The Transformative Potential of Preservice Ethnic Studies Courses With Chicana Teachers

• In Event: 73.061 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 73.061-2 - Toward Pedagogies for Liberation and Transformation: The Possibilities of Humanizing Pedagogies

Abstract

While Chicanas/os have the lowest rates of educational attainment of any major racial/ethnic group in the U.S. (Valencia, 2010; US Census, 2010; Yosso & Solórzano, 2006), it is significant to note that there are many Chicanas/os that do experience academic success in regards to educational attainment and achievement (see Conchas, 2006; Gándara, 1995). Scholarship suggests that humanizing approaches between students and school adults (i.e., teachers, counselors, staff, etc.), predict academic achievement for Latina/o students (Berta-Avila, 2004; De Jesus & Antrop-Gonzalez, 2006; Flores-Gonzalez, 2002; Rolon, 2000; Rolon-Dow, 2005; Valenzuela, 1999). Historical educational research has documented the important ways that Teachers of Color have grounded their teaching practices in humanizing pedagogies to combat pathological, deficit, and essentialist ideologies about Students of Color (see Donato, 2010; Foster, 1997; Henry, 1992, 2006; Lomawaima & McCarthy, 2006). This paper builds on these historical legacies of “home-grown” (Irizarry, 2007) Teachers of Color who employ humanizing pedagogies to create transformative literacy experiences with Students of Color.

Drawing from a year-long qualitative study with a multigenerational sample of 11 Chicana teachers in Southern California who reported using humanizing approaches with Students of Color, the paper investigates: How does this sample of Chicana teachers describe developing humanizing approaches in their K- 12 classrooms? How are these perceived humanizing approaches represented in the classroom?

Through life-history interviews and classroom observations, all the teachers describe, at least, one humanizing experience during their own schooling. They point to these experiences as informing their literacy approach as K-12 teachers. Although experience within Ethnic Studies was not prerequisite for the study, all 11 teachers told of a humanizing experience within Chicana/o Studies. Earlier studies with Chicana/o teachers, suggest that Chicana/o Studies has a significant impact on the development of a critical consciousness (Montaño, T. & Burstein, J.H., 2006a and 2006b; Urrieta, 2007 & 2009). It is also true for this sample. All 11 Chicana teachers had either been key to the formation of a Chicana/o Studies department, taken Ethnic Studies, or majored in Chicana/o Studies. Through a generational lens, this paper will examine the humanizing approaches that the teachers experienced as students in Ethnic Studies and demonstrate ways that this impacts the teachers’ actual literacy practices in the K - 12 classroom.

These findings offer implications for the development of a critical, home-grown, Teacher of Color pipeline, and offer a way to conceptualize humanizing, K-12 literacy practices. Strategic pipelines that develop critical, home-grown, Teachers of Color who have had training within critical Ethnic Studies programs, increase the likelihood of humanizing pedagogies in K-12 schools. Growing critical, “home-grown”, Teachers of Color requires humanizing approaches within higher education and teacher education programs. Ultimately, as documented by previous research, Colleges of Education and Ethnic Studies departments, must be working collaboratively to ensure that K-12 students have teachers who are prepared with the content knowledge, critical frameworks, and humanizing approaches to transform literacy practices into a true reading of the world.

Author

• Elexia Reyes McGovern, California State University - Dominguez Hills