Disrupting Schooling's Scripts of Masculinity: Latino Males Navigating Heteronormativity Through Critical Literacies

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Reclaiming Our Own Spaces: Youth and Educators Building Emancipatory Relationships, Identity Constructions, and Resistance

Abstract

Objective
The implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum has shown promise with student achievement by centering students’ racialized experiences, providing a deeper connection to learning for students (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris & Alim, 2017). For male students of color, and Latino males in particular, recurring attempts to change their educational outcomes have resulted in continually enduring challenges in schools (Cammarota, 2007; Rodriguez & Oseguera, 2015). While attention to Latino male students have been productive (Lopez, Ehly, & Garcia-Vazquez, 2002; Saenz & Ponjuan, 2011), few studies have zeroed in on the intersections of heteronormativity and masculinity as they relate to Latino male educational experiences. This paper examines the utility of culturally relevant texts in a high school classroom to disrupt heteronormative scripts of masculinity and move toward more inclusive and diverse masculinities (Brockenbrough, 2016; McCready, 2010). The following questions guide this paper:
1. What is the impact of using culturally relevant texts to help students analyze personal and cultural identity?
2. How does cultural exploration change perceptions on masculinities?
3. What are the implications of a positive self-identity on student “success”?

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws upon Chicana feminist epistemologies (Calderon et al., 2012; Delgado Bernal, 1998), critical race studies (Giraldo, Huerta, & Solórzano, 2017; Solórzano, 1997), community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), and critical literacies (Camangian, 2013; de los Rios, Lopez, & Morrell, 2015) to center Latino high school males and the assets they bring to class discussions. These frameworks illuminate how racism has permeated curriculum and the utility of critical literacies to engage the racialized and gendered scripts of schooling that exclude the lived experiences of students of color. Moreover, a Chicana feminist lens demonstrates the necessity for interrogating both home and school cultures and how study participants responded to systems of power and oppression in these settings.

Methods
Data included semi-structured interviews and a focus group with self-identified male high school students from one English classroom in a charter school in Los Angeles. Supplemental data included student artifacts and classroom observations to triangulate findings. By centering Latino male students’ racialized and gendered experiences in literacy instruction, this study builds on the body of knowledge examining the effects of culturally relevant pedagogy as a way to honor and reflect on the lived experiences of students of color.

Findings and Significance
Findings from this study included: 1) A critique of Latino cultural perceptions of masculinity promoting positive self-reflection; 2) The need for vulnerability facilitated by literacy practices; and 3) The importance of a discursive space that humanizes male students. This paper highlights the necessity to dismantle harmful characterizations of male students of color sustained by heteronormative schooling systems. Moreover, by disrupting schooling’s scripts of masculinity, the field can note the limitations of gendered binaries that exist and the racialized expectations placed on male students. Instead, a thoughtful engagement with culturally relevant texts can provide a space for male identified students to grapple with various forms of masculinities.

Author

• JC Lugo, University of California - Los Angeles