Unpacking and Disrupting Racial Violence in Schools: Combating Deficit Framings of Latinx Students and Communities

• In Event: Navigating and Interrupting Racialized Deficit Schooling: Teachers Fostering Third Spaces to Support Students of Color

Abstract

Objectives
This paper is based on a study of the experiences of racial justice oriented Latinx teachers who work in progressive charter schools dedicated to serving the Latinx community. The study centered Latinx teacher testimonios of their experiences with racial violence directed at Latinx students, parents and communities in the form of deficit-oriented framing of these communities that shape the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of the students in these schools. Teachers also shared the ways in which they confronted and countered school cultures of racial violence: directly with students, with their colleagues, and with their administration.

Literature
This study is based on two critical conceptual perspectives. First, it relies on Freire’s (1970) analysis of educational violence, which is linked to the racialization of schooling in the US (Kohli, Pizarro, Nevarez, 2017). Second, it builds on earlier work in which the author demonstrated the typically unacknowledged strengths that community-oriented teachers of color bring to their work in urban schools (Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). Building on an indigenous framework for engaging in research (Wilson, 2005), that study demonstrated the ways in which schools as institutions and administrators as educational leaders so often fail to recognize the critical skills that these teachers bring to their practice.

Methods and Data
Four racial justice-oriented Latinx teachers who participate in a teacher support network shared similar concerns about their experiences in Latinx-oriented charter schools. Each provided their testimonios, which they shared in an interview that explored deficit framings in their schools. After initial analysis, each teacher engaged in a follow-up interview that explored the overall findings and alternative interpretations of their experiences. Finally, teachers were provided the written analysis of their testimonios and charged with the task of sharing insights as to how best to confront school cultures that foster deficit approaches to Latinx students.

Results
The teachers revealed deficit perspectives from colleagues that were centered on two core beliefs about students and parents respectively: that students were lazy and did not care about their schooling, and, that parents did not value education and did not support their children in achieving school success. In addition, the teachers demonstrated that administrators supported school cultures of deficit framing of Latinxs in two ways: subtly affirming deficit framing of Latinxs and/or not challenging prominent teachers who espoused these beliefs. The teacher testimonios provided models for confronting these beliefs and practices in their schools.

Scholarly Significance
This study uncovered the subtle and profound ways in which dominant deficit ideologies are manifested in progressive schools that express a commitment to supporting the underserved. The teachers provided examples of ways in which these ideologies are manifested in teacher beliefs and behaviors, as well as in school policies and practices, elucidating a framework for assessing schools that will challenge these contemporary realities. The teachers also share a set of tools that can be used in similar contexts to support students and families in the pursuit of academic success, as well as models for challenging school cultures that are damaging to Latinx students.

Author

• Marcos Pizarro, San José State University