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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Anita Fernndez

Tel: (928) 273-2449

Email: afernandez@prescott.edu

National Educators Converge on Tucson for the Xican@ Institute for Teaching &

Organizing 3-day Summer Institute

Tucson, AZ, July 8, 2014. On July 10-12 educators from across the country will participate in a

3-day institute offered by the Xican@ Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO), a sponsored

program of Prescott College. Carrying on the legacy of the eliminated Mexican American

Studies Program, XITOs institutes train educators, activists and organizers in the pedagogy and

philosophy of the former MAS program.

XITOs institute,In Lakech: Teaching Justice & Community Organizing includes workshops by

Prescott College Tucsons director, Anita Fernndez along with former MAS Director Sean Arce

and MAS teachers Jose Gonzalez, Norma Gonzalez and Curtis Acosta. The workshops offer a

variety of teaching strategies and methods based in the indigenous epistemology that was so

successful with Latina/o youth and is sought after by national educators as demonstrated by the

high level of interest in this gathering. A focus on activist-oriented teaching and community

organizing makes this educational institute unique and timely for the issues facing educators

today. The entire institute program is attached.

Co-founder and fomer Director of MAS in Tucson, Sean Arce, states, Chicana/o Latina/o

youth continue to be greatly underserved in this nations public schools, as evidenced through

their high push-out rates, persistent achievement gap, and their overall marginalization. The

Xican@ Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO) provides data-driven practical approaches

and methodologies for teachers to meet these challenges head on that will allow for educators to

begin the processes of transformation for and with this nations fastest growing, largest student of

color, and arguably one of the most undeserved student populations Chicana/o-Latina/o youth.

XITO Director, Dr. Anita Fernndez adds, Situating XITOs institutes in Tucson provides a

socio-political context for what is happening around the nation in our public schools. In Arizona

we are faced with the removal of the most highly acclaimed and quantifiably successful program

for Chicana/o and Latina/o youth along with a state superintendent of instruction who has written

inflammatory and degrading comments about speaking Spanish and the disposability of Mexican

workers. We are under siege in Arizona and XITO is a response to the anti-immigrant, anti-

Latin@ policies and practices our community is facing by offering critical, culturally responsive

pedagogy and activist-oriented teaching to educators across the country.

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About XITO

XITO strives to support the Xican@/Latin@ community through teacher preparation, social

justice pedagogy, and community organizing. Arizona is a testing ground for anti-Latin@ laws,

policies and practices, including HB2281, an anti-Ethnic Studies law banning Mexican American

courses in public schools. Given that many such political "experiments" have been successfully

exported from Arizona to the larger nation, XITO addresses the implications of this legislation by

offering workshops in community organizing and critical teaching to counter this trend. Inaddition to workshops, XITO supports the continued teaching of Xican@ Literature and Xican@

Studies in Tucson, Arizona. XITO strives to support Mexican Americans and other Latin@s, the

largest minority group in the nation, by coordinating a viable way of affecting policy on the local,

state, regional or national level.

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For more information on XITO please see our website: www.xicanoinstitute.org or contact Anita

Fernndez at the contact above.

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