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Abstract
While there are numerous studies that employ additive frameworks to combat deficit views of Latina/o/x students, few focus on the perspectives of Latinx youth. This study examines the ways in which 9th grade high school Latinx students define and conceptualize excellence at home, school, and the community using photovoice methodology as a means of youth participatory action research. This research analyzed the photovoice projects of 22 students contextualized within their Educational Journeys (Rodriguez, 2018). The following objectives guided this article: 1) to empirically examine excellence across the home, school, and community among a group of Latina/o/x 9th graders, 2) to provide an in-depth case analysis of two students photovoice projects within the context of other data sources explored within the Collaborative Research for Equity and Excellence in Our Schools (CREER) project, and 3) to situate the findings within the larger context of the challenges and possibilities facing Latina/o/x students in education. The photovoice projects allowed students to authentically share their stories on the sources of excellence that shape who they are. The article concludes with implications for educators on how they might incorporate photovoice methods in the classroom across the educational pipeline.
Keywords: Secondary Education, Photovoice, Latino Youth, Digital Literacy, Youth Engagement
For at least 20 years, some scholars in the field of education have denounced deficit frameworks that have been historically used to describe the condition of education for students of color in the U.S. education system (Foley, 1997; Valencia & Solórzano, 1997). Among these scholars have been a cadre of Latina/o/x scholars who have not only denounced these deficit frameworks, but have also announced new ways of understanding, applying, and imagining the possibilities in education, particularly for Latina/o/x students across the educational pipeline (Delgado Bernal, 2001; Gutierrez, 2008; Moll et al., 1992; Rendón, 2011; Valenzuela, 1999; Yosso, 2005).
The need to recognize these frameworks and their importance among the Latina/o/x student population is as critical as ever. Over the last several years, the larger social and political climate created a particularly hostile climate for Latinas/os/xs living in the U.S. The Latina/o/x population writ large has been associated with criminality, illegality, and many other forms of othering that have not only contributed to an unsettling environment across communities and institutions, but has...