Christian Sinchi Case Study

Christian Sinchi is 26 year old personal trainer who lives in Bristol, Connecticut. He has a bachelor’s degree in sport management and works as a swim coach in his spare time. He is also an immigrant from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Christian was born in Ecuador in 1990 and lived there with his extended family for 10 years before moving the United States. Three years previously his parents had moved to New York City and had begun to create their own building business in Queens. Once they felt their business was strong enough to support their family they sent for their son to join them in the big city. Christian moved to New York in 2000 in what he recalls being an exhausting process. Although he couldn’t remember most of the process he did
When he entered school he only spoke a few words of English. In his neighborhood most people spoke spanish so he hadn’t been forced to use the new language yet, but on his first day in the classroom he was thrown into a sea of English. Christian immediately sunk into what Cristina Igoa(1995) calls “the silent stage” (p. 38). In this stage he withdrew from school as much as possible due to his inability to speak English. Without any friends in new York Christian felt hopeless and alone. In module two we discussed the concept of group identity and how it can pertain to immigrant students. Christian lost his group identity with his move. Everything he had known in Ecuador was turned upside down and he no longer felt like he was part of a group. He wasn’t part of the English speaking population, he was no longer surrounded by cousins and friends, and he had lost all the familiarity of Ecuador. Since no one was working to show Christian that his culture was important he felt forced to assimilate into the American lifestyle. According to him “You have to get used to the American life, it’s the only way that you are going to make it”. He was being decellularized by his own doing because he felt that was the only way to fit in in his
Although he had some teachers who helped him through the process he never had a teacher who showed great examples of CRT. Christian felt that he had to lose his culture before he would be able to fit into the American school system and I never want my students to feel this way. I think if I display proper teaching methods and remember that “culturally relevant teaching requires that students maintain some cultural integrity as well as academic excellence” (Ladson­Billings, 1995, p. 160), then I will be successful in creating an inviting learning space for immigrant students. Igoa (1995) claims that CRT involves “connecting with each child as an individual, validating the child’s cultural history, and establishing a trusting, respectful, and warm relationship” (p. 125). I want my students to never feel the pressure and unwelcome environment that Christian