ABSTRACT
Th e summons to change educational practices in the face of continued Latino student under achievement is not to be ignored. Collectively, this volume of leading edge research, that seeks to build upon decades of scholarship and practice, affi rms a clarion call for a continuation of nuanced understandings which capture the unique personal sensibilities and academic approaches required to dislodge seemingly intractable obstacles to full Latino educational realization. In this section we have been called upon to translate such calls in ways that might be helpful in understanding the “education” issues regarding the language and culture of our Latino students, families and communities and the broader social context in which that language and culture reside. Indeed, as the following chapters will evidence, the imposition of social context presents an inescapable dynamic that frequently informs the educational circumstances in which Latinos learn…In so doing, we have provided in this section extensive educational overviews of these issues by a well regarded set of colleagues working in this area. In this introduction, we have called upon a summary of the following chapter contributions that use a particular mnemonic, “remember the fi ve R’s.” For this section, we as editors, suggest that the scholarly contributions contained within this section conclude that educational programs, initiatives, strategies, and policies that assist Latino students and attend to their language and culture are: Respectful, Responsive, Responsible, Resourceful, and Reasonable.
