Designing for Equity
Mr. Sundays: A Latino Teacher's Exploration
Marco Dominguez
English Teacher
Desert Ridge High School
in Phoenix, Arizona
Topics
Together, educators are doing the reimagining and reinvention work necessary to make true educational equity possible. Student-centered learning advances equity when it values social and emotional growth alongside academic achievement, takes a cultural lens on strengths and competencies, and equips students with the power and skills to address injustice in their schools and communities.
For many students, I have been the first and only Latino teacher they will ever have. There is a great sadness in this.
In Arizona, almost 50 percent of students are Latino; only 13 percent of their teachers identify as Latino. For many students, I have been the first and only Latino teacher they will ever have. There is a great sadness in this.
I'm here. Make room for me on your campus. Make room for more of me, for Latino teachers, because we are here to teach students that need representation.
Teachers’ voices are often not heard beyond the classroom and are critical to shaping the public’s understanding of the education system and the need to reimagine learning. In partnership with CommunityShare, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, The University of Arizona Poetry Center, and City Center for Collaborative Learning, Creative Narrations offered a four-day professional development session on digital storytelling for classroom teachers. Each participant completed a digital story highlighting his or her own experience as learners, teachers, and education advocates. These stories are intended to spark wider community engagement and ongoing conversation around how to create a healthier system for learning.
Marco Dominguez
English Teacher, Desert Ridge High School
Marco A. Dominguez studied at East Los Angeles Community College, Northern Michigan University, and Texas Tech University and has published poems in Indiana Review, Rattle, Willow Springs, and various other literary journals. He currently teaches English, Creative Writing, and Speech and Debate at Desert Ridge High School in Arizona, where he lives with velociraptor wife and two unicorn children.
