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Ethnic Studies (under construction)

** IMPORTANT: PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE- DECEMBER 19,2024! CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION**

Shared Purpose

The purpose of our Ethnic Studies program is to explore student and family connections to our local community, state, and nation, and acquire an appreciation for the multiple contributions to the American experience. 

Desired Impact
Students participating in ethnic studies are more engaged in school and community, develop a stronger sense of self-confidence, improve academically, and graduate at higher rates.
Overview From The Riverside County Office of Education 
Ethnic studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that encompasses many subject areas including history, literature, economics, sociology, anthropology, and political science. It emerged to both address content considered missing from traditional curriculum and to encourage critical engagement.
 
Background:

AB 101, signed into law in 2021, underscores the importance of Ethnic Studies in fostering critical thinking, empathy, and civic engagement among students by providing them with a comprehensive understanding of the diverse histories, cultures, and contributions of ethnic and marginalized communities in the United States. The courses will offer focal points for conversations in the areas of:

  • World View: this is defined as the lens through which people interpret their reality of the world. This set of assumptions and assertions help individuals make choices and decisions and shape values and commitments in day-to-day living. 
  • Scholarship: Ethnic Studies is an academic discipline taught at the university level and subject to the same sets of scholarly standards and criteria as other fields to demonstrate and establish its scholarship, reliability, and logical and factual soundness. It includes a wide body of research that includes case studies, peer-reviewed journals, quantitative/qualitative studies and research, and historical evidence to support findings. 
  • Humanity: this is deeply enriched by acknowledging the worthiness of all human beings, the inherent dignity of people, having rights to freedom and justice, and where everyone has an equal right to pursue self-determination and self-existence.
  • Culture: this is defined as the thoughts and practices by which a people celebrate, create, appreciate, and introduce itself to world history and humanity. 
  • Contributions: explores the cultural contributions of people within the commonly connected religious or spiritual values, ethical principles, historical record, social/economic/political organizations and creative production. 
  • Respect: mutual respect for each people and culture is seen as a unique and equally valuable way of being human in the world with the right and responsibility to speak their cultural narrative and make their unique contributions to the forward flow of history.