Abstract
The aim of this dissertation is twofold: (1) to focus on Ethnic Studies as a means to motivate students to apprehend their history and, (2) to serve as a potential force that can help democratize society. The project provides a rationale for the birth and history of ethnic studies in California as an insurgent call for participatory democracy that emerged from the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and 70s. It highlights the racism and xenophobia that supported educational policies in the Arizona public education system using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens as a method of analysis (Ladson-Billings, G. 1998; Delgado 1998). The dissertation analyzes the educational and political struggles for ethnic studies in Texas, a state that has become a battleground site where such programs have emerged as a focal point in the fight for a participatory democracy. The dissertation also explores why California remains a hopeful site of resistance where recent gains regarding ethnic studies is an expression of democratic progress against authoritarian populism that adversely impacts non-white ethnic groups, particularly Latinx. It argues for broader approaches to politics, curriculum, and pedagogy that embrace a form of ethnic studies that fosters humanist values, an anti-essentialist approach to politics and culture, and democratic social relations.