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Teachers engage in Growing transformative leaders–like how one of the teachers did a call and response in Spanish in his class from the video. By having ethnic studies in the Tuscan area schools, teachers provide ways for students to see themselves in the curriculum and Cultural experiences are validated and celebrated.

Culturally responsive pedagogy is also about making connections in ways that students can understand within the perspectives of their culture. Using traditional learning styles to create a lens for the content we are teaching. Learning through discussing the relationships of topics to water, land, etc, for example, responds to the traditional modes of learning in indigenous communities, or using Gaman (endurance/patience) and Ganbaru (doing your best/working hard) concepts for Japanese students to make connections to the material through a Japanese cultural lens, or reducing homework to honor and value students’ home and family responsibilities and priorities.

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In terms of representation, mere inclusion of BIPOC authors is not enough. Teachers need to teach in ways that are culturally sustaining and responsive. Not just "okay we're including more BIPOC authors and you still have 50 pages of reading." Shift away from "lets just change the cirriculum" to "what questions/frameworks are we teaching and asking students to engage with." Scaffolding lessons around identity so that students are able to explore in affirming ways as opposed to "naming your top 3" which might be rife with problems in terms of students creating a hierarchy of aspects of their identity.

"Not only does Rojas’s scholarship point out the need for greater representation of Latinx literature in the secondary
curriculums, it also implies that simply including Latinx literature offers a generalized narrative of the Latinx experience." (84)

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Our group has struggles with the ideas in the video and readings. There is a large focus on oppression and harm in ethnic studies classes - which are important to learn about. But, how do we balance celebrating joy with also teaching students of color about their history (their real history)?
While there is no exact answer for our struggles, we noted how it is important to focus on resistance and frame traumatic experiences and histories with hope in them. We need to show former and ongoing resistance to white supremacy and colonialism.

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Connections

A big reason why we want to teach ELA is to help students form identities; Ethnic studies ties directly into that because we are honoring and valuing students’ histories and cultures

The reading also draws in other aspects of student identity, beyond race and ethnicity

“Students need to feel like they matter in their education” (85)

Holistic view of student identities as whole beings, not just students

“An oppressive rendering of a culturally diverse text is still oppressive” (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell reading from ELA methods in Fall)

Incorporating cultural/ethnic texts but not considering or reflecting on the social/historical/political context is perpetuating idea that students need to ignore their own backgrounds

Questions:

What does ethnic studies look like in more heterogeneous classrooms with a more diverse student body?

How do teachers who do not share the same identities as their students better support ethnic studies?

Practices:

Navigating resources and knowing when to refer students to resources that can better help them than we can (especially if we don’t share the same identities as them)

Keeping curriculum simple (poetry in the classroom) — doesn’t have to be super complicated to be culturally responsive!

Texts/writing as a way to help students make meaning in their lives and learning

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Cultural artifacts; tangible representations of and engagements with culture

Historical studies; counter-storytelling to challenge dominant narratives

Renaming of “Hispanic Studies” to “Mexican American/Rasa Studies”

Creating autonomy in their identities

Equity-based; Identifying that Latinx students are being pushed out of school at high rates and taking action to address those issues

Presence of community in schools — Ethnic studies is needed and valued in schools because it reflects the world around them

Linguistic inclusion/incorporation into the classroom (poem in class)

1. What connections do you see between “Precious Knowledge” and your content-area readings for today? What specific strategies or teacher moves from the video or the content reading would you want to implement in your teaching practice and why?

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learning about your own background/identities, and learning about your peers’ identities

Merge an understanding of ethnic studies into “real-world” situations/contexts

Critiquing the world around you and how society responds to your identities

Purpose: Connecting to an educational system that has historically positioned them on the outside

“Students don’t have a dysfunctional relationships with learning, they have a dysfunctional relationship with schooling”

Community responsive pedagogy = not coming into your class with preconceived biases and notions about your students (students are lazy or unmotivated to learn); students have responsibilities and roles outside of school, as well as community trauma (i.e. deportation & immigration status) and teachers should be responsive to that in their education

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Ethnic studies is about helping students from marginalized communities feel a sense of belonging that is often absent in curriculum that centers white upper class values and versions of history.

Advocacy from teachers, teachers sensing that their students need more than academic knowledge, but to learn about, share, and understand their own culture in affirming ways. Teachers are meeting needs of communities, understanding the lives and responsibilities of students outside of school, and acknowledging systemic racism and the ways that students from non-dominant cultures have to navigate white supremacist culture in the U.S. Allowing for students to feel present, and welcome in the classroom in a way that makes sense to them.

Quote we were thinking about:

"Ethnic Studies pedagogy that is culturally responsive allows students to see themselves, their families, their communities, and their histories in the curriculum and practices of the classroom, as multiple sources of knowledge and cultural experiences are validated and celebrated" (24)

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Jackie chan once said to jayden smith in karate kid "no such thing as bad student, only bad teacher" - TJ

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In the "Precious Knowledge" video, many students noted that they were thinking about dropping out of school because they were not centered or appreciated at school. The system was made to work against them. Finding a space where their culture/identity is celebrated and loved truly saved them which shows how ethnic studies an cultural spaces are SO important to helping our students of color find a sense of belonging.

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In the video a teacher mentioned that Mexican culture is at least 7,000 years old, which empowers students and positions them highly in their own indigeneity.

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In the Precious Knowledge video, there is a focus on “cultura” which is the joy of the community. By honoring it and celebrating it within the curriculum is ethnic studies responsiveness. Additionally, acknowledging the issues that are surrounding the students and the community around them is responsiveness towards the community needs, strengths, and values.

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Ethnic studies bring in voices of historically marginalized communities and having ethnic pride, histories in the United States. Also having the content accessible to all students in a multimodal way (videos, books, articles). Teachers should be aware of what is going on in the communities beyond the dominant communities and loop communities into our pedagogy/teaching. Ethnic studies is looking at the community culture, needs, and responding to those. Culturally responsive pedagogy is to tailor our instruction and curriculum to the community issues, resistance, and culture of our future students. If something is happening in the community (ex. violence against indigenous women, deportation, police brutality, etc.), we are responding to those issues. But also, joy.

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"Many students who are newly exposed to Ethnic studies have to unlearn dominant Eurocentric perspectives they have been taught throughout their whole academic and social lives," (Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 22)
There is the contrast with "indigenous narratives and perspectives on the histories of colonization that have attempted to displace and replace indigenous knowledge," (Marker, 98).

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The purpose of ethnic studies is to create a space for students to feel celebrate of their own culture and see other students celebrating shared identities. We need to be honest with kids about the system they are living in and be honest with how the system was not only created for white students (or those of the dominant culture), but it is actively working against them. Schools/teachers need to respond to the needs of students and of the community who are at risk because of white culture and supremacy.

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Purpose of Ethnic studies is to combat ignorance and sustain culture. Sometimes the best culturally responsive practice is generating awareness. Ethnic studies gives dynamic representation of culture as fluid and dyanmic in different contexts (representation is not mere sterotypes). What students are learning in the classroom must be culturally relevant to to their lives. Watching the video and seeing the racism of the superintendent and teachers the need seemed for Ethnic Studies is extremely pressing. Ethnic studies helps students generate critical frameworks for looking at power structures around race.

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The students felt a sense of belonging and empowerment from being taught ethnic studies. Many of them expressed their change in mindset about their own culture. There was also the backlash faced by the school and ultimate legal decision to ban ethnic studies in the school due to it being "unpatriotic" and "anti-American."

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1.) The purpose of ethnic studies goes "beyond undertold history" and challenging established perspectives, it must extend to criticality.