CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF EDUCACZdN: LATIN0 FAMILY VALUES AND AMERICAN SCHOOLING LESLIE REESE, SILVIA BALZANO, RONALD GALLIMORE, and CLAUDE GOLDENBERG Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. Abstract Do traditional, agrarian values put minority culture children at a disadvantage in North American schools? The available results are mixed. In this chapter we attempt to “unpack” some of the effects of traditional Latin0 family values on their children’s early school adaptation and achievement. Our research suggests that agrarian-origin values, which differ from academic-occupational orientation of school personnel, do not necessarily work to the disadvantage of students. On the contrary, under certain conditions, these values may be complementary to those of the school and in fact serve to support educational adaptation and achievement. A key to our findings and analyses is the concept of educacih beliefs among the parents in our sample. Not all strongly endorsed cultural beliefs are instantiated in ways that impact children’s experiences and development. Some cultural beliefs lead to instantiation into everyday routines of families, while others seem to be readily available, expressed, and endorsed but not reliably acted on (D’Andrade & Strauss, 1992). Those beliefs that are instantiated into the daily routine are more likely to produce detectable effects on children’s development, a conclusion supported by cross cultural evidence (Weisner, 1984). Introduction In North America, family values influence children’s success in school across racial and ethnic groups (Ginsburg & Hanson, 1985; Weisner & Garnier, 1992). Some specific value commitments predict school performance. These include the importance a family attaches to children’s education and to schooling-directed efforts. There may also be a more general effect of family values on school achievement that is relatively “content- free.” Weisner and Gamier’s (1992) longitudinal study of conventional, nonconven- tional, and countercultural families indicated that diverse value commitments “protect”