Salir Adelante: Collaboratively Developing Culturally Grounded Curriculum with Marginalized Communities

Abstract

In this article we discuss a collaborative research project meant to ground community members' voices in curriculum design. We argue that performing collaborative research with students and parents can better inform curriculum design decisions, particularly for communities whose identities, knowledge(s), and ways of being have been historically marginalized. Building from the culturally responsive curriculum literature, we have developed a culturally grounded curriculum development approach. We illustrate the approach through discussing a case of its development and implementation with an educational nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides access to secondary school for Quechua (Indigenous) young women in Peru. This article reflexively reports the process of the NGO's collaborative inquiry project to cocreate meaningful educational opportunities with the students and parents. We then discuss dilemmas of interpretation that arose when incorporating community voices into curricular decisions, and how the collaborative curriculum approach can apply to formal and nonformal learning spaces in other contexts.Indigenous students throughout the Americas face significant barriers to obtaining a quality education, such as inexperienced and inadequately prepared teachers, traveling long distances to attend school, and engaging with learning resources and materials that do not represent their identities and cultures (CEPAL 2014;Levitan 2018;Post 2002; Sumida Huaman 2013). These realities often cause alienation in school, where Indigenous children can be marginalized and "othered" by teachers and peers, in addition to being left out of or stereotyped in texts and lessons in nationally or regionally mandated curricula

A systematic review of Indigenous parents' educational engagement

“…Even some parents who had little to no schooling hoped that their children's lives would be much better than their lives; they did not want their children to go through what they went through (Ishihara‐Brito, 2013; Kaomea, 2012). Although parents in one study were primarily subsistence farmers, they desired their children to have more educational experiences (Levitan & Johnson, 2020). With schooling, they believed that children might achieve well‐paid jobs and language skills.…”

“…An Indigenous child was not seen as an individual, instead should be seen as part of a complex family and community system. Therefore, the child was bound to protect their Indigenous community, and parents had an obligation to ensure their children showed respect for their elders (Fleer, 2004; Levitan & Johnson, 2020).…”

“…There was only one study that reported on the role of parents in inculcating moral values in children. Most participants in the study felt that the most critical responsibility of parents is providing their children with moral guidance (Levitan & Johnson, 2020). Parents argued that behaviours tied to a good life needed to be instilled in their children, such as (1) becoming responsible and respectful, (2) being honest, (3) being disciplined, (4) bringing positive influences on others, ( 5) being willing to be corrected from mistakes, and ( 6) maintaining dialogue with others.…”

We Had a Good Thing Going: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Vocational ESL in the United States

“…The development and demise of VESL can be understood through two contradictory approaches to labor force development: the human capital development approach and the labor force attachment approach . The former considers education “a key element for ensuring that people have the skills necessary to make money and contribute to the economy” (Levitan & Johnson, 2020, p. 202). Programs that employ this approach emphasize long-term interventions that develop individuals’ basic skills, such as English, literacy, and numeracy, as well as their vocational and professional qualifications (D’Amico, 1997).…”

Educational Change and NEXTSchool

“…This discussion was enmeshed in considerations of systems and the larger structures of people within organizations working towards educational change (Fullan, 1993;Fullan & Hargreaves, 2009). Articles touched on both the nuances of educational leadership (Bryk & Schneider, 2003;Fullan, 2011;Leithwood, Harris & Hopkins, 2008;Levitan, 2019;Lumby, 2013;Lumby & Foskett, 2011) (Battiste, Bell, & Findlay, 2002;Howell, 2017;Levitan & Johnson, 2020;Munroe et al, 2013). The literature suggests that successful educational change relies on rolling out reform models contextually and attending to concerns about transferring educational models from one place to another (Farley-Ripple et al, 2018, Mukhopadhyay & Sriprakash, 2011Potvin & Dionne, 2007).…”