Matters of participation: notes on the study of dignity and learning

ABSTRACT

Meaningful participation (i.e., substantive involvement in socially vital activities) and educational dignity (i.e., the multifaceted sense of a person’s value generated via substantive intra- and inter-personal learning experiences that recognize and cultivate one’s mind, humanity, and potential) are vital and interrelated social phenomena. Conceptually, the two are salient for research related to learning and educational rights. Accordant with a cultural-historical framework, we have adopted and modified a social interactional methodological approach that allows us to set forth indicia of meaningful participation and educational dignity. To achieve these ends, we examine two information sources: 1) audio recordings of a 1962 voter registration workshop in the Southern United States; and 2) audio-video recordings of a college preparatory program for high school-age migrant students in California during the early 2000s called the Migrant Student Leadership Institute. Close examination of interactions in both spaces reveals the moment-to-moment unfolding of meaningful participation and educational dignity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We thank Ricardo D. Montoya, a Chicano Vietnam War veteran, for the insight regarding a “right to be empathetic.”

2. The Right to Learn Undergraduate Research Collective, directed by Espinoza at the University of Colorado Denver, is responsible for the bulk of the transcription work. They are Tania Soto Valenzuela, Amanda Wong, Maria Sanchez Velasco, Arliss Howard, Diego Ulibarrí, Raquel Isaac, Frida Silva, Adria Padilla-Chavez, Charla Agnoletti, Soraya Latiff, Lema Alali, Kimberly Acosta Rodriguez, and Taylor Smith.

3. The archival catalog lists the following participants for this day of the workshop: Bernice Robinson, Hosa Williams, Edna Smyre, Lewis Jones, and many references to “student.”

4. The archival catalog names only Bernice Robinson and Charles Sharied [sic] as participants on this day.

5. In an oral history interview conducted for the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum on African American History and Culture in 2011, Sherrod stated that before arriving in Albany, Georgia in 1961 to help organize the local movement, he spent a month in jail in Rockhill, South Carolina on a chain gang as a consequence of his civil rights work.

6. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

7. The 1994 “Save Our State” ballot initiative was crafted to “establish a system of required notification by and between … agencies to prevent illegal aliens in the U.S. from receiving benefits or public services in California.”

8. The 1998 English Language in Schools ballot initiative required all public school instruction, with limited exceptions, to be conducted only in English.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Spencer Foundation [Discretionary Grants].