“It Wasn’t Just in My Head”: A Qualitative Study on Nurturing the Racial Literacy of Mexican American Aspiring School Leaders in South Texas

Abstract

This qualitative study centers on interview data from ten Mexican American aspiring school leaders as they developed their racial literacy across two sociocultural foundations courses in a principal preparation program at a Hispanic Serving Institution in South Texas. The theoretical perspectives framing this study include notions of racial literacy and the subtractive schooling of Mexican school children in the United States. Findings illustrate how coursework strengthened Mexican American participants’ racial literacy in several ways. The discussion elaborates on racial literacy from theory to practice and the contextual elements that promote anti-racial literacy in P-20 settings in South Texas.