Investigating the Power of Authentically Caring Student-Teacher Relationships for Latinx Students

ABSTRACT

Culturally responsive and authentically caring pedagogy is vitally important to academic success for Latinx students. This type of teaching is based on reciprocal relationships between students and teachers, and incorporates students’ funds of knowledge. This qualitative case study brings the voices of Latinx students to the forefront by examining how their teachers help create “funds of caring” for the students by cultivating authentically caring relationships, and by highlighting what these relationships mean for the students. Findings show that teachers can make school a meaningful and positive experience for Latinx youth by interacting with students in authentically caring ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinx children and families
• culturally responsive instruction
• funds of knowledge
• student-teacher relationships
• authentic caring

Notes

¹ The term Latinx is intentionally used as a gender-neutral alternative in order to move beyond gender binaries and to be inclusive of the intersecting identities of Latin American descendants.

² All names of schools and people in this study are pseudonyms.

³ I intentionally use this term to denote the multiple linguistic resources the students possess rather than the official federal designation of English language learner (ELL).