Jennifer Lucko

Jennifer LuckoSchool of Education

Dominican University of California

50 Acacia Avenue

San Rafael, CA 94901

jennifer.lucko@dominican.edu

Is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Dominican University of California. Her current work explores how the practice of engaging in service-learning and ethnographic research affect pre-service teachers' awareness of issues of educational equity and social justice. Dr. Lucko has also completed over 16 months of ethnographic research in Madrid, Spain examining the role of schooling in the social construction of cultural and ethnic categories of identity among Ecuadorian immigrant teenagers.

Teaching experience:

Assistant Professor, School of Education, Dominican University of California: Courses include “English Language Development,” “Capstone Project,” “Beyond Culture: Anthropological Understandings of Self and Society,” “Applied Anthropology,” and “Cultural Identity in a Global World.” (2007-present)

Research experience:

San Rafael, California: Ongoing research investigating how the practice of engaging in service-learning and ethnographic research affect pre-service teachers' awareness of issues of educational equity and social justice. (September 2008-present).

Madrid, Spain: Sixteen months of ethnographic research examining the role of schooling in the social construction of cultural and ethnic categories of identity among Ecuadorian immigrant teenagers.. Affiliated with the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. (July 2004-June 2006).

Berkeley, California: Research Assistant to John Ogbu. Conducted a program review of Break the Cycle, an after-school tutoring program for Oakland public school students. (October 2001-May 2002).

Publications:

Rendimiento escolar e identificación latina como factores de segregación en Madrid (Academic Performance and Social Identification as Segregation Factors). (2009) In Matilde Fernández Montes y Waltraud Mullauer Seitcher (eds.), La integración escolar a debate (Debates about School Integration). Pearson Press: Madrid.

La identidad emergente de los latinos en Madrid (The Emergent Identity of Latinos in Madrid). (2008) In J. A. Téllez (Ed.): Educación intercultural. Miradas multidisciplinares (Intercultural Education: Multidisciplinary Perspectives). MEC/La Catarata: Madrid.

Racism: A Teenagers’ Perspective. Results of Preliminary Research from Madrid, Spain. (2007). INTER Group (co-author). In Navareme Publications, volume 6. Madrid, Spain.

God, Gangs and Grades: Constructing Identity and Difference among Ecuadorian Immigrant Teenagers in Madrid, Spain (2007). Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

Interviews conducted during fieldwork with Ecuadorian teenagers contributed to the publication of the handbook: Racismo, adolescencia e inmigración: Imágenes y experiencia del racismo en adolescentes y jovenes (2006). Secretaría de Estado de Inmigración y Emigración del Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales a la Comisión Ejecutiva Confederal de UGT

Papers presented:

“Becoming Latino”: Academic Performance, Social Identification, and Ecuadorian Teenagers in Madrid, Spain. Annual Meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe, March 18, 2009

The Dynamic of Academic Performance and the Social Identification of Ecuadorian Teenagers in Madrid, Spain as “Latinos.” Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 20, 2008.

El papel del rendimiento escolar y la identificación en la segregación de los adolescentes inmigrantes latinos en Madrid (The Role of Social Identification and Academic Performance in the Segregation of Ecuadorian Immigrant Students in Madrid). Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Socials del CSIC, Madrid, January 31, 2008.

La construcción de identidad y diferencia: Jóvenes Ecuatorianos en Madrid (The Construction of Identity and Difference: Ecuadorian Youth in Madrid). Departamento de Antropología de España y América, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, May 12, 2006.

The Production of Difference: Academic Ability Levels and Emergent Social Relationships of Immigrant Youth in Madrid. Congreso Internacional de Educación Intercultural: Formación del Profesorado y Practica Escolar, Madrid, March 15, 2006.

Given the conclusions of the previous study explained in the proposal:

There have been observed “a strong opposition from teachers to recognize that there are racist situations on an everyday basis in schools”

And also that

“Teachers are the most important agents for changing the schools”

I argue that one strategy for preventing racism in schools is to include methods in the curriculum for pre-service teachers that will allow them to analyze issues of racism in schools and intercultural education. Therefore, studying the effects of introducing new methods—specifically a) service-learning and b) designing and implementing an ethnographic study—into the curriculum for pre-service teachers falls under objective number one, as stated on page 12 of the proposal:

“To contribute to a better knowledge of racism prevention in school strategies”

Moreover, by contributing to a better understanding of how these methods influence pre-service teachers perceptions, I will also work towards fulfilling objective six, as stated on page 12:

“To collaborate with the interests of schools and teachers”

While studying the methods that I have introduced into the curriculum, I will collaborate with non-profit organizations affiliated with schools where pre-service teachers will be placed for their service-learning experiences. This includes the non-profit organization, “Even-Start” that works with the parents of immigrant children in San Rafael, California. My study will focus on an analysis of the effects of the methods in the teacher credential program on pre-service teachers understandings of racism in schools and intercultural education.