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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (5 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2007)
    Cover page: Review:<em> Learning Power</em> by Jeannie Oakes, John Rogers &amp; Martin Lipton
    • Thesis
    • Peer Reviewed
    UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2012)

    This dissertation seeks to document how the life histories of Mexican origin (im)migrant farmworking families in a small rural California community shape their educational engagement experiences. Farmworkers living in communities like Trabajo are responsible for most of the agricultural production in California, yet their children attend under resourced schools that provide limited opportunities for academic success. This investigation examines how the intersection of their immigration status, racial and social class background, shapes how and why migrant farmworkers choose to engage in particular was in the schooling of their children. In this study I addressed the following question: 1) How are the educational engagement conceptions and practices of Mexican immigrant farmworkers shaped by their life histories? This study is unique as it locates schooling within the larger political economy of migrant farm labor and combined with a Freirean approach to Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) it deconstructs and analyzes the complex social, political, and economic processes that migrant farmworking families are forced to navigate to support their children's education. Data from this study was collected through community archival research, oral history and in depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations with 16 parents from 8 families.

    Findings from this study revealed parents conceive of educational engagement in more nuanced ways than traditional notions of parent involvement. For example, migrant farmworking families' conception and practices of educational engagement are much broader than normative school centric understandings and are best captured by the concept of apoyo. Specific practices of apoyo went beyond the school and consisted of 1) providing economic support 2) cultivating agency in their children 3) making meaningful sacrifices, 4) and modeling academic excellence. In this respect, it can be argued that parents' specific forms of educational engagement are a direct response to the material conditions and the racism they experienced as marginalized farmworkers. This study also contributes to a subset of qualitative studies that offer a direct challenge to the myth that Mexican families do not care about or participate sufficiently in the education of their children (Delgado-Gaitan, 1992; Lopez, 2001; Perez-Carreon et. al., 2005; Sol�rzano, 1992; Valdes, 1996; Valencia & Black, 2002). Findings from this research can be useful for practitioners and policy makers interested in understanding how to build upon the ways that (im)migrant farmworker families are already engaging in the education of their children.

      Cover page: Sin Sacrificio No Hay Recompensa: Apoyo as (Im)migrant Parental Engagement in Farmworking Families of the California Central Valley
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2023)
      The separation of disciplines in secondary education is an inherent obstacle to project-based learning (PBL): educators go years without meaningful collaboration, critical feedback, or self-reflection (Jacobs, 2010). As a result, many inhabit an isolated bubble where no space is given to interdisciplinary collaboration; this isolation limits the authenticity of the projects students can produce. Compounding the dilemma is neoliberal logic, which disseminates the model of the market to all domains and activities (Brown, 2017). The curriculum is depoliticized; students are motivated to excel academically so they can compete in the market rather than work towards more societal equity. Additionally, marginalized groups are tracked into vocational pathways that focus only on basic skills training and give no space to critical thinking, which hurts the worker’s ability to confront and transform inequitable neoliberal policies (Darder, 2017). While PBL in STEM and vocational pathways have positive impacts on teaching and learning outcomes, implemented without a critical pedagogy framework, PBL has not been shown to increase critical consciousness (Montoya et al., 2018). This research aims to discover how PBL and an interdisciplinary curriculum (Montoya et al., 2020) implemented through a framework of critical pedagogy can impact the critical consciousness of students and teachers.
        Cover page: Work-In-Progress: Integrating Critical Pedagogy with Project- Based Learning
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2024)
        The silo structure and neoliberal rationality of Career Technical Education (CTE) secondary pathways limit student learning and propagate the purpose of education as the creation of human capital, not a socially aware citizenry (Brown, 2017; Jacobs, 2010). Despite its history of racial tracking, CTE pathways still neglect critical thinking/dialogue around social/environmental justice issues, drastically hurting workers’ ability to confront these inequities (Darder, 2017; Oakes & Saunders, 2011; Shor & Freire, 1987). Using a qualitative research design that employs ethnographic elements, this study found that constructivism, critical pedagogy, and interdisciplinary collaboration can positively impact the experience, participation, and critical consciousness of students and educators in a CTE building and construction pathway; however, more research is required to fully understand how these pedagogical shifts can be more effectively integrated into other CTE pathways.
          Cover page: Constructivism, Critical Pedagogy, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration in a Building and Construction Pathway
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2017)
          BACKGROUND: The Mexican arm of the Camino Verde trial of community mobilisation for dengue prevention covered three coastal regions of Guerrero state: Acapulco, Costa Grande and Costa Chica. A baseline cross-sectional survey provided data for community mobilisation and for adapting the intervention design to concrete conditions in the intervention areas. METHODS: Trained field teams constructed community profiles in randomly selected clusters, based on observation and key informant interviews. In each household they carried out an entomological inspection of water containers, collected information on socio-demographic variables and cases of dengue illness among household members in the last year, and gathered paired saliva samples from children aged 3-9 years, which were subjected to ELISA testing to detect recent dengue infection. We examined associations with dengue illness and recent dengue infection in bivariate and then multivariate analysis. RESULTS: In 70/90 clusters, key informants were unable to identify any organized community groups. Some 1.9% (1029/55,723) of the household population reported dengue illness in the past year, with a higher rate in Acapulco region. Among children 3-9 years old, 6.1% (392/6382) had serological evidence of recent dengue infection. In all three regions, household use of anti-mosquito products, household heads working, and households having less than 5 members were associated with self-reported dengue illness. In Acapulco region, people aged less than 25 years, those with a more educated household head and those from urban sites were also more likely to report dengue illness, while in Costa Chica and Costa Grande, females were more likely to report dengue illness. Among children aged 3-9 years, those aged 3-4 years and those living in Acapulco were more likely to have evidence of recent dengue infection. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence from the baseline survey provided important support for the design and implementation of the trial intervention. The weakness of community leadership and the relatively low rates of self-reported dengue illness were challenges that the Mexican intervention team had to overcome. The higher dengue illness occurrence among women in Costa Grande and Costa Chica may help explain why women participated more than men in activities during the Camino Verde trial.
            Cover page: Dengue occurrence relations and serology: cross-sectional analysis of results from the Guerrero State, Mexico, baseline for a cluster-randomised controlled trial of community mobilisation for dengue prevention.
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