Sowing the Semillas of Critical Multicultural Citizenship for Latina/o Undocumented Youth: Spaces in School and out of School

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to address how spaces in school and out of school support or constrain undocumented Latina/o youths' development as critical multicultural citizens. We draw on data from a multi-phase, qualitative study to present findings indicating that the youths persevered through academic and civic engagement. Ultimately, the students drew from their liminal status-the space between legal and "illegal"-to become stewards of a cause. The analysis is limited to a subset of data on undocumented participants from a larger study of the pathways to mobility among Latina/o youth.

Using Ecological Asset Mapping to Investigate Pre-Service Teachers’ Cultural Assets

“…It does so through engaging students in a process where they not only think about their own cultural assets across ecological spaces, but they do so alongside their classmates. The fact that students so clearly named community building as a product of the process of EAM shows that individual assets were named and connected to larger community contexts (e.g., Salazar, Martinez, & Ortega, 2016). This sense of respect for others towards solidarity further builds upon the second element of Picower's (2012) framework.…”

Beyond Ethnic Tidbits: Toward a Critical and Dialogical Model in Multicultural Social Justice Teacher Preparation

“…Shome (1999) argues that the metanarratives "privilege and sustain the global dominance of White imperial subjects and Eurocentric worldviews" (p. 108). This raced, gendered, and classed view of knowledge production and the role of schooling erases diverse histories (Salazar, Martinez, & Ortega, 2016) and subtracts the funds of knowledge that diverse students bring to schools (Dabach & Fones, 2016;Valenzuela, 1999). Left unchallenged cultural assimilation, traditional liberal citizenship, and meritocracy enable White preservice teachers to resist critically examining how views of "legitimate" knowledge are embedded within the sociopolitical contexts of an exclusionary society (Castro, 2010;DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2010;LaDuke, 2009;Haviland, 2008;Sleeter, 2008b;Williams & Evans-Winters, 2005).…”