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Service-Learning and Community Engagement: Working en comunidad with Latina/o/x Peoples in the US
Get PDFSummary: This panel explores the ethical approaches to working with Latina/o/x communities within language courses and beyond, preparing Latina/o/x students for working with their own communities in different environments, and ensuring equitable practices and building relationships that are mutually beneficial for students and community, that can be extended beyond a college course.
Abstract: This panel presentation of the edited book collection, Service-Learning and Community Engagement: Working en comunidad with Latina/o/x Peoples in the US brings together different approaches on integrating a careful and ethical framework for ensuring reciprocity in working with the Latina/o/x community as one that is rooted en comunidad and warns about extractive practices that fail to address power disparities between university and partner organizations. While reciprocal relations are key to this work, we believe that building sustainable relationships, especially among minoritized communities, is most fruitful when we consider them to be a long-term commitment, not just a semester or within a semester (Manzo,et al, 2020). That is, many of the authors doing this work are also actively involved with the organization(s) they partner with, as a long-term commitment and relationship-building practice to make sure we are not being extractive in our engagement with the community. This collection employs a decolonial and intersectional approach of thinking and working with the Latina/o/x community inside and outside the classroom in a variety of institutional contexts including both public and private Hispanic Serving Institutions, Predominantly White Institutions, and Ivy League Institutions. It centers on service-learning theory and practice that acknowledge the diverse experiences and complexity of this community’s racialized identity and language, and their contributions as knowledge production. The work of the various authors in this collection provides an opportunity to broaden critical discourses around equitable education and racial justice in higher education
Potential Effect of Produced Water Discharge on Surface Water: Lower Atascosa River Study
Get PDFThis study investigates the potential impact of an approved produced water discharge permit in the Atascosa River. Water samples were collected from a test site on the Atascosa River and analyzed for key water quality parameters such as chloride, total dissolved solids, sodium, calcium, strontium and other ions. These results were compared to historical data from the local river authority to assess any significant changes in water quality following the permit\u27s approval in April 2024. Statistical analyses, including averages and t-tests, were conducted to determine whether the current ion concentrations differed significantly from historical levels. While an increase in concentrations was observed, it remains difficult to directly attribute these changes to the produced water discharge, as other environmental factors may also influence the results. This research contributes to understanding the potential ecological effects of produced water discharge, though further study is needed to confirm causality
Nuestra Herencia Familiar—Honoring Spanish Heritage Language Students Through Family Engagement
Get PDFFamily Engagement is the cornerstone to celebrating Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) scholars. Through engaging our families and communities, we gather testimonios that give us insight into their cultural traditions, experiences, and the importance of ensuring that their child(ren) become biliterate. This collaboration with our families and communities creates strong reciprocal partnerships where open continuous dialogue has become commonplace. Subsequently, we have been able to identify opportunities for change in our Family Engagement practices. In particular, we learned that we needed to implement innovative initiatives that would honor our SHL scholars, their families, and our school communities.
In our proposed presentation, we will discuss Family Engagement initiatives that have honored Spanish as a Heritage Language at two Dual-Language campuses in the North East Independent School District: Pre-K Academy at West Avenue and Walzem Elementary School. We will go in depth in describing how these strategies are essential in celebrating Nuestra Herencia Familiar—the Spanish Language, while simultaneously promoting Family Engagement at our campuses. At Pre-K Academy, the collaboration with parents and communities revealed the need to implement Literacy Programs that celebrated SHL scholars. At Walzem Elementary, SHL scholars are celebrated through a Ballet Folklorico program that inspires students to learn a variety of cultural dances from different regions in Latin America.
Our audience will have the following take-aways: 1) the importance of building relationships with families and communities; 2) Family Engagement is an essential ingredient to honoring SHL scholars; and 3) how our initiatives promote SHL development
Aprendizajes críticos. Vinculando saberes entre el aula universitaria y la comunidad repatriada de hablantes de español como lengua heredada
No full textConsejos y enseñanzas from the Graduate Student Perspective: Implementing Culturally Responsive Practices and Creating Teaching Moments in Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) Classrooms
No full textWe center our own consejos y enseñanzas to bring a critical focus to the experiences and perspectives of graduate student SHL instructors and how they should be central to addressing, examining, and implementing best teaching practices, especially culturally responsive teaching (CRT)
BMP Training Instructional Aid for Protection of Edwards Aquifer Water Quality From Firefighting Runoff
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Seasonal Changes in Groundwater Chemistry of the Edwards Aquifer
No full textThe Comal Springs (CS) and San Marcos Springs (SMS) are the largest springs discharging the Edwards aquifer, which is a karst aquifer in south-central Texas. We collected physical and chemical samples during the wet and dry seasons, and the results showed that during the wetter days the pH for the SMS and CS were slightly lower than in the dryer days. The specific conductance (spc) for CS did not show any difference but the spc for SMS showed a slight decrease in concentration on dry days. The alkalinity concentration for CS increased while the SMS decreased from dry to wet days from. Overall, the results showed that aquifer dilution reduces the concentration of chemical constituents as exemplified in the conductivity concentration but increases the buffering capacity of the system as it showed higher alkalinity concentrations in wetter days in CS and just a slight decrease in SMS
Determining the Causal Effects and Moderating Role of Social Comparison Among Hispanic Undergraduate Students at a Minority Serving University
No full textPeople naturally compare themselves to one another across a variety of personal, academic, and career settings. Regarding academics, social comparison research involving Hispanic students focuses heavily on white majority-serving universities. However, these findings may not apply to Hispanic majority universities, where Hispanic students are part of an in group. When accessible social comparators are in-group members, social comparison may look different. In our experiment, undergraduate student participants listed how their academic achievements were similar/or different from a target. We manipulated 2 (Gender: man, woman) x 2 (In-Group/Out-Group: White, Hispanic) x 2 (Direction of comparison: upward, downward) x 2 (Type of comparison: identification or contrast) X 2 (Personal comparison orientation: upward identification, downward assimilation). Experimental results will demonstrate how social comparison processes affect Hispanic undergraduate student outcomes. Moreover, this study may pinpoint the role of social comparison in determining the outcomes based on one’s own typical social comparison strategy
\u27Whatcha’ lookin’ at: Using Eye-Tracking Technology for ID Verification
No full textProfessional screeners verify identification cards (IDs) across several security settings. However, research has shown that identity verification tasks can be error-prone. Across two experiments, we investigated the sources of these errors using behavioral (i.e., accuracy, reaction time) and physiological (i.e., eye tracking metrics) indices. Both experiments involved 48 trials, during which participants verified whether an ID matched a person in a video (E1) or the ID was authentic (E2) using six response options ranging from definitely no to definitely yes. Preliminary E1 results established surprising findings regarding the relationship between performance and eye movements (i.e., gaze fixations and durations). Although data collection and analyses are ongoing for E2, this research will increase our knowledge of perceptual differences in facial recognition with evolving technologies. Within security settings, the data will be able to illuminate identity screening trends to reduce security risks resulting from fraudulent IDs