Flexibility Prompts Latinx Students to Center Their Culture in the Curriculum

• In Event: Faculty Are Subverting Racial Injustice and Expanding Educational Opportunities for Students Through Practitioner Research at Our Minority-Serving California Community College

Abstract

In this paper, I explore ways that Latinx students in my community college public speaking course were impacted by my practitioner inquiry project. I aligned my intervention with Delta College’s Equity Guiding Principles of Flexibility and Student-Centeredness in hopes that students all of my students would appreciate the autonomy that our Speech One: Introductory Speech assignment afforded them. One of the outcomes of the historical legacy of racial injustice is that BIPOC student rarely see themselves, their communities, and the cultures reflected within the mainstream curriculum across P-20 educational contexts. An important way that P-20 faculty can undo such lasting impacts of racial injustice is through decolonizing the curriculum and empowering students to do the same.

In my public speak course, I ask student to complete an assignment that I call, “Speech of Introduction.” This assignment tasks students with researching and delivering a 3-5-minute speech containing biographical information about a contemporary or historical figure. During my analysis of the data, I began to notice interesting themes pertaining to the Latinx students within our course. For example, as a cohort, my Latinx students tended to conduct their research about individuals who reflected their community and their culture. While all students felt empowered to select choose their preference of historical figures, Latinx students were more likely—than other students—to select historical figures that were tied to that Latinx community. They chose contemporary and historical figures that they described as relatable and familiar. These students exhibited a definite preference toward researching and developing speeches about Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and other Latinos. By contrast, other students were typically more interested in selecting mainstream and/or American figures that they did not identify with their personal culture.
Another trend evident within the data that I observed is that my Latinx students—as a cohort— tended to perform at higher levels than other students on this assignment. There seemed to be a positive correlation between students’ confidence during delivery and the memory of key facts about the contemporary and historical figures that the researched. These students tended to exhibit greater confidence during speech delivery, their speeches contained greater detail, and they tended to express great interest in learning—and sharing—so much information about their historical and contemporary figures. This paper examines these data in greater detail and explore my reflections about ways that providing students with greater

autonomy and flexibility empowered my my Latinx students to center themselves within the curriculum.

Author

• Mariela Guzman, San Joaquin Delta College