The Tejano History Curriculum Project: Creating a Space for Authoring Tejanas/os Into the Social Studies Curriculum

• In Event: The Figured World of Bilingual Education: Proyecto Bilingüe as Context for Teacher Self-Authoring

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this project was to investigate the pedagogies for teaching the social studies in preservice and inservice programs that work to attract and support teachers and students from Latina/o communities.

Theoretical Framework: Utilizing a figured worlds and critical historical inquiry framework, this qualitative study examined how the Tejano History Curriculum Project (THCP) provided opportunities for prospective and practicing bilingual educators to challenge long-standing and problematic depictions of Tejana/o histories. The official history narrative in schools excludes the experiences of people of color and women, as well as perpetuates a story of progress and greatness while ignoring a story of continued racism, classism, and sexism (Trouillot, 1995; VanSledright, 2002). The THCP created a space for authoring and claiming new identities via the construction of cultural artifacts in which members of the figured world of bilingual education challenged the long-standing and problematic narratives centered in the master figured world of teaching and learning history (Urrieta, 2007).

Methods and Data Sources: Beginning in the late fall of 2011 and into the spring 2012, situated the qualitative research inquiry was situated within the collective “interconnections among figured worlds, and larger societal and trans-societal forces” (Holland et al., 1998, p. 60) that emerged within the Tejana/o History Curriculum Project (THCP). The qualitative research emphasized “questions that stress how social experiences [are] created and given meaning” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 10). Two pre-service cohorts from the Central University bilingual teacher education program were included in the THCP research project and the analysis. In addition, two Proyecto Bilingüe teachers that implemented THCP in their fourth grade classrooms in the local school district were included. Using a constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1999), observational classroom data was chunked and coded both from university classrooms of the prospective teachers and the classrooms of practicing teachers. Transcripts of interactions and student-generated products were triangulated with classroom data “…to enhance the validity of research findings” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Mathison, 1988, p. 13).

Findings: The collaborative work that made the THCP possible and effective illustrates that University, community, and school partnerships create a broad space of authoring that enables the inclusion of Tejana/o histories. Within this space of authoring, the possibilities for reimagining the master figured world of teaching and learning is dependent on two notions: 1) the fostering of agency among community members, as well as teachers and their students, and 2) mediated by cultural artifacts.

Significance: Purposeful projects like the THCP cast doubt upon the master figured worlds of teaching and learning history that are ever present and ever in need of remaking. Deliberate activities in the wider community yielded moments of solidarity such as the unveiling of the Tejano Monument at the State Capitol. For emergent bilingual students and their teachers, these moments of solidarity allow for the possibilities of authoring new identities that can be positioned with greater power and status in the local community and beyond.

Authors

• Cinthia S. Salinas, The University of Texas - Austin

• Naseem Rodriguez