In a Connecticut high school Spanish heritage language classroom, the conversation moves well beyond verb conjugations and vocabulary lists. Students are debating labor laws, analyzing fairness, and connecting their own lives to the experiences of migrant youth.<\/p>\n
The catalyst for these conversations was a nine-week unit on migrant labor rights, designed specifically for Spanish heritage language learners at East Hartford High School. The unit became the focus of a research study co-led by Neag School associate professor Michele Back<\/a> and East Hartford teacher and Neag School alumna Amber Dickey \u201916 (CLAS), \u2019<\/strong>16 (ED), \u2019<\/strong>17 MA.<\/p>\n Their collaboration, the results of which were recently published<\/a> in\u00a0Foreign Language Annals, emerged from Dickey\u2019s participation in UConn\u2019s Human Rights Close to Home<\/a> (HRCH) program, a professional learning initiative created by the University\u2019s Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs in collaboration with the Neag School.<\/p>\n Dickey, a former student of Back\u2019s, had long envisioned weaving human rights education into her Spanish heritage curriculum. When a call for submissions went out for a special journal issue on innovative language instruction, Back immediately thought of her former advisee\u2019s classroom.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had always talked about collaborating,\u201d Back says. \u201cAmber was instrumental in launching the Spanish for Heritage Language program in her school, and when I saw she was incorporating human rights content, I knew it could make for a compelling study.\u201d<\/p>\n As the architect of East Hartford\u2019s Spanish heritage curriculum, Dickey had the flexibility to design units that prioritized both language development and meaningful content. Human rights education felt like a natural fit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interdisciplinary, relevant, and encourages empathy, critical thinking, and civic awareness,\u201d Dickey says. \u201cBy framing literacy instruction around real-world issues like labor rights and gentrification, students are not only improving their language skills but also engaging with authentic topics that impact their communities and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n When the HRCH program opened applications to teachers in select districts, Dickey jumped at the chance and became a member of the first cohort<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter reading the email, I knew this was exactly the kind of professional development I needed,\u201d she says. \u201cThe UConn program gave me expert support, resources, and thoughtful feedback that helped me fully integrate human rights into my curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n The UConn program gave me expert support, resources, and thoughtful feedback that helped me fully integrate human rights into my curriculum. — Amber Dickey \u201916 (CLAS), \u2019<\/strong>16 (ED), \u2019<\/strong>17 MA<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The nine-week unit on migrant labor rights, held in the fall of 2024, grew from an existing text in her course: \u201cCajas de carton\u201d by Francisco Jim\u00e9nez, a semi-autobiographical account of child migrant labor. Dickey expanded the unit with the documentary \u201cThe Harvest\/La cosecha\u201d and research on Connecticut teen labor laws, encouraging students to analyze labor rights across historical and contemporary contexts.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were shocked to learn that kids as young as 14 can work on farms in Connecticut,\u201d Back says. \u201cThat sparked debates about fairness and what children should be allowed or expected to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Dickey\u2019s classes were made up mainly of Latino students from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Central and South America, many of them recent arrivals. While none were currently working in migrant labor, some were holding part-time jobs \u2014 and even full-time hours \u2014 outside of school.<\/p>\n \u201cShe asked them how many hours they worked, and some said they were putting in 40 hours a week on top of school,\u201d Back says. \u201cThat was eye-opening, not only for them but for their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n Dickey\u2019s lessons were highly interactive. Each class began with a warm-up \u2014 an image, quote, or question to prompt reflection \u2014 followed by small-group reading and discussion. Students paused to unpack cultural references, historical moments, and key vocabulary before connecting the literature to articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/p>\n \u201cMy role leans more toward facilitator than lecturer,\u201d Dickey says. \u201cThis layered approach helped students move from literary analysis to real-world application, fostering awareness of their rights and responsibilities as young people and workers.\u201d<\/p>\n The mixed-methods study by Dickey and Back used classroom observations, student surveys, and discourse analysis to explore how the unit affected student engagement, empathy, and civic awareness. Quantitative surveys showed only modest changes in those areas, but Back cautions against reading too much into the numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh school students can be difficult to survey,\u201d she says. \u201cWe kept it short, but we still ran into survey fatigue.\u201d<\/p>\n In the classroom, the picture was different. Observations captured students debating, challenging one another to provide evidence, and engaging in nuanced discussions.<\/p>\n \u201cOne student asked another, \u2018Where\u2019s your evidence for that?\u2019\u201d Back says. \u201cThat kind of rhetorical strategy wasn\u2019t even part of the curriculum \u2014 it grew organically from the content and Amber\u2019s teaching.\u201d<\/p>\nBuilding a Curriculum Around Rights and Realities<\/h2>\n
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