or its variant form 'Quit acting like a Portagee.' The behavior in question could be anything from sloppy eating habits to an unattractive wardrobe. The expression was used as a general sign of disapproval and was not directed towards members of any ethnic group in particular." (Becker, 1990, p. 53)

"The effect of implicit educational policies on the ethnic group became detrimental to the maintenance of ethnic identity in the school. While change in the cultural/symbolic aspects of ethnicity preceded the dissolution of structural barriers, assimilation of the ethnic group was simultaneously encouraged and thwarted by the educational hierarchy. Students continued to be regarded as Portuguese long after they'd chosen to identify themselves as Anglos. Because acceptance by Anglos was neither immediate nor total, group members still associated with each other, further increasing their identification with the ethnic group."(Becker, 1990, p. 53)

Evidence of the importance which mainstream attitudes and perceptions may have upon the ethnic identity of the Portuguese is also available from Canada. In a sociological study conducted on the Portuguese experience in Vancouver Boulter (1974) described how the actions or practices of all members of society were what defined or set up ethnic differences, rather than those differences being an attribute of any particular ethnic or immigrant group. In another study, Fernandez (1979) found that being Portuguese conferred different status at different times. In a similar fashion to the conclusion of Becker's (1990) study, Fernandez found that Portuguese immigrants also frequently express their Portuguese identity in private while attempting to project a Canadian identity in public. Fernandez also noted how Portuguese children born in Canada are never really accepted as "Canadians" but are frequently referred to as "immigrant" children, (Fernandez, 1979, p. 5). Fernandez adds,

"While as individuals Portuguese experience acceptance, rejection, respect and disregard by Canadians to varying degrees, nearly all acknowledge the existence of at least subtle indicators of a negative evaluation of being Portuguese in Canada." (Fernandez, 1979, p. 7)

Another study which explored the home and school factors affecting the achievement of Luso-Canadian children Januario’s (1992) qualitative comparative analysis of English- and Portuguese-Canadian, Kindergarten and grades 1–2 students (as well as a subsequent article taken from this project (Januario, 1994a)). Through the presentation of a number of case studies, Januario (1992) detailed how different factors, and in particular differential teacher’s evaluations and expectations of Portuguese students resulted in the differential success of the two groups of sample children.

Among the important points which were highlighted by Januario’s (1992) comparison was a disturbing lack of recognition by teachers of the progress which some of the Portuguese project children had accomplished, throughout the time of the study. In other words, despite the stated importance given to "process" over "product" in educational methods and assessment, some of the Portuguese children had invariably been evaluated in terms of "product," while their relative strengths and progress had been poorly evaluated, or ignored.

Another factor which came to light was the differential treatment afforded some of the Portuguese students by their teachers; treatments which at times appeared to be related to differential expectations, rather than to objective evaluations of accomplishments or needs. In one instance Januario remarked of a teacher's indifferent attitude to one student,

The unequal reception accorded to Carlos as opposed to Asher and Judith for a similar amount of work seems to be based on overall academic standing and expectations rather than strictly on the task at hand. (Januario, 1992, p. 24)

In another instance, Januario (1992) noted how the expectations of teachers were often determined by cultural factors, rather than by measures of specific academic progress. The author mentions the emphasis on oral activities in the early grades, rather than on pencil–and–paper work; she also describes teachers' evaluations based on the transmission of culturally–specific social skills, such as the ability to engage in lively group discussions, (Januario, 1992, p. 46).

In Januario's analysis, it becomes clear that those children who did not manage to meet their teachers' culturally–based expectations quickly became labelled as lacking in academic competence and were left to develop by their own devices, according to the teachers' subjective vision of their capacities,

...children were only called upon to do what they were perceived to be individually able to do rather than being expected to meet the normal curriculum expectations for the grade." (Januario, 1992, p. 53)

Similar points were made in Januario’s (1994a) publication about the case of Tomás, a kindergarten student who began having difficulty soon after entering school. After outlining the case of this pupil, Januario listed a series of major issues which, together, characterized the tension between school and home which led to perpetuation of this child’s poor achievement. These included social class, lack of parental confidence to participate in school, inconsistent teacher expectations, unequal treatment, ability grouping and streaming, difficulty in acquiring English skills, the lack of support for students with little English, the lack of valuing of heritage languages and cultures, and the slow response of the school to respond to “at-risk” students (Januario, 1994a).

Januario’s (1992, 1994a) works deftly revealed how teachers’ self-fulfilling prophecies regarding some of their Portuguese-Canadian students, when coupled with cultural and class differences - such as the conflicting expectations between parents and teachers regarding proper educational approaches - combined to relegate some of the children in her studies to lower-tiered levels of study. However, since Januario's (1992) work was limited to case studies concentrating on students and their progress, there was little opportunity afforded to enter into an analysis of the reasons for the differential expectations of teachers, their evaluations and treatments of some of the Portuguese children in her sample.

Januario’s (1995a) report described a study where a series of questionnaires and interviews were sent to principals and School Board administrative staff, in order to gauge their opinions regarding their Luso-Canadian school populations, culture language and achievement issues, staffing and parent-school relations. Case studies were also presented detailing two schools with high Portuguese-Canadian populations. The author observed that the notions of social class and ethnic status were factors in the “racialisation” of the Portuguese-Canadian group in the school system. Parents and children are seen to be suffering a linguistic deficit and their cultural background is blamed for their school problems. One educator stated:

The girls have no goals, see everything as a block and can’t see beyond high-school, are depressed and want to be employed and expect the job to be permanent; they are satisfied with the idea of a factory or stocking shelves; they feel inferior and don’t see themselves in white-collars [sic] jobs and say ‘Not for me!’ They are not living up to their potential. The pressure to work interferes with their ability to stay in school; there is a mentality that you’re lazy if you don’t work. (Januario, 1995a, p. 68)

Yet, Januario also concluded that - despite this attribution of responsibility on parents - schools are not acting on better including the Portuguese and other minorities. They are only “just beginning to integrate curriculum initiatives and teaching strategies that take cultural and racial factors into consideration,” and “they still do not have the knowledge or the willingness to integrate community input and content into curricular and extra-curricular initiatives to improve learning outcomes.” They also “are yet to be fully implanted in their communities.” (Januario, 1995a, p. 76).

Thus, the manner in which schools related to the culture of Portuguese students, and hence the messages that they convey regarding identities and roles, took on a great significance in these previous research studies. In particular, the devaluation within the schools of the culture and class of Portuguese students was a recurring theme voiced by these researchers. As I have illustrated, McLaren (1986) described the deprecating attitudes held by teachers in his school, regarding Azorean students and their culture. Januario (1992) also criticized the predominant view, regarding Portuguese and other immigrant languages, in her schools of study:

These are not "language–deficient" children but rather "language–enriched" children; bilingualism or trilingualism should be seen as part and parcel of the acquisition of literacy and not as a marginal issue. The researcher noticed, for example, that a substantial portion of the school staff in the two schools were fluent in languages other than English and French because of their immigrant roots, but this precious attribute always seemed to be underplayed in the school culture and community. (Januario, 1992, p. 54).

Januario and McLaren further mentioned how Portuguese children in their studies were frequently evaluated by teachers according to criteria that were different than those applied to their mainstream classmates (Januario, 1992; McLaren, 1986).

Both Becker (1990) and McLaren (1986) saw this devaluation of Portuguese culture, and the attitudes and practices subsequently adopted by teachers, as reflections of wider mainstream relations of power between the Portuguese and the Anglo–mainstream. Becker stated,

The ambiguity of the public school's response to the socialization of its LEP populations reflects a larger ideological tug–of–war being played out by the American people...Anglo conformity and melting pot ideologies persist through implicit policies that undermine effective bilingual program implementation.(Becker, 1990, p. 54)

Forms of instruction and teaching practices generally constituted an inadvertent ritualized reaffirmation of ethnic stereotypes and the daily ritual remaking and reconfirmation of class division. (McLaren, 1986, p. 224)

A number of other studies and theses have also been completed which examine the responses of parents and adolescents to their and their children’s schooling issues.

One of these reports examined the attitudes and experiences of minority activist parents with the education system (Kari & Januario, 1994). The authors interviewed two dozen activist-parents (including a number of Luso-Canadians) in order to formulate observations regarding issues of power and inequality and what type of parent was being encouraged to participate. Most of the people interviewed did not fit into the stereotype of the “typical,” well-educated, middle-class activist-parent. The authors elicited experiences which ranged from co-operation, achievement and solidarity, as well as anger and frustration. The most predominant theme was the difficulty and perseverance which was required of minority parents that were working to change the practices of the schools. Many of the Luso-Canadian parents reported a mixture of frustration and pride.

There was frustration and disillusionment that the process of change was dragged on by the Boards over many years. Parents mentioned that change in the basic structure and organization of schools had been marginal. As one person stated “It doesn’t look any different” (p. 64) and it remains difficult for outsiders to monitor regular classroom practices. Significant change occurred mainly where parents worked with officials and teachers with goodwill and cooperation of individual teachers and officials.

Yet, there was also a strong feeling of pride amongst some Portuguese activists that they had been able to work together with a number of groups to bring forth changes to the policy of streaming (by destreaming grade 9). As one person stated:

Now imagine, here we are, Portuguese parents with a funny accent, you know, very excited, in front of the CBC cameras and having tremendous debates with the owners of the system and telling them, “You are wrong, you know, and we can prove to you you are wrong. You know why you are wrong? Because of this and this and this. Look at your own statistics,” you know. “Just explain this to us.” So finally, because they could not get rid of us, they start paying attention and they start giving us credit. And all of a sudden, here they are telling the newspapers that, “These guys are great!” [...] So we, at times, we were really very confrontational. But we won. They were the ones who said we won. (Dehli & Januario, 1994, p. 49)

One of this report’s most significant, yet unstated, conclusions was that those Luso-Canadian activists who appeared to have been the most successful, were those who had worked in direct, public and vocal confrontation with the schools (as the example above illustrated). Also significant is the recommendation of the report’s authors for the implementation of a participatory-action research project, involving students teachers and parents, that would examine family-school interrelationships (p. 83).

In her thesis, Aguiar (1994) examined the specific elementary school and immigration experiences of seven Portuguese women, who had been born and raised in rural villages in São Miguel, Azores, in order to understand the impact which these experiences had had upon their lives and upon their relationship to their children’s education. Aguiar found that these women saw their role as encouraging and supporting their children, since they had little educational means to become more involved in the latter’s schooling. All of these women were also reported to have high educational expectations for their children, since the same opportunities had been denied to them. Most also expected discipline in school but rejected the corporal punishment which had characterized their own school years. Aguiar concludes that it is more feasible to change the curricula and pedagogic relations to meet the needs of their children than to attempt to change the home culture of these women. Aguiar closes with a number of recommendations which revolve around the responsibility of the school to work more closely with parents from limited educational backgrounds and to have more communication with these regarding their children’s schooling.

In a similar project, Arruda (1993) interviewed seventeen adult subjects who had been teenagers in Vancouver between 1962 and 1980, in order to gather their adolescent experiences. He concluded that the lives of Luso-Canadian adolescents often differed considerably from one another. He also argued that, the literature on Portuguese-Canadian adolescents has ignored cultural diversity both within Portugal and within the immigrant communities by not accessing individuals from varying backgrounds. Consequently, it has portrayed a “monolithic” view of (p. 21) of Luso-Canadian adolescence; one which has dwelt obsessively with problems and conflicts and. Arruda stated:

Indeed, one offering from southern Ontario, Papers on the Portuguese Community (1977) is so saturated with “problems” that had translated copies been sent to the Azores and northern Continental Portugal, forward-looking parents might have remained longer within their perceived misériaˆ. (Arruda, 1993, p. 9)

The subjects in Arruda’s study experienced different degrees and recollections of parental control, family life, work and educational situations. For example, the older parents in this study - who had been parents of school children in the 1960’s - had a more positive perceptions of the Canadian school system than younger parents or their own parents had held. Arruda also paraphrases a number of observers who stated that dropping-out of school had been less of a problem in Vancouver’s Portuguese community than in Toronto’s and that by the end of the 1970’s “Portuguese parents [in that region] were taking a vital interest in their children’s education” (p. 17).

Arruda (1993) reached these divergent conclusions because a number of his subjects originated from “middle-class” and Continental (European mainland) backgrounds, which afforded them a much more liberal upbringing than had been the case with rural-Azorean and working-class Luso-Canadians. Other factors which Arruda said had contributed to different experiences between adolescents were parental dispositions, the gender and age of subjects upon emigration and individual personality.

Arruda’s (1993) main contribution was in illustrating how that all communities, including the Portuguese, are composed of people from a variety of backgrounds. More importantly, while the findings of this study are difficult to generalize to the community at large - since the Luso-Canadian community is overwhelmingly working-class - they have illustrated the degree of significance which factors such as class origins, may hold in determining the problems - educational or otherwise - of Luso-Canadians.

A series of reports and theses have also been conducted on topics related to literacy development, bilingual proficiency, heritage language and English as a Second-Language issues, technology issues and mental health amongst Luso-Canadian children. These are important in the fact that, all of these aspects have some bearing on the academic achievement of youth. A number of these reports also made observations relating to such issues as parental interest in education, children’s preferences in ethnic identification and language. Some of the conclusions in these reports, especially those in Cummins, Lopes and King (1987) and Cummins, Lopes and Ramos, (1987) directly contradict the findings and prevailing opinions of previous work on underachievement, especially with regards to parental attitudes and children’s rejection of their Portuguese identity. [15]

Cummins, Lopes and King (1987) explored the language use patterns and proficiency of Portuguese children in grade 7 who were taking heritage language classes, in order to determine the links between language proficiency, family background, language use patterns and language attitudes. The major finding of this study was that, although the surface features of a child’s first- and second-language usage may be different, there is a common underlying proficiency which works at a deeper level of language processing, especially as regards academic/cognitive aptitude. Another important conclusion was that holding positive attitudes towards Portuguese language maintenance and the actual use of Portuguese in the community are not detrimental to students’ English proficiency. Although this study did not look at underachievement, nonetheless, some of the other findings were of relevance to the issue:

Firstly, thirteen percent of the sample were receiving special education, with the proportion climbing to 26% if those schools which did not test their special education students were not counted; secondly, a large majority of the participants felt that their parents showed an interest in their education and would like them to have an academic education and go to university (p. 39). This is in contradiction to both the prevailing opinions in the general literature, as well as to the results of Board Surveys, where Luso-Canadian high-school students have stated that their parents have low expectations (Cheng, et., al, 1993, p. 8); thirdly, most Luso-Canadian children were also reported as being comfortable with their Portuguese and Canadian cultures. There was little evidence of the rejection of their Portuguese identity, in favour an English-Canadian one; the use and exposure of Portuguese appeared to be more related to proficiencies and to formal exposure at school, trips to Portugal, going to mass, than to attitudes or perceptions of the language and culture; in addition, knowledge and pride in the Portuguese culture showed the most consistent relationship to proficiency; finally, this report argued that the positive attitudes towards the maintenance of Portuguese are not detrimental to a student’s English proficiency.

Cummins, Lopes and Ramos (1987), (also described in Cummins (1991)), attempted to document the process of second-language acquisition amongst 5-7 year old Portuguese children in Toronto and compare these to a sample of students in the Azores, in order to investigate language interaction at home and at school and relate interactional variables to academic achievement. Their findings indicated that the reading performance of children who maintained their first language was significantly better than those who did not. They concluded that the promotion of Portuguese at the preschool age amongst Luso-Canadian children cultivates general language proficiency, conceptual development and family communication at no cost to the acquisition of English.

As mentioned, the findings by Cummins regarding positive identity maintenance and parental expectations contradict the prevailing opinions in the general literature on the Portuguese. This discrepancy may possibly be due to the fact that much of the literature on the issues of Luso-Canadian young people is written about the turbulent adolescent years, whereas Cummins’ studies sampled younger children. One may also speculate whether the negative conclusions concerning the desire of Luso-Canadian young people to distance themselves from their parents’ culture and language may not simply be an expression of the rebellion which occurs amongst all adolescents. In fact, both Noivo, (1993, 1997), as well as Arruda (1993) observed that many of their adult subjects had begun to take an interest and pride in the Portuguese heritage which they had rejected as teenagers and young adults.

A thesis by Gerlai (1987) examined the possible relationship of proficiencies in first and second language, to success in learning to read, amongst Portuguese-Canadian children. The author found that home language background variables had little association with results on standardized tests. However, this author did comment on the association between parental attitudes and reading:

Positive parental attitudes to the learning of English, the improvement of the children’s general level of English comprehension, and a specific understanding of what reading in English is about would contribute to the reduction of under-achievement. (Gerlai, 1987, p. 127)

Those parents whose children were in the “reading” group had higher educational expectations for their children. In addition, a higher percentage of children whose parents had over a grade 6 education were readers.

Kady’s (1978) work asked whether formal ESL instruction led to fewer errors in verb phrases amongst Luso-Canadian children. Although ESL training was found not to be of benefit in this regard, the study did find that informal sources of English-language learning (television and peers) were found to be the most useful. Portuguese students were also said to be experiencing “...serious difficulties in adjusting to the academic programs, even after two years of formal ESL instruction...” (p. 35).

Feuerverger (1991) examined the link between heritage language maintenance and ethnic identity in 148 university students, from a number of different ethnic groups.

Feuerverger found that while the Portuguese and Italian students had the highest mean scores for learning their ethnic language in order to participate in their community and for identification with the homeland, the Portuguese had the second–lowest score for "positive perception of ethnic identity" (Feuerverger, 1991).

The main themes to arise from Feuerverger’s (1991) study were the relationship between language and ethnic community participation, the relationship between ethnic identification with the homeland and language, as well as the need for language literacy at home. One important observation of this study was how the low literacy levels of parents were mentioned by some students as a source of generational conflict. Another was the fact of how the Portuguese identified strongly with their ethnic homeland and with the need to learn the language in order to communicate with the community and with that homeland. The importance of this “regenerative effect of identification of the homeland” (p. 15) was stressed by most students. The image of the homeland which had been passed on to students by their parents needed to be transformed into one which is more relevant. One young Luso-Canadian mentioned the beneficial effects of developing an understanding of a vital and modern ethnic culture, beyond that which their parents can show them. According to this person, in the past, the choice for young Luso-Canadians was:

...between a static (immigrant) culture or the mainstream. But now when a young person goes back to Portugal they begin to see that it’s possible to be a young person there, to listen to rock music, to dress in the right fashion. (Feuerverger, 1991, p. 10)

The same student also lamented the fact that his regular day-school curriculum never included anything that related to the historical importance of the Portuguese in the world. According to this person,

I used to think (and so did many of my peers) that what I learnt in the [Portuguese-community night-school] classes were lies, distortions... It wasn’t until I got to university did I realize that it was the English curriculum that was a distortion. (Feuerverger, 1991, p. 13)

Dodick’s (1998) thesis compared two schools - one inner-city and predominantly Portuguese, the other middle-class and English-speaking - in order to examine approaches to computer networking and the pedagogy surrounding this technology. This researcher found that the differences between the two schools in terms of use of information technology largely depended on the individual pedagogy of teachers and on the differences in education and economic levels of parents between the two schools.

Finally, the Earlscourt Child and Family Centre also conducted a series of research studies designed to estimate the child behavioural problems and needs of the Portuguese children and families who utilized the services of their centre, (Peppler & Lessa, n.d.). Among other conclusions, the authors of this study discovered that 64.4% of the Portuguese referrals to the centre were for disruptive behaviour, (mostly classroom related) and that 16.1% were for school and learning problems. Furthermore, in a part of this study which included a survey of agencies serving the Portuguese, 70% of those institutions cited school behaviour and academic problems as "almost always a problem" for Portuguese children, and 82% cited academic problems as an identifiable stressor.

However, the results of this study cannot be utilized to reach any definitive conclusions regarding the nature of academic difficulties in Portuguese children. Firstly, the research conducted was not intended to address the issue of academic failure directly, but rather examined issues related to the provision of mental health services to Portuguese youth. Secondly, and for the same reason, one must be wary of extrapolating analyses of academic "problems" from the figures cited since, the Portuguese children included in the study were generally referred to the centre by the school system, rather than by parents, (Portuguese children were much less likely to be referred by their parents than by the schools). This means that, the figures cited are only an accurate sample of the range of behaviour which teachers have deemed as a problem; they may not be indicative of a cross–section of problems of adaptation as a whole, or may not accurately represent what parents or students might identify as the more general difficulties related to academic issues.

In summary, we have seen that the few empirical studies which have been conducted on Portuguese underachievement in Canada have concentrated mostly on detailing the influence of educational practices and policies, as well as the attitudes of educational officials, in structuring the roles and identity definitions of Luso-Canadian youth. Some have also pointed out the influence of mainstream attitudes in determining the way in which teachers relate to their Portuguese students. Other studies have contradicted the prevailing opinions in the scholarly and non-scholarly general literature regarding the roles of community members in structuring underachievement. In this fashion, they have shifted the burden of ultimate responsibility for the underachievement of Portuguese students from parental and community attitudes and practices, which the general literature has promoted.

Despite the importance of the empirical studies on education in bringing a new focus to this problem, as I shall now illustrate, this material also displays many shortcomings, which limit the range of answers that these studies provide.

The available empirical references on education displays serious shortcomings and, as yet, has not answered important questions.

First and foremost, the limited number of these studies makes it difficult for an adequate picture of the problem to emerge. Until now, no large–scale project had yet attempted to synthesize all of the fragmented claims contained in the disparate studies.[16] There is also, still, no broad–enough body of empirical knowledge which can allow researchers to confidently identify the principal factors at the root of underachievement in the Portuguese-Canadian community.

Secondly, the few studies which are available have generally focussed upon the ways in which the self–concept of Luso–Canadian children is negatively affected by the disadvantaging role and identity definitions, which are transmitted to them within the educational environment. Nearly all concentrate exclusively upon school policies, curriculum, educator’s practices and attitudes. Schools are portrayed as places where the bulk of this transmission is occurring. Meanwhile teachers are often portrayed as individuals with tremendous power to structure the failure of these children in their misguided attempts to "redeem" Portuguese students from their parents’ supposedly negative cultural legacy and disadvantaging patterns of behaviour.

Yet, with the exception of Noivo’s (1993, 1997) and Arruda’s (1993) works, few studies that have conducted primary research on youth and their education have described the ways in which messages about role and identity definitions are transmitted to Luso-Canadian young people outside of the classroom. Similarly, they have also not delved into the factors which allow the perpetuation of existing patterns. In essence, these research projects have fallen short of analyzing the role which the Portuguese or mainstream Canadian community’s attitudes, practices and context have played in allowing students to either accept, or resist, the disadvantaging role and identity definitions which they experience at school.

For example, Peter McLaren (1986) restricted his analysis to examining the role of classroom rituals in conveying these messages. His work did not delve into the social and institutional vehicles which influenced and perpetuated teachers' opinions, regarding Portuguese students. The role of both implicit and explicit School Board policy, practices and norms on teachers' sense of their mission, the issue of why - and how - the Portuguese are regarded by the wider society, as well as the question of why Portuguese students were susceptible to this type of treatment, were not explored.

For example, McLaren pointed to class bias as the reason behind his schools' discriminatory treatment of Portuguese children. Yet, even though a number of his teachers alluded to race-based explanations to explain their students’ underachievement, McLaren did not follow-up and investigate if - and how - any of his teachers considered their Portuguese students to be racially different, or inferior, to themselves. In McLaren's study, one is simply left to speculate about what factors were leading the school’s teachers to regard their Luso-Canadian students in such a deprecating fashion.

More importantly, McLaren failed to interview Portuguese parents for their views on their own, and their children's, roles. In this fashion, he ignored the influence of the Luso-Canadian community in resisting, or acquiescing to, the ritual systems which he identified. At least two studies have indicated that notions held by mainstream society–at–large are pivotal in affecting the manner in which Portuguese in North America structure their ethnic identity, (Boulter, 1974; Fernandez, 1979).[17]

Similarly, Becker's (1990) study did not actively explore the processes which brought about the emasculation of official educational policies and perpetuating the "hidden agenda.” Neither were the attitudes of her student’s and their families’ gathered - to any great - extent in an attempt to discover why these students acquiesced to their marginalized roles.

It is clear that, none of these studies has adequately bared the underlying state of affairs which leads to the perpetuation of the disadvantaging attitudes, policies, practices and role relationships that were described. In this fashion, none of the references dealing with the education of Luso-Canadian children have satisfactorily tackled the question of why disadvantaging school policies and practices have taken so long to change, or why the community is not able to resist these factors.

None of these studies has also attempted to describe the part which Luso-Canadians themselves play in structuring their own situation, roles and identities within this country and the part which these definitions may play within underachievement.

Finally, most of the authors of these empirical studies on Portuguese youth have neglected to ground their findings in the growing literature on minority underachievement; a body of research which has become increasingly concerned with the influence upon school practices, attitudes and role definitions of larger–world relations of power between majority and minority groups, (see next Chapter). As I illustrate in the following section, scholars studying the general problem of minority underachievement have generally moved away from explaining this phenomenon as being a consequence of student's "cultural difference" and "cultural deficit", often gauged by microethnographic methods, and have moved towards examinations of the effects of structural societal and community factors on minority schooling, characterized by macroethnographic approaches, (ex. Ogbu, 1978).[18]

As I have attempted to show in this chapter, very little scholarly research has been conducted either on the broad topic of the Portuguese in Canada, or on the specific topic of the schooling of Luso–Canadian youth. Most of the information on underachievement in the Portuguese-Canadian community amongst the general scholarly literature and the anecdotal sources is fragmented, unsubstantiated by research, child-centred, culturally biased or contradictory. In the case of formal research studies, these have focussed mainly on describing how the practices and policies of the school system negatively structure the roles and identities of Portuguese students. Most importantly, the existing empirical studies have generally failed to seek out the point-of-view of community members, in order to investigate their, or their community’s, roles within this country, or how these issues may contribute to the underachievement of their children.

[1] This has occurred largely because the existing literature has also not been grounded in the prevailing theories on minority underachievement, which have pointed to the importance of understanding the attitudes of minority community members regarding their roles and how they view the education system (see following chapter).

[2] An updated bibliography by Teixeira & Lavigne (in press) will soon be available. A number of other bibliographies also contain works which describe the realities of Portuguese immigrants in North America, (Cashman & Klein, 1976, pp–267–268; Cordasco & Alloway, 1981, pp. 25–40; Cross–Cultural, 1977; Gregorovich, 1972, pp. 159–160; Miller, 1986 pp. 184–185; Momeni, 1984 pp. 133, 264; Rocha–Trindade & Arroteia, 1984)

[3] Not included here are the various Board of Education Reports, which have been described in the previous chapter, (ex. Brown et al. 1992; Larter & Eason, 1978; Larter et al. 1982, etc.)

[4] Other unpublished papers may also be found in Teixeira & Lavigne (1992, in press).

[5] Inherent in this manner of viewing students of minority backgrounds are also questions regarding how teachers define and measure "abstract concepts", "abstract skills" and "logical deduction" and whether or not the definition or evaluation of these may not be biased by cultural factors.

[6] This is the English translation of Alpalhão & Da Rosa (1979). A subsequent Portuguese translation was later added: Alpalhão & Da Rosa (1983)

[7] At this time, E.S.L. for children had not yet become standard practice in Toronto’s public schools.

[8] For example, one major difference between the approach in Nunes (1986) and and Coelho (1973)was that I did not convey the message that the influences and limitations of traditional Portuguese culture are necessarily at the root of the problems of most Portuguese youth.

[9] It becomes clear from these and other works that the anecdotal material which has been written by members of the second generation, or the material which is heavily based on interviews with adolescents and young adults, must be appraised with great caution. For many young Portuguese who live in the large urban centres with significant immigrant communities, their main contact with "mainstream”, middle-class Canadian patterns of parenting and upbringing has been through middle-class teachers, educational material, and - most importantly - through television. In particular, the images of Anglo North-American parenting and family life which were invariably transmitted through this medium to children during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, were highly selective and stylized portrayal of an idealized family existence. This gave children, and particularly those minority children who had little contact with mainstream families, ample opportunity to begin to form implicit comparisons between the supposedly “real” (or imagined) bucolic Anglo North-American "standards" of family life which they saw on television, and their own traditionally-rigid, often discordant, imperfect family life. Thus, when interviewed, these young people would often overemphasize the more negative, authoritarian and restrictive elements of their Portuguese upbringing, as a means of driving home an implicit, or implied, comparison.

[10] The first is a short journal article which summarizes the major findings of the study.

[11] In fairness to the author, it should be mentioned that this was not the stated aim of the study.

[12] Although there are greater numbers of these than the general sociological and historical major references, only the most important of these will be discussed at this point. The remainder will be referred to, where necessary, during my subsequent discussions.

[13] This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, merely to provide a sample of the varied sources and points of view which have entered into the underachievement issue, over the years.

[14]This was not a Canadian study and great care must be taken regarding the applicability of these findings to a Canadian context because of the differing social, economic and political conditions in the two countries, particularly with regards to government policies on Multiculturalism. However, this work is still useful for drawing parallels.

[15] The reports in this series by Cummins (Cummins, Lopes & King, 1987; Cummins, Lopes & Ramos, 1987) are also summarized in Harley, Allen, Cummins and Swain, (1990).

[16]Jim Cummins (1984) compiled a study which attempted to synthesize many of the disparate generalizations regarding the underachievement of minority students. While this work made reference to previous research on Portuguese students, and while Cummins himself has done considerable work with the Luso-Canadian students, this reference did not specifically attempt to analyze the case of the Portuguese.

[17]In a sociological study conducted on the Portuguese in Vancouver Boulter (1974) concluded that the actions or practices of all members of society are what defined ethnic differences in this target group, rather than those differences being an inherent attribute. In another study, Fernandez (1979) found that being Portuguese conferred different status at different times. In a fashion reminiscent of Becker's (1990) findings, Fernandez observed that Portuguese immigrants expressed their Portuguese identity in private while attempting to project a Canadian identity in public. Fernandez also noted how even Portuguese children who were born in Canada were never really accepted as "Canadians" but are frequently referred to as "immigrant" children, (Fernandez, 1979, p. 5).

[18] (The former uses such tools as sociolinguistics to examine divergences in speech and microinteractions that affect achievement. The latter attempts to explain classroom behaviour through a discourse and analysis of wider societal power relationships).