Creating positive learning communities for diasporic indigenous students

The value of communal and intergenerational settings for studying social and emotional learning

“…In this article, we expand on the importance of community and family processes such as socialization into Indigenous ways of knowing in developing TSEL. We highlight the intersectional context of the social identities of middle-childhood and adolescent Latinx (Jagers et al, 2019;Rivas-Drake et al, 2020 at the crossroads of Indigeneity and migration (Casanova et al, 2016;Kovats Sánchez et al, 2022). The communal and collective endeavors taken on by the youth and their communities are centered because they invoke the competencies of social awareness and relationship building through the expression of identity, belonging, and curiosity (Jagers et al, 2021).…”

“…Diasporic Indigenous communities are critical developmental contexts (Casanova et al, 2021) because elders teach youth their Indigenous knowledge systems that inculcate emotional ties between individuals and their Indigenous communities across borders (Casanova, 2019; Mesinas, 2021; Urrieta, 2019). Diasporic Indigenous children and adolescents participate in transborder learning communities (learning environments across borders where people have opportunities to engage, teach, and learn) that foster their sociocultural and socioemotional development through active engagement in their Indigenous knowledge, while also establishing trust via their co‐construction of practices (Kovats Sánchez et al, 2022). Accordingly, we focus the remaining sections of this article on two Indigenous ways of knowing and living that contribute to the important SEL competencies of social awareness and relationships: comunalidad and intergenerational cultural practices.…”

“…The youth understood the crucial importance of learning the language and “preserving” other forms of cultural knowledge for their community (Casanova, 2019). Other diasporic Zapotec youth (ages 8–17 years) highlighted the values of alegría (joy) in practicing and learning music with their Indigenous peers, which is deeply rooted in their Indigenous epistemologies and ways of living (Kovats Sánchez et al, 2022). Research has emphasized the importance of caring intergenerational relationships for belonging and positive identity development (Bang et al, 2018; Mesinas & Perez, 2016).…”

“…Approximately 50 million Indigenous people from 500 ethnic groups live across Latin America, with the largest populations in Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru (de Dios, 2020). Zapotec, Maya, Kichwa, Mam, Quechua, and many other groups live in most regions of the United States (Kovats Sánchez et al, 2022), where they continue to practice their Indigenous traditions. In this article, we review research on diasporic Indigenous ecological contexts to emphasize how their practices foster social and emotional development.…”

What does it mean to belong? An interdisciplinary integration of theory and research on belonging

“…What this fluidity illuminates is how moving through and between different spaces can create different experiences of belonging depending on how those spaces work to include/exclude social realities (Anzaldúa, 1987(Anzaldúa, /2012Benet-Martínez & Haritatos, 2005;Fine & Sirin, 2007;Lugones, 1996). For example, exchanges of teasing within a learning space can be considered an affectionate act that encourages active learning (Rogoff, 2014;Silva & Rogoff, 2021) or an act of aggression that undermines learning (Casanova et al, 2018;Kovats Sánchez et al, 2022). Antonsich (2010) offers six factors that generate this personal, intimate feeling of place-belongingness.…”