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Prospectus Considerations

 

a) The Editor, Section Editors, and Editorial Board will reflect affiliations with leadership of a wide variety of professional groups. 

 

- The Editor will be responsible for the management and oversight of the Section Editors and Editorial Board. 

 

The HLE Editor will use his current position as the Editor of the Journal of Latinos and Education to promote and market the Handbook; also taking advantage of the built-up audience and journal infrastructure.

 

Additionally, the editor will also serve in a prominent office within the American Educational Research Association.  He will serve as the 2005-2006 Program Chair of the Bilingual Education Research SIG, and subsequently as the 2006-2007 Chair.  The Bilingual SIG is the largest SIG within AERA, and the Editor will use his influence to promote the HLE.  

 

Further, the Handbook will be marketed among the individual, group, business and institutional members of the National Latino Education Network, of the which the Editor serves as the current Director/Manager. 

 

- Section Editors may be recruited from the Associate Editors of the Journal of Latinos and Education, taking advantage of the journal’s infrastructure.

 

- The Editorial Board will be first recruited from colleagues throughout the U.S. (and possibly expand to Latin America).  Particular care will be taken to ensure representation of all regions and Latino groups within the U.S.   All members of the board will have strong backgrounds in their areas of expertise and will serve as the chapter draft reviewers (quite possibly these too will overlap with the same members of the Boards from the Journal of Latinos and Education).

 

Prospective board members will be leaders in associations such as the AAA, A&E, AACTE, ASA, AERA, AESA, Sociology of Education, etc. There will be direct connections to Latin America, through these same editorial board members.  There will also be connections through shared interests on issues related to Latinos such as immigration, Pacific Rim, poverty, politics globalization, NAFTA, postmodern condition, etc.   A common language, Spanish, the third most spoken language in the world, also helps to create an international audience for HLE.  (That is, English will be the principal language; however the possibility will be explored of publishing particular chapters in bilingual form).

 

 

b) The launching of the Handbook will be coordinated with the plans for a national conference of Latinos and Education.

 

This Handbook will serve as a platform by which to launch it's inauguration.  Both a year subscription to the Journal of Latinos and Education as well as the purchase of this proposed Handbook will be built in to the registration fees.

Additionally, professional conference presentations will be offered at several prominent national conferences (AAA, NABE, AERA, AESA) showcasing the HLE and many of  it's contributors.

 

 

c) Currently there is no one comprehensive published review of research and practice on the topic of Latinos and Education. 

 

There are research reports on Latinos and Education currently published all over the place or in highly specialized books and journals.

 

The Journal of Latinos and Education has helped provide an important publication avenue for writers who seek to address Latino Educational issues.  However, the intent of the HLE is to provide chapters that will be a comprehensive review of research and practice on the topic, and not a research report of a single study, as is commonplace for a journal such as the JLE.

 

Similarly, there are two books currently on the market that share like elements to the intent of the Handbook. Neither makes the exact claims as this prospectus, but both definitely offer a review of Latino Educational issues.

 

First is Chicano School Failure and Success: Past, Present, and Future. 2nd edition. Richard R. Valencia, ed. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2002. 384 pp. This book provides the reader with current research and constructive policy initiatives that help develop educational potential for the Chicano population. The anthology, by a selected team of scholars who represent a wide range of disciplines, describes the factors and processes of low academic achievement and academic enhancement by presenting educational problems, research findings, and policy/reform implications.

 

Second is Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader. Darder, Antonia, Rodolfo D. Torres and Henry Gutierrez. (eds.) New York: Routledge, 1997. This edited volume focuses on the relationship between Latinos and the U.S. educational system. It challenges the static notions of culture, identity and language, and situates Latinos and Education within the context of a rapidly changing economy and society. The reader establishes a clear link between educational practice and the structural dimensions which shape institutional life, and calls for the development of a new language that moves beyond disciplinary and racialized categories of difference and structural inequality. The anthology of essays discuss themes such as political economy, historical views of Latinos and schooling, identity, the politics of language, cultural democracy in the classroom, community involvement and Latinos in higher education.

 

Despite these groundbreaking publications, Latino issues remain often seen as limited in focus (academic colonialism).  One reason may be that established venues publish research oriented around a primary perspective, e.g. reading, and treat Latinos and Education as secondary categories.  Reading publications, for example, may only be marginally concerned with Latino issues (if at all), or may consider it of limited interest. Mainstream publications tend to consider Latino issues as peripheral to broader issues in the discipline.  Mainstream publications also tend to focus on nationally known "Latino" authors and look only to the work of a few to publish.

 

This Handbook promises to provide a comprehensive review of the rigorous, innovative and critical scholarship comprised of empirical, methodological, applied, theoretical, programmatic, perspective and policy research relevant to educational issues which impact Latinos.

 

d) One of the goals of HLE will be to actively mentor the next generation of educational researchers, Latino or otherwise, working with our populations. 

For this to be integrated into the pre-production processes of this handbook, each Section Editor (early career) will be paired with a veteran scholar whose reputation holds standing in the field. Both will serve as Section Editors, but the weight of the management or oversight will rely mostly with the junior scholar of early career, while the veteran or mentor scholar will offer their experience and knowledge to better charter the terrain or mapping of the section’s focus.

Additionally, Section Editors will integrate a similar mentorship process with the respective chapter contributors to their section. That is, for as many chapters as possible, contributors will be asked to pair themselves in the similar early career/veteran scholar dyads.  If a early career scholar is first approved as a contributor, he or she will be asked to identify a veteran scholar for which to collaborate with.


Similarly, as prominent scholars are invited to contribute, they will be asked to identify an early career scholar for which to collaborate with. 

This collaboration among chapter contributors, working together with the section editors, and together with the main editor, serves to triangulate the content, validity, reliability and quality of the scholarship.

 

e) The Appendix of Resources will serve as a directory or guide for all those sharing a common interest in educational issues that impact Latinos and will be linked as part of the National Latino Education Network (NLEN). 

 

The NLEN is a members-based electronic community currently sponsored by the Journal of Latinos and Education, made up of researchers, teaching professionals and educators, academics, scholars, administrators, independent writers and artists, policy and program specialists, students, parents, families, civic leaders, activists, and advocates.  The website (http://nlen.csusb.edu/) will provide online features, one of which is a Resource Guide/Clearinghouse that allows members to search and browse for resources, opportunities and activities in the Latino Educational community. 

This online resource guide will be made available in printed form in the Handbook of Latinos and Education.

Additionally purchasers/readers of the HLE will be allowed to access the NLEN website for the latest and most current version of the directory, even for years after print. 

 

f) The increasing numbers and diversity of Latinos creates a need to look at issues through the lens of other disciplines (e.g. humanities, social studies, social sciences). 

 

HLE will encourage novel ways of thinking about the ongoing and emerging questions around the unifying thread of Latinos and education. The Handbook will support dialogical exchange for researchers, practitioners, authors, and other stakeholders who are working to advance understanding at all levels and aspects, be it theoretical, conceptual, empirical, clinical, historical, methodological, and/or other in scope.

 

We expect that the HLE will serve as an impetus to raise the consciousness of other publication venues. The HLE is intended to be cross-, multi- and interdisciplinary, and will be open to reviewing the varied research methodologies and narrative models that serve the field.  Additionally, the chapters for the HLE will cover education in the broad cultural sense, and not be limited to just formal schooling.

 

The various manifestations of the diverse frameworks and topical areas typically range anywhere from, but aren't limited to, theoretical and empirical analyses, policy discussions, research reports, program recommendations, evaluation studies, finding and improving  practical applications, carefully documenting the transition  of theory into real-world practice, linking theory and research, new dissertation research, literature reviews, reflective discussions, cultural studies and literary works.

 

There are not enough venues to publish current cutting-edge research, let alone a review of this research.  A market analysis is that there is great need for such a publication centered on Latino Educational issues.  Educational researchers will likely purchase the Handbook, especially those who either teach courses that address research conducted in Latino communities, or they themselves conduct such research.  This publication will also likely become a standard text used by graduate students.

 

This timely edition will be of interest to a second rung, made up of teacher educators and academics in the areas of education, sociology, and anthropology. It will help them understand educational questions of great consequence to the nation's future.

 

The broader audience still will be the broad spectrum of teaching professionals and educators, administrators, policy and program specialists, civic leaders, activists and advocates.  In short, individuals, groups, agencies, organizations and institutions sharing a common interest in educational issues which impact Latinos.

 

A critical factor to consider is the ongoing demographic increase in Latinos throughout the U.S.  As the numbers of Latinos in education increase there will be a concomitant increase in articles on research, policy and status related to Latinos.  The demographics augur for both an increase in publications on Latinos and Education and for an increase in consumers of those publications.