Typically Decoupled

How Schools Make Race by Jill Anderson with Dr. Laura Chávez Moreno
The Harvard EdCast, November 14, 2024

In this podcast, Chávez-Moreno highlights ideas from her latest book, which explores bilingual education as a racial project, specifically in the way Spanish language education racializes and demarcates the category of Latinx. Placing her work in the context of an American political climate where the teaching of race is under attack, she points out that, no matter the political climate, schools teach race in several direct and indirect ways. One powerful indirect way is language education, which is typically decoupled from any genuine attempt to consciously teach the complexities and plurality of Spanish speaking ethnicities. In the American education system, this pure language approach results in an overly simplistic racialized category of Spanish speakers and often leaves high school students craving more complex ways to discuss race and ethnicity. Highlighting the apathy she observed in high school students who are bored with the “middle-school” or “Sesame Street” approach to race as a celebration of identity, Chávez-Moreno argues for “ambitious teaching” in education. Ambitious teaching would draw from frameworks in Ethnic Studies to be more intentional in the language classroom about teaching race as a structure meant to consolidate power for certain groups. Chávez-Moreno’s approach is a refreshing call to uncover and tackle the many options available to anti-racist teachers in a political climate where the teaching of race is under attack.

‍