Designing Critical and Creative Learning with Indigenous Youth: A Personal Journey traces the events leading to the creation of Unlocking Silent Histories (USH) and outlines the program’s foundational and methodological principles. The book opens with an explanation of the author’s struggles with the theory-practice tension, a conflict that has inhibited the widespread adoption and actualization of socially just learning engagements. She then offers her rationale for taking a leave from academia to concentrate fully on developing a critical pedagogy-informed learning design facilitated by combining community-connected inquiry with video ethnography. The substance of the text focuses on the identified foundational and methodological principles, explained through first-hand accounts of USH’s year-one participants. These youth-centered chapters assist in presenting an argument for employing culturally responsive and socially just educational engagements. At the same time, the chapters illustrate how drawing on youth voice can more broadly contribute to bridging theory and practice in communities that are often disconnected from the larger educational discourse. The author does not intend to provide a scripted implementation process within USH or of educational in general. Rather she uses first-hand youth accounts in this cultural context to give the reader a lived experience of how a youth-directed, emergent learning path materializes when employing a model that draws on local knowledge and invite youth voice.
İçerik tablosu
Situating Struggle, an Academic Journey; Journey to My Ph D; Changed Worldview; Tending toward My Leap; Founding Unlocking Silent Histories; Focusing on Media; Finding the Space and Place; Introducing Unlocking Silent Histories; Defining Unlocking Silent Histories; Maya Traditions Foundation: A Formalized Partnership; Setting the Stage; Theoretical Foundations; Who Am I Anyway, What Gives Me the Right?; Situating Myself as a Researcher; Grounding Unlocking Silent Histories in Theory; Situating Guatemala and Our Initial Communities: Chirijox and San Juan La Laguna; Maya Civilizations; The Spanish Conquest; The Religious Influence; A Line of Dictators; The 36-year Internal Conflict; Maya Today; Our Initial Communities; Looking Forward; Carmen Tzoc Portillo, 17 Chirijox, Nahualá: “La Naturaleza” [Nature]; Connecting with Local Knowledge and Voice as Central to Learning; Introducing Carmen; Engaging in the USH Philosophy; Traversing “Compliance” and “Agency”; Discovering Focus, Knowledge, and Voice; Developing Voice; Embracing the Local Knowledge and Voice; Emilio Tzoc Portillo, 13 Chirijox, Nahualá: “Alcoholismo” [Alcoholism]; Youth Have the Capacity to Direct Their Own Learning and Author Their Own Stories; Introducing Emilio; Implementation Challenges; Dangerous Line; Visualizing the Story; Keeping Emilio Inspired; Youth Directed Learning and Authored Stories; Catalina Naccasia, 13 and Fabiola Tambriz, 14 Chirijox, Nahualá: “Ovejas y Tejidos” [Sheep and Weaving]; Community Connected Themes Encourage Critical and Creative Expression; Introducing Catalina and Fabiola; Working in Community; Planning Community Representations; Capturing the Community Surroundings; Finding Their Story; Community Connected Themes for Critical and Creative Expression; Jose Maria Perez Vasquez (Chema, Chino), 17 San Juan La Laguna: “Mujeres Luchadoras” [Fighting Women]; The Agency of Youth to Shape Their Own Social Environment; Introducing Chema; In the Center and Co-Construction of Learning; Toward Developing His Future; Asserting Agency to Create One’s Social Environments; Norma Mendoza, 18 San Juan La Laguna “Temascales”: [Maya Saunas]; Using Video to Capture the Language and Cultural Knowledge of Indigenous Youth; Introducing Norma; “Choosing” a Language; Knowledge-Language Attachment; Embracing the Tenent of Capturing Language and Culture; Carlos Agustin Vasquez Mendoza (Tín), 18 San Juan La Laguna “Exito”: The Use of Analytical Tools to Assist in Dissecting Social, Cultural, and Political Realities; Introducing Carlos; Setting the Foundation for Profound Exploration; Developing Crtical Inquiry; Teasing out Critical Consciousness; Visible Meaning and Masked Growth; Ongoing Fostering Critical Inquiry; Owning Unlocking Silent Histories Becoming Teacher|Leader: The Development of Internal Expertise (Co-written with Jenn Miller Scarnato); Co-Constructing Our Conception of Youth Leaders; Our Three Youth Leaders; How the Leaders Are Defining the Future of USH; Looking Back, Looking Forward; Reflecting on My Leave; Achieving New Learning Models; Employing Critical Pedagogy: From the Voices of Youth; On Continually Becoming; In Closing.