Critical Ethnic Studies: Humanizing Pedagogies in a Chicanx/Latinx High School Classroom

• In Event: "Unless We Know Ourselves and Our History": On the Necessity of Ethnic Studies and Education

Abstract

Objectives and Research Questions
There is an urgent need for schools in the nation to offer Ethnic Studies as curricula that is more relevant and engaging (de los Ríos, López, & Morrell, 2016). Recently, Los Angeles Unified School District passed a resolution to make Ethnic Studies a high school graduation requirement, and in 2016 California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to develop a model ethnic studies curricula for public secondary schools by 2019 (de los Ríos, 2017). While we cannot depend on the state to develop an ethnic studies that is grounded in critical and humanizing pedagogies, we can offer models of what a critical ethnic studies high school course that is responsive to what the local context looks like (de los Ríos, et al. 2016; Darder, 2017). Freire (1970) calls on educators to creatively use and reinvent his ideas and adapt them to local educational contexts and struggles. This paper offers a pedagogical and curricular approach and a model of ethnic studies implementation with Chicanx/Latinx youth from a scholar-practitioner serving a high school located in the Eastside of Los Angeles.

Theory
The study employs humanizing pedagogies and practices (Freire, 1970; Salazar, 2013), and Paris’s (2011) understanding of humanizing research, which requires that inquiry “involve dialogic consciousness-raising and the building of relationships of dignity and care for both researchers and participants” (p. 137). The paper illustrates teacher-student relationships of care and love (Freire, 1970; Darder, 2017), and a teacher-student revolutionary partnership of engagement in humanizing ethnic studies liberating praxis (Darder, 2017). Taken together, these frameworks guided analyses for how Chicanx/Latinx youth engage humanizing pedagogies in their classroom and communities.

Methods/Sources
The study draws from a yearlong critical qualitative study using student written narratives and focus groups in a high school ethnic studies course. Students’ narratives provided insight into the challenges and critiques of power in their classes, school, and larger community. Focus groups provided space for students to apply concepts from the ethnic studies course to name, reflect, and identify solutions to issues they felt most affected their material lives.

Findings and Significance
The findings offer implications on the possibilities of implementing humanizing pedagogies and curriculum in critical ethnic studies courses. Student course reflections and written narratives illustrate their telling of their lived experiences, feelings, and rewrite what they hope and reimagine their lives and community to be in the future. Findings from this study are significant in that curriculum and practices grounded in community and relationships respond to students more holistically. At a time where surveillance, anxiety, and violence permeate schools and communities of color, a critical ethnic studies approach toward learning provided solace, hope, and healing for Chicanx/Latinx youth alongside their academic development. This research also sheds insight into the role of creating authentic teacher-student relationships. Models of effective ethnic studies courses such as the classroom examined in this study, contribute to the ways the field must turn in the quest for socially just, transformative, and humanizing education.

Author

• Jorge Lopez, Claremont Graduate University