This article discusses the unique situation of teaching an upper-level, undergraduate Spanish conversation course with a service-learning component at a large, public, urban university. With the help of service-learning literature and anonymous pre- and post-surveys, this study aims to offer some qualitative observations and advice on…

A growing number of colleges and universities in the United States offer Spanish classes intended to meet specific needs of heritage speakers. In predominantly White institutions, beyond the language focus, these classes can also provide Latino students with a unique place on campus to strengthen their sense of belonging in ways that might not be…

In recent years mentorship has become a popular 'solution' for struggling boys of color and has led to the recruitment of more male of color teachers. While not arguing against the merits of mentorship, this article critiques what the author deems 'corrective representations.' Corrective representations are the imagined embodiment of proper and…

In assessment of Latino and other bilingual-bicultural students, culture and language are rarely seen as central; in contrast, they are often seen as peripheral. School psychologists infrequently consider the culture of the student to be integral to their assessment and seldom consider it as a source of learning-related assets. However, when the…

This article investigates the use of culture portfolios in second language Spanish university classes at an American private university as part of an innovation that incorporated an ACTFL standards-based curriculum to a basic language programme. The portfolios required students to complete different types of tasks through interactions with members…

The educational system continues to inadequately serve Latina/o students across the educational pipeline. A key shortcoming is the system's inability to develop, support, and grow educational leaders that can respond. In this article, the author poses a series of pedagogical approaches using a Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) lens. In the…

This article examines a rural public school with an increasingly racially diverse and working-class student body as a site where inclusion and exclusion were negotiated based on popular beliefs about culture. I look at how the interpretation of particular behaviors as indicative of a cultural regard for the value of formal education created…

Lidia and Josephina, although living vastly different lives, both represent Hispanic teen mothers. Pregnancies like theirs have been an issue of central concern in the U.S. for decades, with Hispanic teens considered most at risk. Despite vast recent declines in teen childbearing across all racial and ethnic groups, the U.S. continues to have the…

The increasing numbers in adult immigrant population in the United States urge educators and scholars to explore and analyze the programs that are available for this population in their efforts to acquire English. Historically, the main objective of these programs was the acquisition of basic English skills deemed necessary to survive in the…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the experiences of six bilingual Spanish-English speaking mental health professionals who facilitated groups using the Sí, Yo Puedo (translated in English as Yes, I Can) curriculum and program within a six-year period in two Midwestern states. Designed for immigrant Latinas, the main components of…

Educators and policy makers have shown a consistent concern over the achievement gap. In academic assessments, Latino students have demonstrated lower achievement than their peers, particularly in reading scores. Many researchers attribute the existence of the achievement gap to a school system that ignores Latino culture or perpetuates struggles…

Drawing on a Chicana feminist epistemology, the author, a Latina immigrant, presents how she used her cultural intuition to engage in a two-year ethnography with Latino immigrant families. She argues that for her engaging in ethnography with her "own community" is an endeavor that calls to the fore her homegrown epistemologies and her…

Many Latino/a students select online learning as a viable option for completing a college degree. Yet, Latino/a perspectives regarding online social presence is unknown. This study explored Latino/a students' perceptions of social presence in online courses as related to their culture perspectives of interpersonal communication, values, norms and…

Survey data were gathered from college and university faculty, staff, and administrators at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) regarding Hispanic culture and Hispanic students as part of an NSF-funded investigation that focused on the characteristics and programming of HSIs as well as the background and experiences of their students. Two surveys…

The socialization of cultural values, ethnic identity, and prosocial behaviors is examined in a sample of 749 Mexican-American adolescents, ages 9-12; M (SD) = 10.42 years (0.55); 49% female, their mothers, and fathers at the 5th, 7th, and 10th grades. Parents' familism values positively predicted their ethnic socialization practices. Mothers'…