Eternal Vigilance: Politics, Race, and the Struggle for Educational Equity in a Central Texas Community

• In Event: 66.052 - The Significance of Qualitative Studies on the Sociocultural and Sociopolitical Contexts of Education to Inform Policy

Abstract

This paper documents the emergence of a Mexican-American political consciousness in a Central Texas Community and the efforts to dismantle decades of inequitable, exclusionary educational policies and practices. We employ a theory of change framework (RASPPA) to chronicle a community’s response to macro-level societal changes. The authors argue that acknowledging, examining, and leveraging the historical contributions of community citizens can serve to empower and mobilize historically marginalized populations to generate the political capacity to advocate for broader school and community change.

Statement of Purpose:
Informed by the 2019 AERA conference theme, this research presents a framework informed by local values and conditions that honor and leverage community wisdom that when harnessed and aligned can shape public conscience and be employed to mobilize public action to advance educational and community change.

Context and Theoretical Framework:
To capture the dynamic nature of a community in a state of transition during a period of social and political unrest, we employ an emerging hybrid theory that examines and integrates micro and macro historical events, archival research and the storied lived experiences of elders (Author, 2004). The research is guided by the principles of relationships, assets, stories, place, politic, and action (RASPPA). This theory of change helps anchor a hybrid-method by combining oral histories archival research, and dynamic strategies for constructing a microethography of a Central Texas community’s social, political, and educational landscape.
The primary question guiding the study is: What are the historical lessons that can inform a responsive educational agenda during challenging times?

Methods and Data Sources:
The primary method for collecting the stories of the community elders was by employing a culturally responsive dialogical framework, known as pláticas (2013). According to Author (2013) pláticas are commonly known as “dialogue, conversation, or perhaps storytelling; all-important modalities we also use. But in our Mexican American cultural and historical context we are much more drawn to plática (p.163).” Additionally, primary and secondary sources were also consulted to provide a rich, comprehensive narrative of these historical events.

Findings and Conclusions:
The findings from the study include:
 Organized and sustainable community change requires a well-articulated agenda informed by history, local stories, values and owned by local people who are engaged in specific strategies for change.
 Change requires the development of human capital and a political imagination.
 Communities need people who commit themselves to issues they own personally.
 Organizing communities for change requires strong relationships and trust within community.
 Sustaining progressive change require communities to be deliberate about training future generations.
 School must be seen as laboratories for teaching the art and process of democracy.
 Even our public institutions need citizens to be “eternally vigilant.”

Significance of Study:
This timely research study is connected with the American Educational Research Association Conference theme, “Leveraging Education Research in a ‘Post-Truth’ Era: Multimodal Narratives to Democratize Evidence” as it centers on tapping into the power of local history inform, enact, and sustain educational and community change.

Authors

• Samuel Garcia, Texas State University

• Miguel Angel Guajardo, Texas State University - San Marcos