"Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Using Latino Children’s Literature in Teacher Education," Kathy Escamilla and Sally Nathenson-Meija

For the most part, I enjoyed this article and found it worthwhile.

I thought that some of the teacher candidate (T.C.) responses were sort of misguided.

For instance, multiple T.C.s expressed concern over the religious holidays presented in the books they were asked to read. Maybe some laws are different in Colorado (one T.C. mentioned a music teacher who could only use religious songs at a time other than that in which the holiday was occurring), but I wonder if these T.C.s would've expressed the same reservation at using books that dealt with Christmas or Thanksgiving (which isn't religious, I know) or Easter. (Or books in which these holidays take place. What about A Christmas Carol?) And do they plan on avoiding books like Night, which certainly deals with religion? Or Lord of the Flies, which has tons of Christian themes?

One T.C. commented that she wouldn't teach a book because death was not portrayed as a somber event, but as a time for gathering and celebrating life. The T.C. thought this would scare students (even though over half of the students are Hispanic). Doesn't s/he realize that this celebration is part of her students' lives? Doesn't s/he realize that part of the purpose of reading these books is to learn about other cultures? This T.C.'s own upbringing and ideas kept him/her from appreciating the culutral differences and seeing them as a way of understanding another group, as a way of understanding his/her students.