Journal of Latinos and Education | 2019
From the Editor’s Desk
Abstract
Welcome to Volume 18, Number 2 of the Journal of Latinos and Education. With your support, the journal has continued to increase its stature and influence as the premier research publication that examines the educational conditions of Latina/o communities in and outside of the United States. In this issue, we have five FEATURE ARTICLES, one contribution in the ESSAY REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS section, two contributions in VOCES, and four contributions to BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS. In the first of the FEATURE ARTICLES, Jennifer Bondy and Lauren Braunstein do well to lay out how teacher education programs must examine the ways they prepare students to explore emotions of racist nativism, integrate multiple perspectives into the classroom, and discern how pre-service teachers understand and use the word culture. They elaborate how Teacher Education in these challenging times are pressured to prepare teachers to focus on test-based accountability as the measure of teacher effectiveness, thus compromising the preparation of teachers to address the needs of racially and linguistically diverse students. They draw on the literature on notions of oppression to explore the sociopolitical processes of racialized subordination and present several issues for teacher educators to consider when preparing teachers to foster equitable classrooms for Latino and Latina students. The second article Nancy Acevedo-Gil offers an ethnographic examination on college information and access for the low-income and first-generation Latino students who attended a particular high school she describes as under-resourced. Her framework analyzed the college choice and transition experiences of 47 students revealing the limited college information that educators provided and has implications for higher education outreach, enrollment, and student affairs officers. Her study has helped move along the research literature on college choice from traditional and sequential frameworks toward an interdisciplinary focusing on the lived experiences of Latino students. In the next article, Roberto Rodriguez examined the philosophical foundation of Tucson Arizona’s exceedingly effective Mexican American studies program which included the two Maya or maize-based concepts of In Lak’Ech and Panche Be. His contribution actually reconnoiters the larger philosophical universe from where these concepts are consequent. His work extends our understandings of the writings of Domingo Martinez Paredez, a Maya scholar who influenced the Chicano movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and how these remain relevant today, and are slices of ancient philosophy and part of a living culture. Next, Ashley Clayton, Mary Medina, and Angela Wiseman’s contribution is a qualitative study exploring the college choice process and first-year experiences of Latino students. Their case study analysis revealed five emerging themes: (a) Latino identity expression; (b) first in the family; (c) desire for a sense of community; (d) embracing Latino identity in college; and (e) personal responsibility for education. The one-on-one interviews exposed the importance of cultural identity and responsibilities regarding first-generation college attendance, as significant to participants’ experiences. In the last of this section, Jonathan Matusitz and Demi Simi investigate how U.S. Latina college students can attain leadership roles in college athletics by providing several case studies. As they elaborate, inequality still persists for women in college sports and minority women, in particular, hold the smallest roles in sports leadership. Utilizing the theoretical framework of Cultural Identity Theory (CIT), their contribution proposes that Latina college athletes who embrace a stronger JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 2019, VOL. 18, NO. 2, 91–92 https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2019.1612994