When and Why Does the Field of Education Currently Study Chicanas/os/x? A Critical Scoping Review

• In Event: Racialized Power and Control in P-20: Navigating Complex Educational Journeys of Latina/o/x

Abstract

In the 1960s, the term Chicano emerged as an identity of empowerment for Mexican Americans. In education, this category was embraced by researchers who began studying the educational experiences of Chicanx students and communities. However, in recent years, terms like Latinx and Hispanic have become the dominant categories used by educational researchers to describe people of Latin American origin or descent. To uncover when and why some educational researchers continue to use the demographic Chicanx, this paper offers a critical scoping review of contemporary education literature (2008-2023) that explicitly uses the category Chicanx to describe its research population. Findings map different uses of the term in today’s literature and analyze how researchers approach the limitations and affordances of studying “Chicanas/os/x.”

Authors

• Michael V. Singh, University of California - Davis

• Silvia Rodriguez Vega, University of California - Santa Barbara