Pablo C. Ramirez

The Intersectionality of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Performance Poetry: Validating Secondary Latino Youth and Their Community

In this article the authors draw from culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education to describe performance poetry as an effective strategy for validating secondary aged Latino youths’ lived experiences. Supported by teacher modeling and the incorporation of community poets, students created and shared their own powerful poems that provided authentic opportunities to engage in critical analysis of the poems and issues of equality, social justice, and equity. Performance poetry is successfully used as a tool for validation, honoring and learning from our community, and transformation. Students in this border community were validated in terms of the identities as members of multiple worlds, learned about their own neighborhood from community poets, and were transformed in their identities as community activists through performance poetry. However, in this era of standardized teaching and high-stakes testing, teaching through performance poetry is often not supported in schools.

Secondary English Learners: Strengthening Their Literacy Skills Through Culturally Responsive Teaching

Abstract In high school English classrooms where English language learners may be at risk of academic failure, Culturally Responsive Teaching can help educators build an inclusive community in which all students can improve their literacy skills.

Advocating for language rights: Critical Latina bilingual teachers creating bilingual space in Arizona

ABSTRACT This qualitative research study documented the way in which two Latina bilingual teachers advocated for the language rights of emergent bilinguals who attended and resided in two particular school districts in Arizona. Drawing from qualitative and ethnographic approaches, we collected data from teacher interviews, classroom/school observations, district meetings, and community convivios to examine the ways in which two teachers championed language rights in various contexts. We employed Ruiz’s (1984) language planning framework to document the way in which bilingual teachers advocated for the language rights of emergent bilingual students. This study demonstrates how Latina bilingual teachers utilized their cultural knowledge to successfully educate, advocate for, and uplift their bilingual students and cultural community within multiple, and oftentimes hostile, spaces. Findings from this study suggest that Latina teachers enact their own agency to create bilingual space for their students in linguistically constraining environments.

The journey of two Latino educators: our collective resilience

ABSTRACT This article represents a journey into education undertaken by two Latino educators from diverse generations. Through the content of the narratives, we emphasize that success was achieved within the presence of oppression. The narratives reveal significant constructs that shaped our journey. For the first author, Pablo, role models, pivotal moments, and resistance had a powerful influence in his journey. Family lessons and self-sacrifice were key to the success of the second author, Yolanda. These constructs contributed to both of our resilience and success. We suggest that the aforementioned constructs have significant implications for Latino youth in the educational system.

An Interview With Alma Flor Ada

This interview with Dr. Alma Flor Ada, conducted after the California Council on Teacher Education Conference, addresses multiple educational issues that teachers face in the public school system. Critical literacy, teacher education, parent involvement, and critical pedagogy are the major themes Dr. Ada discusses in this interview. To this end, the reader is invited to reflect on the aforementioned themes and, consequently, examine conditions that are shaping the academic trajectory of Latinos and other culturally and linguistically diverse students in the United States.

The Intersectionality of Border Pedagogy and Latino/a Youth: Enacting Border Pedagogy in Multiple Spaces

Abstract: In this one-year qualitative study, the authors examined how border pedagogy is enacted by two Latino/a high school teachers in a border community in Southern California. Through classroom observations, the authors documented powerful student discussions that named complex borders (Giroux, 1992) that existed in their daily lives. We drew from conocimientos (understandings) (Anzaldúa, 1987), conscientizacíon (critical consciousness) (Freire, 1970), and cariño (authentic care) (Valenzuela, 1999) as theoretical lenses to inform this study.

Going Against the Grain in an Urban Arizona High School: Secondary Preservice Teachers Emerging as Culturally Responsive Educators

Abstract This one year study examines the journey of two preservice urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Responsive Teaching in a year-long student teaching residency. Factors that influenced their Culturally Responsive Teaching practices are discussed along themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations. Recommendations for ways of integrating Culturally Responsive Teaching in teacher education programs are provided.