Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
The increasingly diverse demographics can no longer submit to the old paradigms and Eurocentric views behind westernized conceptions of learning and instruction (Grande, 2015). Scholars point to disengagement of marginalized communities of color from the schooling environment and express concerns over national curricula as being non-relevant to the historical and social-cultural realities of these communities in the United States (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2009). Within this paradigm, notions of success are often measured by cognitive benchmarks like grades, GPA, graduation rates, and standardized test scores. By 2044, more than half of all Americans are projected to belong to a minority group, and, specifically, the Latino/a/Hispanic population is projected to increase from 55 million in 2014 to 119 million in 2060, an increase of 115% (Colby & Ortman, 2015). The role that hegemony and ideology play in the production and reproduction of national curriculums, as well as expectations for national standards, are explored in this dissertation. The social-cultural, political, economic, and historical complexities of education and its perceived purpose to secure upward mobility and in-group identities are explored in this analysis. The nation’s educational standards consistently reinforce and maintain a specific status quo as defined by western Eurocentric ideals, values, and principles (Apple, 2000). Where then do Indigenous and (im)migrant ideals, values, and principles fit when the state is conceptualizing inclusive education for all? The Ethnic Studies Ban of the Mexican American Studies Program (MAS) at Tucson Unified School District in Arizona is the topic of this dissertation. This ban, as demonstrated by legislation HB 2281, which outlawed the awardwinning MAS program in 2010, is a clear example of how hegemony imposes westernized ideals and delegitimizes indigenous values and forms of education (Cambium Learning, 2011). The achievements and counter hegemonic pedagogy of the MAS program and how official knowledge has controlled the curriculum to reproduce a default dominant narrative are explored in this dissertation (Apple, 1993, 2000).
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez, J. F. (2019). Understanding the politics of knowledge and how it unfolds in the United States: The Mexican American Studies Program, and the ethnic studies ban in Tucson AZ [Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison].
Copyright
The author