Education scholars have long debated ways to address the marginal status of Latinx students. Academic initiatives, such as “Equity and Excellence” and “Diversity and Inclusion,” arose from community struggles to empower Latinxs and students of color broadly. Jonathan Rosa’s book, Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad, offers an important critique vis-à-vis academic success. This book review highlights Rosa’s ethnographic work around the way Latinx linguistic and literacy practices are rendered criminal and illegitimate. Rosa’s book pushes us to go beyond existing frameworks to theorize new educational possibilities.
Baquedano-LópezP. (2004). Literacy practices across learning contexts. In DurantiA. (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 245-268). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
2.
KantorH.LoweR. (2013). Educationalizing the welfare state and privatizing education: The evolution of social policy since the new deal. In CarterP.WelnerK. (Eds.), Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 25-39). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
3.
RosaJ. (2019). Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
4.
TrujilloT. M.HernándezL. E.JarrellT.KissellR. (2014). Community schools as urban district reform: Analyzing Oakland’s policy landscape through oral histories. Urban Education, 49, 895-929.
