Bienvenidos!
Welcome to Volume 19, Number 2 of the Journal of Latinos and Education. With your support, the journal has continued to increase its stature and influence as the premiere research publication that examines the educational conditions of Latina/o communities in and outside of the United States. In this issue, we have seven FEATURE ARTICLES.
In the first of the FEATURE ARTICLES, Maria Isabel Ayala addresses ways in which the Latinas(os) in her research frame their particular college attainment by relying on a color-blind ideology, with which she makes the case is an underexplored area. Via student interviews at a primarily White institution in the Midwest, Ayala examined how the Latinas(os) reproduce color-blind racism through their reliance on frames such as abstract liberalism, cultural racism, and the minimization of racism in rationalizing their college attainment. Research analyses bare Latina(o) college students’ reliance on these frames had varied by skin color and gender. In this, the author stresses the diversity within the Latina(o) population, which the dichotomous paradigm of race too often dismisses.
The next contribution by Phillipa Myers, Augusto Riveros, and Abhilasha Duggal is an exploratory case study that sheds light on the experiences of those of Latin American origin in Canadian schools. Albeit as one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, little is known about their schooling experiences. Thus, this article contributes greatly to the literature by examining the articulations of agency by mothers of Colombian origins as they transition their school-age children into Southwestern Ontario urban schools. The authors conducted focus group and follow-up interviews with nine mothers who had recently arrived in Canada. The results revealed that support by school personnel enabled participants to assert their agency in their children’s education. They conclude that consistent application of support, by school personnel, for immigrant parents is highly needed across school systems.
The next article by Milagros Castillo-Montoya and Daisy Verduzco Reyes is an exploratory study that help us learn about Latino cultural centers (LCCs), being that although college culture centers are safe havens for underrepresented students little is unfortunately known about them. Through their survey with open- and closed-ended questions, the authors examined the experiences and learning of the college students who completed an academic course offered through an LCC. Employing open coding of open-ended responses, the authors found these students were engaged in Latino identity inquiry; had developed critical consciousness about U.S. educational inequalities; had developed the sociopolitical capacity to engage in social change; and lastly, viewed Latino faculty as valuable to their learning. Results have greatly welcomed implications for conceptualizing Latino identity inquiry and other framing concepts for future LCC research, courses, programs, and research.
Next, Coralis Solomon and Glenn Lambie contribute with an exploratory phenomenology investigation to understand Latino teachers’ experiences relating to occupational stressors while working in Title I elementary schools. The themes that emerged from their data analyses were emotional stressors, general stressors, cultural stressors, coping skills, and teachers’ recommendations to school administrators. These five themes lined up with previous research findings, offering implications for future research, teacher educators, and school personnel, being that teacher attrition in the United States is a significant and persistent problem, and while minority teachers, in particular, have higher attrition rates than majority teachers.
The 5th article by Norma Marrun draws on interviews with 10 first-generation Latina/o students as well as participant observations. She examined how the students reflected on and retold stories of how their families facilitated their persistence on their college pathways through family stories, proverbs, popular sayings, and advice-giving narratives. Marrun elucidates that the findings reveal how family engagement through household practices and cultural knowledge constitute crucial forces behind Latina/o students’ postsecondary aspirations and degree completion. This greatly contributes to our understanding of Latino families’ engagement in their children’s educational aspirations. Findings from this study challenge deficit-based generalizations that wrongly describe Latino families as disinterested and unsupportive of their children’s college aspirations and education. The author concludes with policy and practical approaches to improve college/university programing for families and to create a more welcoming and affirming campus climate for Latina/o students and their families.
Next, Sophia Rodriguez, Timothy Monreal, and Joy Howard enlarge the literature about the ways teachers become socially and politically literate, and empathetic about the specific needs of newcomer youth in what they describe as the New Latino South. The data from three studies reveal the need for critical approaches as a means to disrupt racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy that take on particular forms in the South. Utilizing ethnographic vignettes of teachers’ experiences, the authors highlight the challenges of multicultural education and its implementation. They write that they hope to revive conversations about the knowledge and dispositions teachers must develop, such as those related to empathetic relations and policy knowledge, in order to support the newcomer youth.
Lastly, Natalia Deeb-Sossa and Rosa Manzo contribute with a case study that focuses on the institutionalized bias and prevalent culture of deficit thinking that led to the closure of the local school serving a predominantly farmworking community in a rural town in Northern California. They looked at how the community-driven leadership (CDL) of farmworker mothers had challenged those deficit practices of the local school board in the community they examined. As they describe, CDL is the ability for mothers to activate their community cultural wealth to mediate and mobilize their resources in search of better educational opportunities. The mothers in their study organized to take action in order to disrupt systems of oppression embedded in their local public school system. Testimonials highlight the inequalities the mothers experienced in attempting to advocate for their children’s education, and the ways in which they responded to oppression.
Continue to read ahead and enjoy the full value and complexity of the articles presented by Volume 19, Number 2 of the Journal of Latinos and 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 Latinas/os 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 – muchísimas gracias.