Authors: Olga A. V squez, Olga A. Vasquez
ISBN-13: 9780805840230, ISBN-10: 0805840230
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Date Published: June 2002
Edition: (Non-applicable)
La Clase Mágica: Imagining Optimal Possibilities in a Bilingual Community of Learners vividly captures the social and intellectual developments and the promises of an ongoing after-school project called La Clase Mágica. It is a blow-by-blow description of the early transformations of a project that began as an educational activity and slowly but deliberately turned into a social action project whose aim was to serve those with low economic and political means and little access to educational resources. This multivocal account details research in action for effectively serving Spanish-English bilingual speakers from a Mexican origin community, as well ason a broader levelthe diverse populations that increasingly characterize American society today. The focus is on the early foundational work of the project between 1989-1996, though attention is also given to the national and international recognition the project has subsequently received, the college-going patterns of its long-term participants, and the transplantation of the project to other cultural communities.
The book speaks out from the "zones of contact" between the university and a language minority community about new ways to extend and intersect theory and practice in many areas of the educational enterprise. Contact is defined not only in the physical sense of face-to-face interaction but also as symbolic interaction between languages, cultures, histories, and epistemologies. Thus, Vásquez speaks of optimal possibilities situated in the middle grounds, or more technically speaking, in the borders between Spanish and English, Mexican and mainstream culture, minority and majority designations, and between school and community contexts where contact is made and new arrangements are imagined.
This account uses the reflections of participants at times to take readers from the scientific to the everyday, to make real and concrete the theoretical conceptualizations that box in human behavior. In this way, it defines the theories, methods, and philosophies for linking multiple disciplines, institutions, and participant groups into a concerted effort with potential to reframe the educational opportunities of under-served populations. A close look is provided into the intricacies and the fundamental principles for building and sustaining effective learning environments and institutional relations necessary for enhancing the potential of learners of all ages. In the process, the book also suggests ways in which community members and institutional agents can play an active and integral role in creating learning opportunities that serve both constituencies. Educators and policymakers will find the systems approach for pursuing parent and community involvement in the educational enterprise useful. In sum, the book offers researchers, practitioners, and policymakers much needed guidance, insight, and perhaps inspiration for rethinking educational goals and objectives.
Preface | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
1 | Reconceptualizing Educational Activities Into Social Action | 16 |
An Uneasy Presence: Latino Representation in Higher Education | 20 | |
Eligibility as Cultural and Social Capital | 24 | |
Down the Street but Worlds Apart: Separated by Language and Culture | 27 | |
Bilingual Identity | 31 | |
New Vistas and New Expectations | 34 | |
2 | A New Identity and New Possibilities: An Innovation of the Fifth Dimension | 36 |
The Fifth Dimension Origins | 37 | |
La Clase Magica's Double Identity | 42 | |
Lessons Learned About Cultural Relevance | 62 | |
3 | A System of Relations for Acting Locally, Thinking Globally, and Planning Long Term | 67 |
Separate Stories of Shared Spaces: UCSD and Eden Gardens | 68 | |
A Functional System for Social Action or "Un Sistema de Incorporacion de Esfuerzo" | 77 | |
Seeing the Future in the Present | 97 | |
With Great Exceptions | 100 | |
4 | A System of Artifacts for a Methodology in Action | 104 |
Culture and Mind in Play: Navigating the Frontiers Between Fantasy and Reality | 108 | |
Collapsing the Paradox: Imagining Optimal Possibilities | 111 | |
The Transformation of the Reader-Friend | 145 | |
5 | Language and Identity in a Bilingual Learning Environment | 148 |
The Social Construction of Identity | 150 | |
A Bilingual-Bicultural System of Mediation | 155 | |
Three Cultural Artifacts in Action | 157 | |
A Case Study of Two Wizard Assistants | 165 | |
Multiple Identities in a Bilingual Context | 174 | |
Educational Implications for Schooling in the 21[superscript st] Century | 176 | |
6 | The Politics of Participation: Navigating Cultural Borders | 179 |
Living a Border Reality in Social Relations | 181 | |
A Community of Learners at the Border(s) | 182 | |
Learning Through Participation: A Community-of-Learners Model | 213 | |
7 | Closing Remarks: The Risk of Challenge | 215 |
References | 223 | |
Author Index | 232 | |
Subject Index | 235 |