Faculty Spotlight
New Research Fellow Joins the Graduate School of Education
Dr. Elena Quiroz Lima will be hosted by Dr. Robert Ream
April 30, 2009
Elena Quiroz Lima, a Mexican scholar studying the education of migrant children, has been awarded a UC MEXUS-CONACYT Postdoctoral Fellowship and will soon begin her research at UC Riverside’s Graduate School of Education.
Quiroz Lima is one of eight incoming fellows in the UC system -- and the only one at UCR -- to have received funding from a joint program between the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS) and Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT). She earned her Doctorate in Social Science with an emphasis in Society and Education at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco México.
Quiroz Lima will be hosted by Dr. Robert Ream, an assistant professor at the GSOE whose research areas include educational inequality, social capital, and Latino social demography.
Quiroz Lima’s fellowship proposal, "Education for migrant children in multi-age groups," is a critical field of study for Inland Southern California, where the English language learner population has increased about six- fold since the early 1980s. Some students live part-time in Mexico and part-time in the U.S., Ream said. Immigrant students often face multiple challenges, including language barriers, socioeconomic disadvantages, teachers with little knowledge of their cultural or linguistic backgrounds, and frequent mobility.
“There are enormous rates of growth in the number of K-12 student populations in the Inland Empire, and many of those students are immigrants from Mexico or children of immigrants from Mexico," Ream said. “Our community is addressing education-related issues similar to the ones she is addressing in her research."
Quiroz Lima already has begun her research in Oaxaca. She said she is studying an Education Program for Migrant Children (PRONIM), its curriculum design and the institutional organization around it to determine how it works in Mexico and the U.S.
California’s large immigrant population from Mexico and Latin American makes the UC system an appropriate place to conduct her research, Quiroz Lima said.
“The campus of Riverside is widely recognized for the ethnic diversity of its students, so it will be a great opportunity to share opinions with colleagues who see in that diversity a chance, instead of a difficulty," said Quiroz Lima, who will spend a year at UCR.
Quiroz Lima hopes her research will lead to actions that improve immigrant education in Mexico and in the United States.
UC MEXUS, established in 1980, is dedicated to encouraging, securing, and contributing to bi-national and Latino research and collaborative academic programs and exchanges.
The primary objective of the postdoctoral fellowship program is to advance academic scholarship by emerging Mexican researchers and UC scientists and scholars in the early stages of their careers, after they have obtained their Ph.Ds. Mexican researchers study at UC campuses, and UC researchers study at Mexican institutions. The program also strengthens existing networks and fosters new ones between UC and Mexican faculty and institutions.
The program gives visiting scholars a chance to learn new techniques, acquire new skills and converse with people they wouldn’t have access to at their home institutions, said Wendy DeBoer, Director of International Academic Programs for UC MEXUS. That knowledge is then passed along.
“We also really want to see that they are working with a host who is really familiar with their research and who is really enthusiastic and committed to their stay," DeBoer said."I think in this regard, Dr. Ream is really an exceptional host. From a programmatic perspective, it’s really exciting for us to see she’s not only supported by the host but by the Graduate School of Education, by the Dean."
DeBoer said there is a great fit between Ream and Quiroz Lima’s research areas. And, she said, Ream is a perfect example of somebody who benefitted from early support of his research. He received a UC MEXUS grant and conducted research on immigration and mobility while a student at UC Santa Barbara, she said. Now, he is hosting Quiroz Lima at a critical juncture of her academic career.
“These experiences are really transformative for the post-docs," DeBoer said. “They just have this real room to grow and benefit from the experience, and they really do."
Ream said some of his students are also interested in studying the education of migrant children.
“We’re always asking ourselves at the School of Education how we can best serve our community and beyond," he said. “One of the really compelling aspects of this work is, it answers the call from the local community about what UC Riverside is doing for us, and then what social science is doing for the world."