A framework for an interdisciplinary understanding of Mexican American school segregation

ABSTRACT

As a Mexican American school desegregation case, historians, legal scholars, and educational researchers have all explored Mendez v. Westminster’s significance. Each discipline, with its own modes of analysis, has constructed a distinct interpretation of the 1940s California case. However, in focusing on different aspects of Mendez, scholars tend to ignore complexities of the case that are fundamental to other fields. This is why I developed an interdisciplinary analysis of Mendez with the purpose to move the education field towards a more social justice understanding of the case. Doing so will unveil how racial and language categories changed over time so school officials and judges could manipulate the law to uphold White supremacy, segregation, and school inequality. Such interdisciplinary analyses can help unravel the multiple layers of discrimination that has perpetuated school inequality for decades.

KEYWORDS:

• Mexican American history
• education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Although CRT is an interdisciplinary field, Valencia’s analysis primarily comes from an educational perspective in that he considers Mendez’s impact on Mexican American and interethnic coalitions in education.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maribel Santiago

Dr. Maribel Santiago is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University.  She earned a Ph.D. in History/Social Studies Education and an M.A. in History, both from Stanford University.  Dr. Santiago’s work has been published in Theory & Research in Social Education, Cognition and Instruction, and other venues.  She is a 2019 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.  Dr. Santiago will join the College of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle in January 2020.