Developing Transformative Space for Student Resistance: Latina/o Students’ Interruption of Subtractive Schooling Practices

Abstract

Social reproduction scholars and the literature on critical race theory and student resistance contend that schools are not neutral institutions existing in a vacuum free of the political and social struggles for rights and resources (Delgado Bernal, 1998;Fine, 1991). Instead, schools can be institutions that reproduce dominant ideologies and oppressive hierarchies or arenas from which to challenge power and status-quo policies (Freire, 1970). Drawing from two years of participant observations at Hillcrest High School, this study explores how Latina/o students in collaboration with their teacher engage in transformational resistance to subtractive schooling. I document how co-leadership in the classroom between teacher and students supports the co-creation of a transformative space for critical reflection.Similar to activist groups creating spaces to cultivate youth political engagement, classrooms can be reconstructed to foster the development of students as agents of change. This article presents the process through which Latina/o students gain critical reflection of social inequalities and systems of oppression that enables them to advocate for more inclusive and just schooling practices.

Self-abandonment or seeking an alternative way out: understanding Chinese rural migrant children’s resistance to schooling

“…Also, many teachers in the private migrant school HS take a similar position to CS teachers in reasoning migrants' social disadvantages as an unavoidable result of city development. HS's agenda of initiating open dialogues on perceived social inequalities through the school-based curriculum is significant for fostering migrant children's critical reflections and transformative resistance (Chavarria 2017;Freire 1973;Santoro and Forghani-Arani 2015); however, its influence was still limited in this study by the dominant ideology of meritocracy in schooling and teachers' poor teaching skills.…”

“…Beyond promoting meritocracy, while recognizing problematic surroundings and marginalized children's cultures as content critical to the learning process, the school system could also serve to lead children to analyze and understand social realities critically, and to take transformative actions (Chavarria 2017;Freire, 1970Freire, , 1973. To that end, mutual open dialogues between teachers and students are essential (Chavarria 2017;Freire 1973;Santoro and Forghani-Arani 2015).…”

Legitimized Tongues: Breaking the Traditions of Silence in Mainstream Engineering Education and Research

“…In the 1960s, for example, social constructions such as culturally deprived or culturally disadvantaged were used to create the myth that Mexican American children and their households were inadequate to provide and reach the same academic achievement as Whites (Valencia, 1997(Valencia, , 2010Valencia and Solórzano, 1997). Latinxs continued to be stripped from their cultural heritage and became the targets of subtractive schooling (Chavarria, 2017;Kolluri, 2020;Valenzuela, 1999Valenzuela, , 2010. In other words, Latinxs became perpetually "otherized" in schools by the enactment of policies and the persistence of deficit ideologies.…”

Exploring science educators’ reproduction and subversion of gender stereotyping in a College of Education in Nigeria.

“…I perceive also that the educator was complicit since she could neither ask the girls to control the babies nor take the cake and babies away from the class. This could possibly impact negatively on other students' concentration and motivation to study life science, since neither the educator nor the male and female pre-service teachers subverted the action exhibited for change and transformation in the classroom (Chavarria, 2017). Also, stereotypical practices by life science educators were evident when I observed them.…”