Status of the Historiography of Chicano Education: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract

In the last two decades the field of social history, including the study of ethnic minorities and education, has undergone a renaissance. Historical studies, for example, have expanded traditional notions of the concept to include all institutions that educate, have provided critical interpretations of the public school's evolution and function in an advanced capitalist society, and have shed new light on continuing issues in American education.' Historical studies on ethnic minority groups, and especially Chicanos, have also been done, many of them by minority group members themselves. These new published works have increased our understanding of the process of immigration, illuminated the nature of conflict-racial, cultural, social, economic-in the Chicano community, and provided data on the origins and development of Chicano barrios throughout the Southwest.2 Despite the renaissance in the historical studies of both minorities and public education in the United States, little has been written on the educational past of Chicanos. As