The effects of media and postmodern culture on the ethnic and social identities of urban Mexican American high school students

The purpose of the dissertation is to determine how specific elements of media culture and postmodernism are affecting the ethnic and social identities of urban high school Mexican American students. The study will also determine if the consumer products and sensibility that students bring into the classroom are disrupting or preventing instruction from taking place and will assess the impact of consumerism on students in the classroom in terms of their identity formation and forms of resistance. A major goal of the dissertation is to provide a cultural studies approach instead of the traditional approaches and theoretical perspectives that have been used to explain and address the educational problems of Mexican American students in U.S. public schools. The research design of the study will be qualitative and multiperspectival. The dissertation is a qualitative case study of urban Mexican American students in one of the largest schools in metropolitan Los Angeles, and indeed the nation. A multi-method approach is used in the study that employs naturalistic classroom observations and student interviews. A multiperspectival approach is used in the study to incorporate various theoretical perspectives such as media culture, modernity, postmodernism, resistance, and various perspectives in the development and maintenance of ethnic identity. The major results of the study found in one particular high school were: (1) media culture and elements of postmodernism did not cause the ethnic identity in Mexican American urban high school students to dissipate; (2) elements of media and postmodern culture solidified the ethnic identity among Mexican American urban high school students; (3) elements of media and postmodern culture are producing much cultural hybridity among Mexican American urban high school students; (4) elements of media and postmodern culture in the form of consumer products promoted racial tolerance and acceptance among Mexican American urban high school students; (5) consumer products used by students in the classroom were not used as tools for social change or for critiquing the status quo, but primarily for consumption and entertainment; (6) various consumer products that were used by students in their classrooms were violations of the school's discipline code and were compromising instruction; (7) some teachers used a very unrefined form of media literacy in their classes in the absence of a media literacy program at the research site; and (8) an alternative critical media literacy framework with various media literacy activities is offered to teachers.