Reinventing Critical Digital Literacy to Empower Student-Teachers in Cross-Cultural, Web-Based Learning Environments César Augusto Rossatto (University of Texas at El Paso, USA) and Maria Elena Rosario (Sharo) G. Dickerson (University of Texas at El Paso, USA)
Abstract In the U.S. and Mexico borderland, the cross-cultural relationship is a daily experience. The ever-growing online learning and the digital literacy diminishes the distances and differences. The goals of advanced technology use are to empower each community member to meet the challenges of our current digital divide era. The authors seek to examine this further by posing the following questions: How can technology assist borderland communities and transnational population to think critically about their reality in an ongoing globalizing world? How can technology facilitate critical dialogue for collective empowerment? How can technology create a contextualized learning environment that fosters meaningful connections of real-life experiences as an integral component of culturally responsive pedagogy? To address these questions, they present and discuss qualitative and quantitative methodological findings, illustrating learning experiences, that exemplify and demonstrate how culturally inclusive and relevant educational programs work with adult students.
Reference Rossatto, C. A., & Dickerson, M. E. R. (2019). Reinventing Critical Digital Literacy to Empower Student-Teachers in Cross- Cultural, Web-Based Learning Environments. In J. Keengwe, & K. Kungu (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Cross-Cultural Online Learning in Higher Education (pp. 138-158). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8286-1.ch008
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Reclaiming Indigeneity on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Critical Epistemological Praxis for De-colonizing Westernized Teacher Education Programs César A. Rossatto, Estella L. G. Vallès, roque a. aguon, jr., Maria Elena Rosario (Sharo) Dickerson, and Laura A. Erickson-Alvarado.
Abstract The world is currently witnessing the emergence of a new context for education, labor, and transformative social movements. Global flows of people, capital, and energy increasingly define the world we live in. The multinational corporation, with its pursuit of ever-cheaper sources of labor and materials and its disregard for human life, is the dominant form of economic organization, where capital can cross borders, but people can’t.
Affirmative action, democracy, and human rights are moving in from the margins to challenge capitalist priorities of “efficiency”, i.e. exploitation. In some places, the representatives of popular movements are actually taking the reins of state power. Across the globe new progressive movements are emerging to bridge national identities and boundaries, in solidarity with transnational class, gender, and ethnic struggles.
At this juncture, educators have a key role to play. The ideology of market competition has become more entrenched in schools, even as opportunities for skilled employment diminish. We must rethink the relationship between schooling and labor, developing transnational pedagogies that draw upon the myriad social struggles shaping students’ lives and communities. Critical educators need to connect with other social movements to put a radically democratic agenda, based on the principles of equity, access, and emancipation, at the center of educational praxis. Many countries in Latin America like in other continents are developing new alternatives for the reconstruction of social projects; these emerging sources of hope are the central focus of this book. Major historical change always starts with people’s social movement.
Reference Rossatto, C. A., Valles, E. L. G., Aguon, Jr., R. A., Dickerson, M. E. R. G., & Erickson-Alvarado, L. A. (2019). Reclaiming Indigeneity on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Critical Epistemological Praxis for De-colonizing Westernized Teacher Education Programs. In C. A. Rossatto (Ed.), Manifesto for New Social Movements (pp. 1–88). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
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Approved as Live Virtual Brief Paper Presentation to SITE 2022 Conference Social Justice and Equity in a Diasporic Digital Global Society: Freirean Concepts and Student Well-being Maria Elena Rosario “Sharo” G. Dickerson and Cesar A. Rossatto
Abstract This study aims to improve equity and social justice integrated with schooling in the face of powerful digital technologies. It critically examines educational issues in an eGlobal society. This academic contribution uses public information data from a school district in a U.S.-Mexico borderland context, where transnational students and their families in diasporic traumatic experiences face challenges with decontextualized learning. Students and teachers are oppressed with standardized corporate assessments, which replace authentic learning with institutionalized knowledge. We explore Freirean concepts that encourage authentic learner participation utilizing students’ real-life experiences and culturally responsive teaching in online environments.
Reference Dickerson, M.E.R. & Rossatto, C. (2022). Social Justice and Equity in a Diasporic Digital Global Society: Freirean Concepts and Student Well-being. In E. Langran (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 257-264). San Diego, CA, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved May 7, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/220743/.