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by Ale Babino (Author), Rocío Almanza (Author)
Despite decades of educational reform, many teachers and students still remain under-resourced and underserved-academically, materially, and spiritually. In this important new book, award-winning educators Ale Babino and Rocío Almanza show how teachers can reclaim their humanity in a system that oscillates between toxic positivity and cynical despair with Latina Pedagagogies of Care, or teaching with cariño.
Rooted in Latina/Chicana feminist wisdom, this book introduces seven liberatory principles that re-center teaching as an act of communal healing and transformative justice. With stories, dichos, and time-tested strategies, Babino and Almanza invite readers to name the pain of the herida abierta--the open wound of educational harms--and respond with care that re-humanizes and re-tools both students and their teachers. They offer actionable strategies you can try in your own classroom and in community connected to Latines' voices and experiences so often sidelined in educational theory and practice.
Educators, teacher educators, and scholars alike will benefit from this book's tender witness, personal testimony, and pedagogical tools. The authors join readers on their path toward a more wholehearted and honest teaching practice for themselves and the students they serve.
Author Biography
Alexandra (Ale) Babino, Ph.D., is, above all, a maestra. For over twenty years, she has worked alongside bilingual students, families, and communities with the expressed purpose to nurture their biliteracies, identities, and agency with cariño. She currently serves as an Associate Professor as part of the Multilingual and Multicultural Studies (MMS) program at Texas Woman's University. Across roles, her work invites educators to cultivate spaces where cariño and empowerment grow together--fostering both individual and collective flourishing.
Rocío Almanza, Ed.D. is a kindergarten teacher and adjunct professor at Texas Woman's University. Over the past 24 years, she has received multiple awards for her teaching of students and district teachers. Her personal experience as a sequential bilingual and twice immigrant allows her to embrace the dualities of her students and colleagues. Rocío's students are her cariños which is an echo of her abuelita's words and the legacy that lives through her.
