"No Había Bilingual Education": Historias From South Texas Escuelitas

• In Event: 21.061 - MTCC Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: 21.061-5 - Bilingual Learning Spaces and Narratives of Teacher Resistance

Abstract

In 1940s America, along the Texas-Mexico border, las escuelitas—or little schools—were places Mexican American parents sent their young children to begin their academic learning. These unique learning contexts did not teach students to read, write, and speak in English. Rather, they sought to develop, maintain and celebrate the linguistic and cultural heritage of the communities they served by teaching students a Mexican inspired curriculum. Through narrative inquiry, we explore the escuelitas, as recounted by nine former escuelita students, as sites of negotiation, agency, and resistance. Drawing on theories of Third Space and Nepantla, we explore the ways in which the escuelitas participants take up/put to use escuelita knowledge to enact third spaces in order to navigate hegemonic institutions.

Authors

• Enrique David Degollado, The University of Iowa

• Randy Clinton Bell, The University of North Texas, Dallas