Three female tenure-track faculty members at a Hispanic-Serving Institution explored how their cultural backgrounds inform their pedagogical approaches toward equity. They drew upon Mills's (1959) and Collins's (1993) frameworks to examine how their personal biographies, local social contexts, and broader systemic institutions affect their teaching processes for diverse students. These teaching processes include limiting assumptions about students, encouraging students to consider their own personal biographies in relation to the social world, welcoming students' multiple modes of expression, serving as role models, and challenging inequities in schooling. They conclude with recommendations for enhancing inclusivity in student learning and faculty development.
This study examines our experiences as female junior scholars with multicultural backgrounds teaching at the same Hispanic-serving institution. As education scholars with mixed-heritage families, we identify with the commitment to serving Latinos and the number of mixed-heritage people in the USA. The election of Barack Obama, whose racial background is both black and white, to the US presidency signifies the emergence of mixed-heritage people as a demographic presence in this country. Our research suggests that more understanding is needed about the experiences of mixed-heritage faculty in academia, as well as the ways in which faculty from any background may develop multiple affiliations with cultural communities and pursue professional agendas related to communities that they do not neatly fit into. Despite this variation in backgrounds and research agendas, we share our efforts in advancing Latin@ educational attainment.
This case study examines José, a bilingual Latino fifth-grader, and his complex and dynamic engagements in travesuras (mischievous behaviors). José's travesuras served to disassociate him from being labeled a "schoolboy." This disassociation was evident in how José: (1) renounced "school-like" work and (2) downplayed his intelligence. José had been pigeonholed-for the most partas a smart student who should have known better than to behave inappropriately. Implications point to how to create more nurturing and enriching experiences for urban Latino youth such as José.
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