Community Cultural Wealth With English Learners

• In Event: Educational Agency and Transformation: Enacting Pathways for Empowerment With Latino Educators and Youth

Abstract

English Learners’ low academic achievement and schooling alienation marks a significant social problem (Gándara & Hopkins 2010; Valencia, 2002). To address this issue, a significant pedagogical shift is required, which reflects the intellectual and cultural heritages of students (Gay & Howard, 2000; Ladson Billings, 1994) their funds of knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2005) and Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2006). This participatory study engages one Mexican teacher in learning about and implementing Community Cultural Wealth curricula with her 6th grade English Learners.

I draw upon Critical Pedagogy and Community Cultural Wealth as my theoretical framework. Key tenets of Critical Pedagogy include a commitment to social transformation, redefining the teacher-student relationship, affirming students’ humanity, (Freire, 1970; Darder, 1991) and raising critical consciousness with academic skills (Shor & Freire, 1987; Morrell, 2004). While Critical Pedagogy is emerging as a viable approach to educating students of color (Ayers et al., 2009; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Cadiero-Kaplan, K., 2007), more empirical studies are needed to explore its applications with K-12 students from various cultural, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds. This study aims to contribute to this issue.

Community Cultural Wealth originates within Critical Race Theory and is an anti-deficit theory for illuminating the strengths of communities of color; it is “an array of knowledge, skills and abilities possessed and utilized by communities of color to survive and resist…oppression” (Yosso, 2006, p. 75). Yosso (2006) conceptualized six capitals, or strengths, which communities of color hold—aspirational, linguistic, navigational, social, familial, and resistant. Community Cultural Wealth has gained traction in higher education research, (Solorzano et al., 2005; Yosso, 2006) though empirical work on its K-12 applications are forthcoming.

In this study, I documented my year-long participatory research project with a sixth grade teacher learning about and implementing Community Cultural Wealth curriculum with English Learners in California’s Central Valley. For the first phase, I was involved in one-on-one meetings with a classroom teacher to learn about and develop the curriculum followed by implementation with her 6th grade classroom of primarily English Learners. The research questions guiding this study were: (1) What characteristics defined one classroom teacher’s process of learning about, designing, and implementing a Community Cultural Wealth curriculum? (2) What was the academic and critical literacy potential of Community Cultural Wealth curriculum with English Learners? Data sources include ethnographic fieldnotes, interviews, and document collection of student work. The findings demonstrated that the classroom teacher drew upon her Mexican cultural practices of cariño (care) and shared her own life stories more authentically with her students. In doing so, the teacher normalized Mexican immigrant experiences, connected with her students' lived realities, and fostered a classroom culture built upon respect. This climate, nurtured students to use the particulars of their life experiences and name the strengths, aspirations, and abilities they hold. In this way, students made the theory of Community Cultural Wealth tangible using specific examples from their own immigrant experiences. This study is significant because it builds upon the viability of Critical Pedagogy and Community Cultural Wealth for education and empowerment.

Author

• Rosa M. Jimenez, Arizona State University