Denying Possibilities to Young Children of Latinx Immigrants: Applying the Work of Charles Mills

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 40
  In Roundtable Session: Latinx and English Language Learner Children and Families in Education

Abstract

Children of Latinx immigrants at the intersection of poverty, linguistic discrimination, racial injustice and harsh immigration discourses are too often denied the sophisticated, dynamic learning experiences that wealthier, whiter students receive in the early grades. Using a three-year ethnographic and video-cued study within Latinx immigrant communities throughout Texas this paper details what happened when a group of young children of Latinx immigrants had the learning experiences and affordances that many upper-class White children of native born parents get at school. Then we apply Charles Mill’s conceptualization of personhood/subpersonhood to try and make sense of why stakeholders who watched films of these experiences believed that the Latinx children of immigrants at their own schools couldn’t handle the same kinds of experiences.

Author

• Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas - Austin