Dignity Frames for Latinx English Learner Civil Rights Protections Objectives

• In Event: Latin American Educational Foundations and Multicultural-Bilingual Education: The Necessary Connection

Abstract

Objectives:
This theoretical paper argues for dignity as a legal framework for analyzing questions of educational equity, focusing on Latinx students classified as English Learners (EL). By reviewing juridical and legislative texts regarding Latinx and EL students, this work makes connections to dignity frameworks that have assured broader protections in other dimensions of law and, as such, could be applied to education to improve the educational experiences of vulnerable student populations.

Theoretical Framework:
This paper relies on the framework of educational dignity, defined by Espinoza, Vossoughi, and Rose (in progress) as “the multifaceted sense of a person’s value generated via substantive intra- and inter-personal learning experiences that recognize and cultivate one’s mind, humanity, and potential” (p. 1), acknowledging that dignity has contested definitions and operationalizations in philosophy (Rosen, 2012; Waldron, 2012) and law (Barak, 2015; Goodman, 2005).
Education in the U.S. is not deemed a fundamental right (San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 1973), so judicial opinions or settlements have tended to focus on technocratic issues such as meeting material thresholds or complying with protocols (e.g.: Castañeda v. Pickard, 1981). Meanwhile, in other domains of U.S. jurisprudence the concept of dignity has been applied in order to secure broader freedoms and protections with expansive interpretations of rights to autonomy, meaningful participation, and social equality that go well beyond the technocratic remedies often seen in education (Goodman, 2005; Lindgren, 2016). Noting how these rights overlap with the defenses of education in U.S. jurisprudence and legislation, alignment with the specific framework of dignity could support advocacy for more humanistic treatment of education as a rights-generative experience (Espinoza & Vossoughi, 2014).


Methods and Data sources:
This work draws its warrants from analysis of landmark opinions related to the education of Latinx and/or EL-classified students, as well as the treatments of dignity in jurisprudence around other aspects of life (specifically sexuality and marriage, healthcare, and disability). The latter are analyzed thematically with respect to how dignity is defined and how it is operationalized in terms of specific practicable freedoms and protections. These definitions and operationalizations are overlaid onto the reasoning in education-related opinions for possible connections and applications of dignity frameworks in future advocacy for educational equity.

Results and Scholarly Significance:
Analysis of the two bodies of juridical literature as well as secondary sources shows the correspondence of themes in educational jurisprudence of autonomy in decision making, equality of status within society, and opportunities for meaningful participation to the fullest of one’s capabilities to operationalizations of dignity in other domains. These findings suggest that linking educational equity to human dignity, particularly in litigation, might afford broader protections for students from historically marginalized backgrounds that are mindful of students’ subjective educational experience and not just the material and programmatic inputs within schools.

Author

• Luis Ernesto Poza, San José State University