Exploring the Civic Identities of Latina/o High School Students: Reframing the Historical Narrative

Abstract

Notions of citizenship, as taught through the official state curriculum, are narrow and fail to consider the importance of histories that reveal a composite of diverse races/ethnicities, multiple languages, and complex patterns of immigration and transnationalism. The richness of such histories embodies the experiences and contributions of Latinas/os along the geopolitical border of the United States and Mexico. This qualitative case study analysis focuses attention on the teaching and learning practices and experiences in a secondary classroom serving late arrival immigrant students. The teacher and students willingly trouble the existing historical narrative and consequently insert other perspectives and civic identities into said narrative. The uses of more critical notions of historical inquiry and knowledge of the historical narrative as a cultural tool are vital in disrupting traditional histories and themes, thus promoting civic participation among marginalized communities.