Brazilian education philosopher, Paulo Freire wrote aboutpraxis––ongoing cycles of theory, reflection, and action––as a practice of freedom stating,
Authentic liberation - the process of humanization - is not another deposit to be made in [people]. Liberation is praxis: the action and reflection of [people] upon their world in order to transform it.80
This chapter presented historical moments in which communities engaged in praxis to effectively build collective power; in effect, they transformed themselves and the educational landscape. There are many ways one can study, reflect upon, and work to reform education. This chapter presented some of the major issues that have shaped and been shaped by historically marginalized communities. This chapter explored concepts to critically understand key debates, issues, and education initiatives. It provided and overview of historical and contemporary laws in public education that have impacted and been shaped by Chicanx/Latinx communities. Lastly, extra effort was placed to highlight the practices, tactics, strategies, and movements that emerge from Chicanx/Latinx communities to reform and transform the educational landscape. While it is impossible to present a comprehensive history of everything, it is a reminder that there is a long legacy of activism we carry with us as we strive for change today. As students-teachers-scholars, we must be equally invested in engaging in social justice work as we are in studying it. The legacy of activism in education is one we inherit and will continue to build upon. This is embodied in the image in Figure 8.6.1. The poster was created for the Poor People’s Campaign, a grassroots movement fighting to end poverty, racism, militarism, and environmental destruction. The 2018 poster reads, “Learn as we lead, walk as we talk, teach as we fight.”
Ancillary materials for this chapter are located in Section 11.8: Chapter 8 Resource Guide, which includes slides, media, writing and discussion prompts, and suggested assignments and activities.
Key Terms
Deficit-based discourses: Thoughts, language, practices, and representations that communicate deficiencies and failures. Deficit-based discourses such as the labeling of minoritized youth as “at-risk” in schools are disempowering as it is fixated on an individual’s traits rather than the oppressive structures that cause failure.
Funds of knowledge: Collections of knowledge based in cultural practices that are a part of families’ inner culture, work experience, or their daily routine. It is the knowledge and expertise that students and their family members have because of their roles in their families, communities, and culture. In schools, this is an asset-based approach to the knowledge, skills, ideas, practices and overall cultural contributions students bring with them into the classroom.
Community cultural wealth: A framework that recognizes six forms of cultural capital (aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital) that minoritized groups possess. This framework affirms that marginalized groups posses an array of knowledge, skills, abilities, and networks to survive and resist racism and other forms of oppression.
Overt racism: Conscious, purposeful and deliberate racial hatred that includes speech, ideas, attitudes and behaviours rooted in white supremacy and directed at racially marginalized groups. More often, racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious (covert racism).
Assimilation: The process whereby a historically marginalized person or group voluntarily or involuntarily adopts the social, psychological, cultural, and political characteristics of a dominant group.
Eugenics: An ideology rooted in the belief that the white Anglo race is genetically superior and to maintain this group’s racial purity, it informed social policies, programs, and practices set out to control “undesirable” populations often characterized by their race, gender, intelligence, physical ability, low socioeconomic status, among other characteristics.
Coded language: A practice long used in policy in which race-neutral terms are used to disguise the racist motives that maintain power structures meant to sustain white supremacy.
Mutualistas:Community-based mutual aid societies created by Mexican immigrants to connect them with a network that links their homeland and new home with resources, support, and a community.
De jure: The legal practice. In contrast, de facto describes situations that exist in practice, even if not legally recognized.
Colorism: Prejudice or discrimination based on dark skin color.
Little School of the 400 (LS400): A preschool program that was first created in Texas to teach Spanish-speaking children to be bilingual by teaching them 400 English words.
Non-violent resistance: A strategy to achieve social change through tactics such as protests, boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and other forms of civil disobedience that do not promote violence.
School-to-deportation pipeline: School policies and practices that effectuate the removal of undocumented immigrant youth from schools and ultimately the U.S.
Dominant narratives: The stories we tell ourselves, learn, or share with others- whether consciousl or unconsciously- that are told in service of the dominant social group’s interest and ideologies. The dominant narrative serves to uphold power dynamics that serve the dominant culture and groups. These narratives are told at the expense of marginalized groups who are demonized and blamed (i.e. scapegoat) for society’s social ills.
Bootstraps narratives: The stories told that educational success is attainable through personal initiative, hard work, responsibility, and drive. Hence, all students need to do is “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” to succeed in school and society. The danger of these narratives are that they begin with the premise that students are lazy if they underachieve or fail, focus on individual will rather than institutional barriers, and fail to recognize that not all students have an equal playing field.
Zero tolerance policies: Punitive school measures that push out “problem students” through practices such as expulsion and suspension regardless of the severity of a student’s behavior.
School-to-prison pipeline: The school practices and policies that disproportionately place students of color into the juvenile and adult criminal justice system.
Equality versus equity: Whereas equality means that each individual or group of people are given the exact same resources and opportunities, equity recognizes that equal outcomes cannot be produced without catering to the specific needs. This differentiation is essential to create fairness and achieve justice.
Hunger strikes: The literal starvation and the risk of death, as a political tactic to create social and institutional change.
Opportunity gap: Life chances that are determined by the lack of opportunities, which are inherently influenced by factors such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and ZIP code, among other social and structural conditions that prevent student readiness and better educational outcomes.
Praxis: The ongoing cycles of theory, reflection, and action––as a practice of freedom.
Footnote
80 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York, New York: Continuum, 1994): pg. 79.
