November 29, 2014 - 19:22
Living in a developed country and not having to worry about my citizenship status as a first-generation American, I sometimes overlook the importance that capital holds. However, learning that I could group and name the different factors, now known as capital, that influence my life daily enables me to fully take advantage of the capital I have in my life.
Oddly enough, I created my curriculum, pedagogy project around immigrant, first-generation students and capital. Capital is a phenomena that was created for the privileged, however it has been redefined, expanded, and molded to be more inclusive. What makes Huber’s article so intriguing is the fact that they gave background information in respect to Chicana immigration and then reinforced/adjusted the different forms of capital according to real student experiences. Huber’s selection of students was also very strategic in respect to their research. They found the most marginalized bunch within an already marginalized community and followed them closely to discover why and how capital plays a role in their education as female immigrants. Salas only reaffirmed this thinking by following a marginalized group that was already successful and asking them how capital influenced their lives.
I think that understanding the importance that capital plays in immigrants, POC, and others’ lives is very important in reshaping education. Huber’s mention of Malcolm X and Malcolm’s ideology of having a world where everyone is granted equal human rights further reinforces the importance for capital recognition. Capital is very important, and once we recognize the importance it plays in the daily lives of underprivileged students we can fully understand why we need to look at education through a human rights perspective.