A new report from Rutgers University’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice is highlighting and advocating for efforts to integrate Mexican American Studies (MAS) into the Texas K-12 education system.
The report, “Leading from the Hyphen: A Conocimientos Movement to Integrate Mexican American Studies into Texas Public Schools,” was written by Dr. Alice Ginsberg, a part-time lecturer who teaches in Rutgers-Newark’s Department of Urban Education.
A key objective of the report “is to help people to understand that MAS is more than just incorporating Mexican American history or literature into the curriculum,” Ginsberg said.
“It’s a pedagogy. … It’s more than just about inserting something new into the curriculum,” Ginsberg said. “It’s a different way of teaching. It’s a way of teaching that really acknowledges indigenous voices and students, that they have knowledge and they have assets from their own communities that they bring into the classroom.”
For the report, Ginsberg interviewed eight South Texas educators developing MAS in K-12, the community and across higher ed.
“For the better part of the last eight years Texas activists and educators of all grade levels and subject areas have been fighting for a dedicated history course on Mexican American Studies (MAS) in the K-12 curriculum, including pre-vetted textbooks and curriculum materials that are aligned with their state standards (otherwise known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or (TEKS),” the report reads.
“They have also been on the front lines of trying to integrate MAS across the K-12 curriculum, including units on Mexican American culture, art, literature, language, and identity. Yet at the same time, the educators profiled in this report are doing a delicate balancing act as they confront strong resistance to anything that is critical of American history, white supremacy, and/or suggestive of the ‘hyphenated Americanism.’”
