Rising Through the Cracks: Possibilities of Community-Based Education for Minoritized Students

• In Event: Then, Now, and Here: Possibilities, Freedom, and the Complexities of Citizenship

Abstract

What are the possibilities of community based education as a way to service Spanish and Portuguese speaking students who are falling through the cracks of the Canadian public education system? High push out rates and low access to postsecondary institutions point to the struggle of these students. Community-based education is an effective tool in countering the deleterious effects of structural disadvantages for minoritized youth. My research focuses on such a program, and in looking at the relationships that are formed in this program and the role that these play in its own success. How are issues of identity navigated through these relationships, and what possibilities do they hold in practicing a pedagogy that foregrounds students’ linguistic and cultural identities?

Author

• Alexandra Arraiz, University of Toronto - OISE