Full Description
As the population of Latinx students grows in U.S. public schools and our nation seeks to address systemic inequities, racism, and xenophobia, this counternarrative provides inspiration to those wishing to reinvigorate schools and build a more caring and just world. This book documents the innovative practices, successes, and struggles of a full-service community high school serving mostly low-income, Latinx youth in an economically depressed California city. Based on 4 years of qualitative research, the author examines how educators, families, and community members established and sustained a social justice school that immersed youth in authentic cariño—a holistic blend of familial, intellectual, and critical care. By nurturing students' moral, social, personal, and academic development, the school produced college-bound graduates ready to be agents of change in their own lives and in their communities. This case study synthesizes and extends scholarship on color-conscious, healing-centered educational care and offers rich portrayals of praxis that illuminate how schools can equip marginalized youth to thrive. Book Features:
Advances a fully elaborated model that specifies three fundamental dimensions of care: familial, intellectual, and critical.
Provides an in-depth account of a high school that successfully institutionalized authentic cariño schoolwide.
Advocates for "college and community readiness," conveying to students how additional schooling would enable them to become community change agents capable of contributing to collective uplift.
Offers insights into the structures, processes, and complications that arise when a school commits to authentic cariño as a path to promote engaged learning and social transformation.
Shows what is possible when educators in partnership with local communities dare to care deeply and widely for Latinx youth.
Contents
Contents
Foreword Angela Valenzuela, PhD xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Welcome to the Beautiful Struggle 1
Embracing Students With Authentic Cariño From Day One 2
Why This Case Study Matters 5
What Does it Really Mean to Care? 7
Authentic Cariño 11
The Study 15
The School 17
Preview of Chapters 20
2. Familial Cariño: Deeply Knowing and Supporting Students 23
Familial Cariño: Life-Affirming, Healing-Centered, and Authentic 25
Institutionalizing Familial Cariño 27
Firewalks: Schoolwide Rituals That Exemplify Familial Cariño 45
Tensions in Familial Cariño 49
Closing Reflections 55
3. Intellectual Cariño: Cultivating Engaged Pensadoras 57
Intellectual Cariño: Analytic, Responsive, and Rigorous 59
The Four Pillars of Intellectual Cariño 60
Institutionalizing Intellectual Cariño 68
Tensions in Intellectual Cariño 92
Closing Reflections 96
4. Critical Cariño: Nurturing Strong Sociocultural Identities, Political Awareness, and Civic Engagement 97
Critical Cariño: Political, Liberatory, and Humanizing 98
The Relation Between Critical Cariño and Critical Pedagogy 102
Critical Cariño Enacted 105
Institutionalizing Critical Cariño 125
Tensions in Critical Cariño 130
Closing Reflections 136
5. Authentic Cariño: Braiding Together Familial, Intellectual, and Critical Care 138
Weaving the Trenza of Authentic Cariño: Understanding Authentic Cariño's Prevalence at MHS 141
Ya Basta, Enough Is Enough: Authentic Cariño Confronts Violence 148
Closing Reflections 160
Conclusion: Seguir Adelante—Moving Forward 163
Lessons From MHS 163
Challenges 166
Recommendations for Moving Forward 169
Closing Reflections 170
Appendix A: A Reflexive Recap of Research 171
Appendix B: Roster of MHS Certificated Staff With Biographic Detail 189
Appendix C: Roster of Prominent MHS Staff and Community Partners 191
Appendix D: Course Assessment Summary Sheets Distributed to Students 193
Appendix E: Classroom Observation Analysis Instruments and Their Constructs 197
Appendix F: Teacher Focus Group Protocol (Department) 201
Notes 203
References 211
Index 227
About the Author 237
