‘By the time I get to Arizona’: race, language, and education in America’s racist state

Abstract

This article reports on research projects conducted primarily by first and second generation Mexican American high school students who document how school relationships are shaped by Arizona’s racist political discourses. They conducted observations of their school experiences and then wrote up what they were observing in field notes. Field note data focus on how political discourse shapes school climate, especially around speaking Spanish, and the treatment of student researchers by other students and teachers. We also discuss the anti-Latino politics in Arizona that began with the passage of Proposition 203 in 2000. The focus of this political discussion is to identify education and immigration related laws passed by the Arizona legislature that target and negatively impact the Latino community. The article concludes with recommendations to improve education for Latino students who are learning the English language.

Keywords:

• race
• language
• education
• participatory action research
• Latino students
• bilingualism
• English-only