The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe

Posted by jeff kip on June 8th, 2021

The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe

Education is usually used as a tool to facilitate the integration of promising youth and promote conformity. Moreover, education helps people to gain and enjoy freedom, think creatively and critically in various situations, overcome challenges, and participate in world transformation. However, nowadays not all individuals can freely access education because it imposes a significant financial burden on their families. The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe narrates the development of Chicana/o Studies from the civil rights movement to the present day. The renowned author, Rodolfo Acuna, discusses machinations in higher education through which officials sought to destroy the discipline. The scholar has spent many years fighting against injustice as well as prejudice in educational establishments and not allowing authorities to deprive Chicana/o Studies of academic presence and make the discipline a part of ethnic studies.

The socio-political conditions and challenges gave rise to the civil rights movement calling for reforms and revolution. The generation, particularly the younger one, were frustrated and detrimentally impacted by widely spread exclusionary practices. Different communities were deprived of access to education and other important services. According to Acuna , this phenomenon directly contradicted democratic ideals underlying philosophical foundations of the American nation. The detailed psychological and sociological account raising the issues faced by Chicana/o Studies since its emergence until the present day also highlights the existence of external and internal factors that advance and impede the discipline. In order to deliver necessary messages to readers, Acuna has chosen the polemical style to deeply explore the subject matter, including significant events and major players who have organized and impacted the educational process over the last decades. The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe depicts the discipline as an integral part of the Mexican American educational system that was forced to overcome many challenges and obstacles. The struggle of the Chicana/o community was dedicated not only to democratization and access to education, but also to the eradication of prejudice, slander, provocation, neglect, and antipathy embedded in the major educational system. Through joint efforts, Mexicans and other racial minorities sought to resist the internalization of these messages.

For many years, experts have been arguing about the impact of external and internal forces on the direction of Chicana/o Studies and their potential to become an inclusive field. The globalization of reality and changing demographics may also have a direct impact on the educational process. Acuna witnesses an internal push in colleges and universities towards the homogenization of Chicana/o Studies into Latina/o Studies. Experts and researchers are also engaged in academic debates arguing about what place Chicana/o Studies should occupy in the entire educational system. The outcome of these disputes might have a great impact on further success and prosperity of the Chicana/o community.

Chicana/o experts have been regularly excluded from debates. Most efforts are purposefully directed towards the de-politicization of Chicana/o Studies as it is an ideal way to separate education and policymaking as well as avoid the negative impact of external forces. From the very beginning, higher educational institutions have been destabilizing ethnic studies, and no challenges of population dynamics have been properly addressed since then . As the history of the discipline and its fight for survival are largely ignored, the eminent Mexican author, Rodolfo Acuna, encourages individuals to treat the unique field without bias. Otherwise, it will disappear, and the community will be deprived of the historical and cultural legacy. The academic transformation of Chicana/o Studies should be accompanied by the expansion of its energy towards the creation of an indigenous program that will serve as a logical development of the entire field. In order to succeed, the discipline should maintain academic sovereignty and legitimacy, simultaneously challenging the dominant racist and Eurocentric system that hinders the educational development of the Mexican community.

To conclude, since its inception, Chicana/o Studies have been struggling for acceptance and recognition as a unique academic field that has undergone numerous changes during its development. Numerous authors have discussed problems faced by the discipline, but Acuna has made it in an exceptional manner offering recommendations on how to address them. The author has referenced many valuable and instructive accounts in his book so that readers notice a tremendous gap in views.This article was written by Jeff Kip. More his works you can see here https://essayslab.com/letter-writing-template.html