The use of de jure to maintain a de facto status quo

Abstract

The vignette we use as the introduction works to define and distinguish the concepts of de jure and de facto pedagogical actions, especially as related to Latin@ education and its relationship with STEM fields. The authors assert that de jure educational policies, which are often legal guidelines that mandate minimum levels of compliance, unfortunately become translated to mean the normative way to implement educational practice. Hence, going above and beyond the call of duty to educate Latin@ children and youth through culturally meaningful STEM practices while respecting, affirming, and utilizing decolonizing ways of viewing science and math is not viewed as standard. Thus, it is imperative that STEM educators who work with Latin@ learners demand that de jure education guidelines translated as de facto pedagogical actions are not enough. On the contrary, de jure and de facto ways of teaching and learning should always consist of a counterhegemonic normative.