Caveat on Country Reports

Country Reports are included in this reference guide to:

1) Familiarize ESL teachers and tutors with their ESL students’ countries of origin.

2) Emphasize the importance of history and culture in the educational heritages of ESL learners. ''

The information shared in the Educational Heritages Project may be imperfect and subject to change, although it has been collected with utmost attention to accuracy. Please keep the following comments in mind while visiting this site.

• Knowing a student’s country of origin might not be sufficient information to determine their educational heritage. Immigrant and refugee populations are highly transient. Often immigrants and refugees will live in multiple countries before arriving in the United States.

• Disparities in education exist within each country, as well as between countries. Different cultural, ethnic, religious, or gender groups within a particular country often have radically different access to and quality of education.

• Refugee Camps have their own culture and educational heritage. Some learners have lived in refugee camps their entire lives. Hmong learners born and raised in a Thai refugee camp will not have the same educational heritage as their Lao parents, or that of the citizens of Thailand. We have tried to create separate profiles for these distinct groups whenever possible, but realize that not all have been covered.

• War, unrest, and constant change in learners’ home countries can make it difficult to collect accurate, current information. We have been diligent in finding and using the most accurate resources available in creating this reference guide.

We hope that this reference guide will be seen as an “open source” tool in which all feel welcome to comment and revise as needed.

To submitt any questions, comments, edits, or other contributions, email Wiki@theMLC.org . Your comments will be considered, and will be added to the site, pending approval of accuracy, relevancy, and professionalism.