Kerry Jones-Golembeski - Student Research and Creativity Forum - Hofstra University

Failureandthe DiscourseofCaring: HowLatinoBoysSee ThemselvesasReaders andWriters

Author

Kerry Jones-Golembeski, PhD Candidate, Literacy Studies

This critical ethnography studies five Latino boys, their parents and teachers and how they see themselves as part of the academic community in a public middle school on eastern Long Island Students were observed in classes and students, parents and teachers were interviewed Each interview was recorded and transcribed Tables were created that identified themes Pragmatic Horizon Analysis was used to understand the nuances of the participants’ responses

Research Questions

What is the discourse of caring surrounding middle school Latino boys, their parents and teachers? What is its impact on how they see themselves as readers and writers?

How do middle school Latino boys experience the pedagogical practices of largely White teachers?

How can we, as teachers, fully and authentically, value our students and their assets so they feel a part of the academic community?

Findings

When defining caring, all members gave similar definitions that described relational caring

When asked how teachers show caring, most members of the study gave examples of virtue caring

The boys felt comfortable in the academic community; some of their proudest moments were as students

All of the boys and their parents had aspirations of graduating high school and pursuing a career

Parents believed teachers were partners in learning; teachers felt parents did not care for their child’s education

While the teachers cared for the students, they did not believe they would move onto higher education

Pragmatic

Conclusions

Latinx students benefit from a combination of virtue and relational caring: They want someone to care about them personally and professionally

Low impact communication between parents and teachers should increase, such as parent-teacher conferences and spend less time and resources on digital methods of communication

Teachers need to question how their raciolinguistic positioning lowers their expectations for students; teachers of bilingual students need to address student assets