Hernandez and Its Enduring Legacy of Racism: Developing and Applying a Critical Race Policy Research Framework and Methodology

• In Event: Chicana/o Challenges to School Segregation in California and Texas: Using Critical Race Theory in Education as a Tool for Historical Recovery

Abstract

In the 1950s small farming community of Driscoll, Texas, Mexican American students were relegated to a “beginner,” “low,” and then “high” first grade – a pre-Brown segregation practice common across Texas (Montejano, 1987; Valencia, 2008). In this presentation, I focus on the educational experiences of 25 Mexican American students who attended Driscoll schools in 1950s South Texas, illuminating the real-world, longitudinal effects of segregation policies, which degraded students for speaking Spanish and dissuaded them from achieving academically. I provide a historical and contextualized analysis of South Texas small town communities in general, and of Driscoll, Texas, in particular, based on archived legal documents, including court transcripts, court opinions, and legal motions and filings. I also examine archival data from the state education agency and district offices including documents related to student achievement, budget, and policy.

Taken together, these data help me identify key political players, civil rights organizations, and contexts of the Hernandez et al. v. Driscoll Consolidated School District (1957) desegregation court case. While discussing these players and organization, I also contextualize the environment in the post-Brown era, documenting the cotton industry and the significance of migrant farm work to my participants. Here, I describe my respondents’ experiences with discriminatory and humiliating schooling practices and their resilience in enduring racist educational policies. I then focus on the stories of five of the eight plaintiffs in the Hernandez case, highlighting their brave actions as evidence of the leadership and activism present in this often-denigrated community.

Moreover, I analyze implications of the Hernandez case for the development of a critical race policy research framework and methodology. The larger context of this project and its significance lies in its ability to help scholars and researchers understand that today’s educational achievement gap, drop out rates, and broken educational pipeline have enduring roots with cases like Hernandez. Because most educational policy research frameworks do not seek to understand policy as value-laden and racialized (Fowler, 2009), this research will challenge traditional understandings of policy research by centering the experiences of students who experienced these policies firsthand. In developing a critical race policy research framework and applying it to the Hernandez case, I hope to extend the work of CRT in educational research, contribute to the literature on educational policy research, and extend the conversation on the impact that educational policy has on students of color, and Latina/os in particular, today.

Author

• Enrique Aleman, University of Utah