Bienvenidos,
Welcome to Volume 16, Number 1, of the Journal of Latinos and Education. With your support, the journal has grown in stature and impact as a premier research publication. The journal provides a crossdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary forum for scholars and writers from diverse disciplines who share a common interest in the analysis, discussion, critique, and dissemination of educational issues that affect Latinos.
We have six contributions to this issue’s FEATURE ARTICLES. The first, by Ruben Donato, Gonzalo Guzmán, and Jarrod Hanson, is titled “Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al.: Mexican American Resistance to School Segregation in the Hispano Homeland, 1912–1914.” In this article, the authors brilliantly describe the history of this case, which has been rendered invisible in the educational legislative research literature. Their rich description of this case serves as a reminder that parents and allies from the legal field have historically fought for their children’s access to equitable schooling in spite of deficit notions that parents of color “do not care” about the life chances of their children.
In this volume’s second article contribution titled, “‘I Like English Better’: Latino Dual-Language Students’ Investment in Spanish, English, and Bilingualism,” Alexandra Babino and Mary Amanda Stewart remind us that the hegemony of English continues to relegate Spanish to a subaltern status, even in school settings that purport to honor and respect bilingualism. Hence, their article provides bilingual education educators with much-needed pause, as they encourage teachers and administrators to continue to find ways to counter the unfortunate tendency for bilingual children to exalt English at the expense of the Spanish language and the cultural richness that it exudes.
Next, Aurora Chang presents us with an article titled, “Resisting the Orthodox Smart Label: High School Latinas and the Redefinition of Smartness on the Western Frontier.” In this writing, Chang describes how young Latinas pushed the boundaries of what it means to be smart. Departing from traditional, rigidly constructed notions of smartness, the participants in Chang’s study encourage us to think more critically about the importance and educational implications of the unique cultural and experiential dimensions of what it means to be smart.
Next, in “Keep Those Kids Out: Nativism and Attitudes Toward Access to Public Education for the Children of Undocumented Immigrants,” Theresa Davidson and Karlye Burson tease out the various dimensions of nativism and its corresponding implications for the children of immigrants without documentation and their experiences with schooling. Davidson and Burson’s work is significant, as it offers important policy implications that imply the need for government and social institutions to heighten their support for children whose parents are undocumented and consequently face punitive reactions and other forms of macroaggressions and microaggressions in their everyday lives, which extend to their experiences in schools.
Next, Robin L. Danzak and Louise C. Wilkinson present us with “Finding Diego: A Bilingual Student Integrates School, Language, and Identity.” In this mixed-methods case study, the authors describe Diego’s journey in navigating the social and academic terrains of language and their impact on identity formation as he works to make sense, with strong familial support systems, of his walks in the worlds of community and school. As the authors rightfully assert, the implications of Diego’s journey for teachers include the importance of their advocating for cultural and linguistic diversity and its connections to academic content.
In the sixth and final article, “An Analysis of Primary School Dropout Patterns in Honduras,” Takeshi Sekiya and Akemi Ashida reveal the reasons for the variables that lead to school pushout while proposing to use their study as a springboard to conduct a broader comparative study across regions in Honduras to make deeper sense of this pushout phenomenon.
Lastly, we have three contributions to the BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS section.
Tiffany A. Flowers reviews the book Collaborative Imagination: Earning Activism Through Literacy Education, written by Paul Feigenbaum. Next, Blanca Caldas reviews the book El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante, written by Silvina Montrul. Lastly, Mariana Zaragoza reviews the book Generating Transworld Pedagogy: Reimagining La Clase Mágica, coedited by Belinda Bustos Flores, Olga A. Vásquez, and Ellen Riojas Clark.
Continue to read ahead and enjoy the full value and complexity of the articles presented in Volume 16, Number 1 of the Journal of Latinos & Education. We want to extend our appreciation to the authors for their manuscript submissions and commend them for their contributions to the field of Latinos and education. The editorial staff looks forward to supporting your continued research and practices that illuminate the myriad circumstances in which Latino/as and their families continue to struggle for educational excellence and equity. Your support and this volume affirm the importance of scholarship and creative analysis that attempt to give voice to a community of learners that is silent no longer.
Thank you—muchisimas gracias.