2019 Continuums of Service Conference

A conversation about our innovative pedagogy to encourage participants to utilize material expression in exploring questions of personal and sacred identities. We utilize contemplative practices to address issues of micro and macro disjunctures and fissures in the lives of students, faculty and community workers.

This session will provide a brief overview of a critical & culturally relevant service learning approach that incorporates a Chicano Indigenous framework called the Four Tezcatlipocas. Participants in the session will learn about the elements of this approach, its connection to other research, the implementation process, and potential outcomes and implications. This work, rooted in inquiry, critical theory, and social and environmental justice, is significant to the field of service education because of its transformative capacity for personal/academic growth, as well as individual and collective agency. The Four Tezcatlipocas was first utilized within the context of education by the Mexican American Studies educators (Gonzalez & Enrique Acosta, 2006) in Tucson Unified School District. Within my own high school classroom, I incorporated the Four Tezcatlipocas into a form of student praxis with the decolonial intentions of self-direction and community-healing. This approach consists of four main steps that students follow: critical self-reflection (Tezcatlipoca), gaining perspective and precious knowledge (Quetzalcoatl), the will to act(Huitzilopochtli), and renewal and transformation (Xipe Totec). It is my hopes(but not necessary) to bring three high school students to participate in this session in order to provide personal testimony and stories about their experiences with the Four Tezcatlipocas.

The session describes an approach that engages Latino/a first-generation college students in study abroad programs in Latin America as a way to counter assimilation to United States Whiteness and strengthen their own immigrant/Latino/a and other identities. Three instructors of the program will engage the audience in a discussion of the design and implementation of this novel program, including (i) a review the challenges that limit Latino/a students in participating in study abroad, (ii) a purposeful design of critical service-learning ‘beyond borders’, (iii) an approach to recruitment, (iv) the involvement of the students’ family and a (v) career counseling component. Through the use of video, interviews and participant observation, student voices will be used to illustrate the development of purposeful personal, academic and professional growth before and after the implementation of the programs. The session will delve into themes that arise from these experiences, such as (a) family conflict and negotiation about the value of study abroad and the role of college, (b) shame and pride about the loss and proficiency of the Spanish language and (c) how foster Latino/a cultural ways of knowing/being and at the same time navigate Whiteness in their lives; among others.

In the U.S today, over 6 million low-wage workers are parents with children under the age of 18. Over half of these low-wage worker parents are women and many are single mothers. People of color, African Americans, Latinos, and immigrant workers are overrepresented in nearly all low-wage sector jobs like domestic work, janitorial, child care, and garment production. Much of the research available on low-wage parents’ ability to engage in their children’s education has focused on inequitable workplace conditions (unpredictable schedules, wage theft, lack of workplace flexibility) and public policies that fail to support working mothers and fathers. Little public debate or community-based research, however, has positioned parent workers and their unions or workers centers from a vantage point of strength and as a resource to support working families in navigating the educational system for their public school learners. This workshop will highlight 3 parent-worker models and share how a first-generation service-learning mentorship project connected university students with low-wage families and their worker organizations. We intend to engage the audience in a dialogue focused on learner and parent-worker assets and success as well as program opportunities for educators. We will also view a newly released short video on the projects.