Latina/o School Experiences

"In this article, Fairbanks, Crooks, and Ariail followed Esmé Martinez, a Spanishspeaking
Latina, from the sixth grade to the eleventh grade, focusing on her perspectives
of schooling and her shifting identities related to home, school, friendships, and
future. Drawing on the construct of artifacts, a sociohistorical concept that understands
skills, practices, and the means of putting them to use in social spaces, they
detail Esmé’s school history, the ways she was positioned there, and the resources she
used to respond and reposition herself. This examination offers a long-term profile
of the complex interactions that school entails and a nuanced reflection on agency
within institutional constraints." 

     i found this article to be extremely interesting, a long term study that watched over a students growth and progression in school and social aspects. I found it even more interesting that this article was on the experiences of a latina girl, this is because all semester we have seen how society focuses mainly on the white population especially when it comes to things like this. I enjoy learning that people are paying attention to the needs of minorities in school because that too is another thing we have learned this semester that those of minority cultures have the hardest times in school. 



"Our process took the concept of artifacts as its unit of analysis
and included multiple readings of all interview data independently to identify
the artifacts she implied or explicitly referenced; how they were implicated in
her positioning as student, daughter, or friend; and a categorization of her
responses for their content." This quote is a good seg-way to learn about this reading. The researchers follow esme through her school life, learning how sher changed and made way for herself. They talked about how she was  a quiet girl who occaisonly talked to her tablemates during passing to a determined young women with hopes of beauty school. i found this reading to be extremely empowering.



"Esmé’s willingness to be placed in “regulars” constituted an important
moment in her first year of high school for multiple reasons. First, her enrollment
in three honors classes along with enrollment in a reading class was an
unusual occurrence. Second, her decision to speak with the counselor represented
a kind of agency she had not previously reported. In middle school,
she might have wished to change her schedule, but now she requested the
change. Finally, removing her from all honors classes, however, illustrated
one means by which Esmé’s academic opportunities were constrained. The
school’s actions perpetuated her positioning as struggling in an “all or nothing”
way that failed to recognize her academic strengths, a process further
compounded by her enrollment in a remedial reading class that even her
teacher believed was inappropriate."

This part of the reading i hated to read, esme wanted nothing more then to better herself but was unable to due to the school's misconceptions and "inappropriate" actions.

Overall i enjoyed this reading and the meaning of it.