{"title":"Developing a Critical Consciousness with Elementary Students as A Catalyst for Academic Success","authors":"M. Diaz","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.1.432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.1.432","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000Students of Mexican backgrounds have experienced oppressive schooling practices and classroom pedagogies that create academic achievement gaps. This article presents the work of the author, who taught for six years in a Title I elementary school near the United States and Mexico border. Based on an autoethnographic study that investigated the impact of critical pedagogy in the classroom, the author explores the extent to which the pedagogical approach mediated students’ critical consciousness development, resulting in a trajectory of academic success. The study analyzes six years of student work, self-reflection, and the daily routines of the classroom. The findings suggest that the students’ development of critical consciousness catalyzed their critical thinking skills, which they in turn applied to a wide array of academic content, including mathematics, science, and English language arts. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130267251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alexa M. Proffitt, A. Alderete, Megan Villa, Violetta Villarreal
{"title":"The Future of Middle Level Education–Chicana Maestras and Vignettes","authors":"Alexa M. Proffitt, A. Alderete, Megan Villa, Violetta Villarreal","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.426","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000This interdisciplinary case study research centers anticolonial theories and Chicana feminist epistemology (Bernal, 1998) to interrogate the experiences of Chicana maestras during their clinical teaching semester. The experiences of Chicana maestras is often silenced in educational research, especially in the research of prospective middle grades educators. This work seeks to challenge the often-colonizing practices of teaching and research and seeks to serve as a model of the possibilities for research in middle level teacher education. The findings of this research center on the collective power of Chicanas experiencing teaching and learning as a collective through the creation of vignettes. These vignettes highlight the themes of maestras and comunidad, exploring and solidifying identity, thriving colonialism, clinical chingonas, and sharing of knowledge. Each of these themes, and the collective work that went into this research, demonstrate the importance of Chicanas in middle level education. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134560006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Struggle for Mexican American Studies in Texas K-12 Public Schools: A Movement for Epistemic Justice through Creation/Resistance","authors":"L. P. Saldaña","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.421","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000This article traces how Mexican American Studies (MAS) scholar activists led and supported a statewide movement for MAS in Texas. As a Xicana feminist scholar activist, Saldaña draws from her retrospective memory and personal archive of organizational notes, movement documents, personal testimonies before the State Board of Education, and photos, to document her journey within this epistemic justice movement. In doing so, she narrates the processes of creation/resistance that led to change in a state that has historically excluded Black, Brown, and Indigenous histories from school curricula. As a scholar activist involved in various parts of this movement, Saldaña also examines the various interconnected layers of this movement—from local efforts in San Antonio, where she teaches, to statewide organizing—to chronicle the institutional and grassroots processes that led to this historic victory in Texas. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133020296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maritza De La Trinidad, Stephanie M. Álvarez, Joy Esquierdo, Francisco J. Guajardo
{"title":"Historias Americanas: Implementing Mexican American Studies in K-12 Social Studies Curriculum in the Rio Grande Valley","authors":"Maritza De La Trinidad, Stephanie M. Álvarez, Joy Esquierdo, Francisco J. Guajardo","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.422","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000This essay contributes to the growing literature on Mexican American Studies in K-12 within the broader field of Ethnic Studies. While most of the literature on the movement for Ethnic Studies within Texas and across the nation mainly focuses on the impact of Ethnic Studies courses on students’ academic success, this essay highlights a professional development program for K-12 social studies teachers in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas entitled Historias Americanas: Engaging History and Citizenship in the Rio Grande Valley, funded by a federal grant. This essay provides an overview of Historias Americanas, the objectives and structure of the program, and the ways in which the program contributes to the discourse on Mexican American Studies in K-12. It also describes the frameworks that form the crux of the professional development process: place-based education and culturally relevant pedagogical frameworks. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130274601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Texas Resistance: Mexican American Studies and the Fight Against Whiteness and White Supremacy in K-12 at the Turn of the 21st Century","authors":"Josué Puente, Stephanie M. Álvarez","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.423","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000This essay recounts the efforts by various groups throughout Texas with a special emphasis on the Rio Grande Valley to implement Mexican American Studies at the turn of the twenty-first century. We offer a historical timeline of events that demonstrates how the Mexican American Studies course came into existence. We also detail the way in which some Mexican American Studies courses were implemented. In other cases, we describe the way different groups were able to offer professional development to teachers to help them incorporate more Mexican American Studies content in their non-Mexican American studies courses or provide the community with the resources on how to include Mexican American Studies at their school. The common theme throughout is an undeniable resistance and mobilization on the part of many, hundreds, of educators, students, and community members to ensure that the youth do not continue to receive a whitewashed education, to ensure that students receive a more accurate representation of history, culture, language, and literature. In essence, the essay details a very hard-fought battle against White supremacy in the schools at the turn of the twenty-first century in Texas in which Mexican American Studies emerged victorious many steps of the way. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131993056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cinco Dedos: A Mexican American Studies Framework","authors":"Nicolás García, A. Gonzales","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.424","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000Mexican American Studies (MAS) courses have been criticized for many years. Legislation in Arizona and Texas have attempted to ban the content. This article pushes back on this attempt of oppression and offers MAS teachers a framework to apply when teaching the content. Using a timeline to depict the years of attempts for Mexican American Studies to be approved, we offer practitioners and researchers an Ethnic Studies framework particularly with MAS courses. Using cultural art, poetry, and literature, MAS teachers can benefit from using the Cinco Dedos framework especially at the secondary (6-12) grade levels. This framework prepares MAS teachers to utilize various Chicanx histories to tell the stories of Mexican American heroes not talked about in traditional American history courses. This article also provides tools to use in secondary MAS classrooms that highlight Mexican American culture for students provided by a MAS teacher. One of the founders of the framework uses this in his MAS course at a high school located in San Antonio, TX. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"143 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115310873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas","authors":"Kristel A. Orta-Puente","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.427","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>N/A</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115502423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Where Were the Mexicans? The Story is a Conversation","authors":"Elizabeth D. Rivas","doi":"10.24974/amae.15.2.425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.15.2.425","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 \u0000This essay explores the institutionalized master narrative of public institutions and how the mandated policies enacted by public institutions impact social studies teachers when they are delivering instruction to their students. A socio-transformative constructivist framework guides the essay in order to affirm that knowledge is socially constructed and mediated by cultural, historical, and institutional contexts (Rodriguez, 1998; Rodriguez & Berryman, 2002). This essay also examines how educators can go beyond the teaching of their course curriculum to enact change at their campus and district. Also, this essay examines how district leaders can support teachers who want to be social justice change agents. \u0000 \u0000 \u0000","PeriodicalId":414867,"journal":{"name":"Association of Mexican American Educators Journal","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132245639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}