Authoring Multipleformas de ser: Three Bilingual Latino/a Fifth Graders Navigating School

Abstract

Drawing from sociocultural and anthropological perspectives, I present 3 case examples of bilingual, Mexican-origin students enrolled in a transitional bilingual educational program in an urban elementary school. By using the theoretical constructs of figured worlds, authoring, and formas de ser (ways of being), I examine how student identities were in a constant and dialogic state of formation by the students themselves and others. I discuss how high-stakes testing and other schooling practices narrowly authored students behaviorally, academically, and linguistically-bringing about schooling environments where students' strengths and multifaceted formas de ser were all-too-often overlooked.

Latin@ advocacy in the hyphen: faculty identity and commitment in a Hispanic‐serving institution

“…One of her longitudinal qualitative studies (Cuero, Worthy, and Rodríguez-Galindo 2009) problematizes the academic options for bilingual Latina students in an urban school district where the magnet program represented 'status' while the neighborhood feeder school represented 'solidarity'. Another study (Cuero 2009) examines identity negotiations of bilingual Latino fifth-graders. Other studies (Cuero and Crim 2008;) have looked at Kimberley's practices as a university professor, having her undergraduate students create aesthetic representations to demonstrate their connections to academic content by drawing on the 'funds of knowledge' (González, Moll, and Amanti 2005) -that is, the cultural assets -they bring to the classroom.…”

Engaging in <i>Travesuras</i>: A Latino Fifth-Grader’s Disassociation from the Schoolboy Label

“…In this case study drawing from a larger qualitative study (Cuero, 2009), I examine José's complex and dynamic engagements in travesuras as a means to disassociate from a "schoolboy" label. I highlight pertinent literature that explores academic achievement and participation of students of color-particularly urban Latino youth and discuss my methodology more in depth, providing more information about José's background.…”