Table Of ContentContents 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
SynopsisAs 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. Authentic Cariño 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. All royalties from this book will support Molina High School and a college scholarship for urban youth. 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., 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., 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 four years of qualitative research, the author examines how educators, families, and community members established and sustained a social justice school., 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. Authentic Cariño 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. All royalties from this book will support Molina High School and a college scholarship for urban youth. 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.