Santuario Nutritivo: Designing Participatory, Sanctuary-Centered Curriculum for Middle School Youth

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Generating Curriculum Through Cultural Knowledge and Participatory Research (Table 7)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to share and examine the Santuario Nutritivo (nourishing sanctuary) curriculum created by members of the Jovenes Project, a critical, youth participatory action research (YPAR) collaborative. The curriculum is designed for, and with, middle school-aged youth and communities in a northeastern U.S. city. Drawing on collaborative curriculum design (Pieters et al., 2019) principles and PAR entremundos we analyze the process of collaboratively designing the curriculum and youth reactions to their engagement with the curriculum. We argue that our curriculum invites participants to engage in practices of healing as individuals, first, and attain a deeper understanding of the individual and the collective, ultimately moving toward an understanding of sanctuary for both the individual and the collective.

Authors

• Edwin Mayorga, Swarthmore College

• Kestrel Valdez, Swarthmore College