“They Wouldn’t Go to Our School”: Unpacking the Racialization of Latinx Children through a Civil Rights Lesson in a New South Classroom

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article, drawing on ethnographic data from several years of observation of Latinx children in schools throughout North Georgia, is to explore the racialization of Latinx EL children in a North Georgia classroom. Specifically, we explore the ways in which one teacher’s physical presence, as well as her language use (and the language use she facilitates and allows between students in her group), creates strong symbolic boundaries between White and Latinx students, boundaries which both White and Latinx students reinforce themselves.

KEYWORDS:

• Race/racialization
• qualitative research
• Latino/a children and families
• English language learners
• elementary
• ethnography

Acknowledgment

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A100670. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Out of consideration for scholars of color and others who do not identify with either strictly male or female gender identities who have pointed out the problematic gender binary inherent in terms like Latino and Latina (Ramirez & Blay, 2016; Scharrón-Del Río & Aja, 2015), throughout this article we instead use the gender-inclusive term Latinx.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences [R305A 100670];