Discourse-Ideology Sequence: Ethnic Studies and Sites for Discursive Transformations in Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 79
  In Roundtable Session: Discourse, Ideology, and Transnationalism

Abstract

Social representations of Mexican ethnics in the U.S. include them as criminal, apathetic, and animal-like. These representations are signifiers that mediate the construction of frames, or principles used to assist in making meaning of objects (including people). Signifiers and frames are crucial contributors in a scheme that mediates the construction of negative ideologies about Mexican ethnics. Once constructed, these ideologies have a reciprocating effect upon further use of negative signifiers in a loop-like mechanism. Mexican American Studies may offer counter-representations that can serve to interrupt this loop. Doing so has the potential to assist in the re-construction of ideologies concerning Mexican ethnics, including students, in the United States.

Author

• Richard A. Orozco, The University of Arizona