"La Clase Magica: Imagining Optimal Possibilities in a Bilingual
Community of Learners" vividly captures the social and intellectual
developments and the promises of an ongoing after-school project
called La Clase Magica. It is a blow-by-blow description of the
early transformations of a project that began as an educational
activity and slowly but deliberately turned into a social action
project whose aim was to serve those with low economic and
political means and little access to educational resources. This
multivocal account details research in action for effectively
serving Spanish-English bilingual speakers from a Mexican origin
community, as well as--on a broader level--the diverse populations
that increasingly characterize American society today. The focus is
on the early foundational work of the project between 1989-1996,
though attention is also given to the national and international
recognition the project has subsequently received, the
college-going patterns of its long-term participants, and the
transplantation of the project to other cultural communities.
The book speaks out from the "zones of contact" between the
university and a language minority community about new ways to
extend and intersect theory and practice in many areas of the
educational enterprise. Contact is defined not only in the physical
sense of face-to-face interaction but also as symbolic interaction
between languages, cultures, histories, and epistemologies. Thus,
Vasquez speaks of optimal possibilities situated in the middle
grounds, or more technically speaking, in the borders between
Spanish and English, Mexican and mainstream culture, minority and
majority designations, and between school and community contexts
where contact is made and new arrangements are imagined.
This account uses the reflections of participants at times to take
readers from the scientific to the everyday, to make real and
concrete the theoretical conceptualizations that box in human
behavior. In this way, it defines the theories, methods, and
philosophies for linking multiple disciplines, institutions, and
participant groups into a concerted effort with potential to
reframe the educational opportunities of under-served populations.
A close look is provided into the intricacies and the fundamental
principles for building and sustaining effective learning
environments and institutional relations necessary for enhancing
the potential of learners of all ages. In the process, the book
also suggests ways in which community members and institutional
agents can play an active and integral role in creating learning
opportunities that serve both constituencies. Educators and
policymakers will find the systems approach for pursuing parent and
community involvement in the educational enterprise useful. In sum,
the book offers researchers, practitioners, and policymakers much
needed guidance, insight, and perhaps inspiration for rethinking
educational goals and objectives.
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