Designing for Justice: A Conceptual Framework and Blueprint for a Latinidad Curriculum Initiative

• In Event: Enacting an Intergenerational Critical Participatory Epistemology via a Latinidad Upper Division Elective Course and Curriculum Resources

Abstract

Objective:
This paper presents the blueprint for the curriculum initiative through the development of our conceptual framework (See Figure 1), rooted in culturally sustaining and community-centered frameworks that reenvisions Latinidad as critical, intersectional, and multifaceted. The conceptual framework anchors the curricular work by serving as a cohesive foundation guiding curriculum design, implementation, and pedagogy. This paper highlights how the framework provides a structure through which both theoretical underpinnings and the design logic of this curricular initiative are cohesive.


Perspectives:
The process of building the conceptual framework began with visioning sessions led by the project team and drawing on the theoretical frameworks LatCrit (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001), YPAR (Caraballo et al., 2017; Cammarota & Fine, 2008), Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Cast, 2024), and asset-based pedagogies and funds of knowledge (e.g. González et al., 1992). Through this framing, the content, pedagogy, and values of the curriculum are both theoretically grounded and practice-oriented, ensuring alignment across resources and stakeholders. In this work, Latinidad can be understood through these lenses – not as a fixed identity but one that remains fluid through context, power, and lived experience.


Methods:
Our modes of inquiry are rooted in participatory methodologies. The development of the framework and blueprint has been informed by youth and community working groups, and multiple iterations of visual models (see Figure 1). Youth ideas blossomed through collaboration via working groups, which focused on different needs for the curriculum through content, pedagogy, and research. These working groups were integral in translating the abstract conceptual framework pillars into meaningful, experience-based practice. The conceptual framework was, and continues to be, refined through iterative design sessions with educators, youth, researchers, and community members. Ongoing public engagement at community events, education summits, and youth-led focus groups provides us with additional input towards revising and expanding the framework to reflect community knowledge and priorities.


Materials and Warrants:
Structured around four pillars, the conceptual framework asserts that this curriculum centers on: Belonging, Critical Skills Across Contexts, Dynamic & Inquiry-Based Learning, and Multiple Ways of Knowing. Each of these four pillars are operationalized through three design principles which reflect the curricular initiative’s commitment to cultural sustainability, interdisciplinary learning, and social justice. These pillars and design principles also put a spotlight on youth voice, community and oral histories, counter-narratives as knowledge, and civic engagement, which offer educators tools to address historical erasure as well as how they can be connected to today's sociopolitical realities. Publicly-shared materials, inclusive of infographics and curricular material prototypes, are evidence of how we are translating theory into practice.


Significance:
This timely session contributes to urgent national conversations amidst threats to ethnic studies, foregrounding curricular justice and the impact of collaborative knowledge production in advancing equity within public education. More broadly, we offer a purposely dynamic model, intended to be adjusted alongside the complexities of identities and community needs. The design process highlights the participatory and intergenerational model of how we approach curriculum, grounded in theory but enacted by the visions, dreams, and lived experiences of NYC youth and communities.

Authors

• Sophia Vazquez, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Carolina Gomez, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Limarys Caraballo, Teachers College, Columbia University