Failure and the Discourse of Caring: How Latino Boys See Themselves as Readers and Writers

• In Event: Language, Literacy, and Identity: Examining Pedagogical Spaces of Social and Linguistic Justice for Diverse Learners

Abstract

American born Latino boys are both simultaneously the largest growing population of students, and they are also the most academically vulnerable. They are more likely to disengage from the student role than immigrant students, they are the highest demographic to leave school in the ninth grade, and they are least likely to see themselves attending college in the future. Despite this, there is little research on the experiences of Latino boys and how they see themselves as part of the academic community. Although Latinx students are increasingly entering the classroom, the demographics of their teachers has changed very little. Most students are currently taught by White, monolingual teachers who are using a curriculum that reflects a largely White, patriarchal, middleclass experience. When one takes this into consideration, along with the currently politically divisive discourse surrounding language and immigration, one can only wonder how American born Latino boys see their role in the larger academic community.

This study seeks to understand the notion of caring and how it relates to failure through the eyes of the principal players’ in students’ academic lives: their teachers, their families and the boys themselves. Several theories framed this study, including the sociocultural perspective of literacy, raciolinguistics, Latino Critical Theory and Critical White Studies.

The sociolinguistic perspective of literacy recognizes that when schools refer to students’ practices of reading and writing, they are often referring to a student’s ability to communicate in the discourse of the dominant culture; however, the raciolingustic perspective understands that this assumption is based on racial positioning. This paper posits the idea that these boys, who are often bilingual in two, sometimes three, languages, are often viewed as deficient and placed in English as a New Language classes, affecting their overall academic self-image and their notion of caring. If the system does not care or value their language or abilities, they will seek other avenues of success, such as work or increasing their social capital.

This paper also seeks to understand issues of race by framing its research on Latino Critical Theory and Critical White Studies. Latino Critical Theory acknowledges the influence of race, language and immigration on students’ experiences in school. Similarly, Critical White Studies reframes issues concerning equity and access in a way that helps both White people and people of color see them through another lens. In deconstructing racial positioning, my hope is to help both teachers and students see the other differently.

The study uses a critical ethnographic perspective in which the boys, their teachers and their families are observed and interviewed using questions based on the theoretical frameworks previously discussed and their perspectives on caring and social capital, raciolinguistic positioning, and both cultural and linguistic differences. The results are coded using pragmatic horizon analysis to determine how the academic community looks from the perspective of the boys, their teachers and their families. From this data, one can better understand the differences in perspectives and how educators and policy makers can build bridges to understanding and inclusion.

Author

• Kerry Jones-Golembeski, Riverhead Central School District