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'No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la Gana:' Engaging Spanish Heritage Language Learners through Human Rights Education

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Title: 'No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la Gana:' Engaging Spanish Heritage Language Learners through Human Rights Education
Language: English
Authors: Michele Back (ORCID 0000-0001-9558-8908), Amber Dickey
Source: Foreign Language Annals. 2025 58(4):776-798.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 23
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Descriptors: Spanish, Second Language Learning, Heritage Education, Native Language, Learner Engagement, Civil Rights, Secondary Education, Migrant Workers, Second Language Instruction
DOI: 10.1111/flan.70008
ISSN: 0015-718X
1944-9720
Abstract: In this study, we investigate how human rights education (HRE) can enrich Spanish heritage language learning (SHLL) in U.S. secondary classrooms. Using a mixed-methods action research design, we examined a 9-week unit on migrant labor rights taught in two Heritage Spanish 3 classes. Data sources included classroom observations, surveys, and a focal lesson analysis. While quantitative findings showed limited shifts in engagement, empathy, and advocacy, qualitative evidence revealed that human rights themes encouraged students to critically reflect on labor laws, connect curricular content to their lived experiences, and express growing awareness of their own rights. Classroom discussions demonstrated emerging critical thinking, with students demanding evidence during peer debates and drawing parallels between educational equity and societal well-being. Students also articulated a newfound sense of civic responsibility, particularly in advocating for Spanish-speaking communities. These results underscore the potential of HRE-infused SHLL curricula to foster deeper engagement, empathy, critical consciousness, and advocacy. We argue for expanding such pedagogical models across diverse educational contexts and call for longitudinal studies to assess sustained impacts.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1493627
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0190549425;fla01dec.25;2025Dec31.04:48;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0190549425-1">"No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la gana:" Engaging Spanish heritage language learners through human rights education </title> <p>In this study, we investigate how human rights education (HRE) can enrich Spanish heritage language learning (SHLL) in U.S. secondary classrooms. Using a mixed‐methods action research design, we examined a 9‐week unit on migrant labor rights taught in two Heritage Spanish 3 classes. Data sources included classroom observations, surveys, and a focal lesson analysis. While quantitative findings showed limited shifts in engagement, empathy, and advocacy, qualitative evidence revealed that human rights themes encouraged students to critically reflect on labor laws, connect curricular content to their lived experiences, and express growing awareness of their own rights. Classroom discussions demonstrated emerging critical thinking, with students demanding evidence during peer debates and drawing parallels between educational equity and societal well‐being. Students also articulated a newfound sense of civic responsibility, particularly in advocating for Spanish‐speaking communities. These results underscore the potential of HRE‐infused SHLL curricula to foster deeper engagement, empathy, critical consciousness, and advocacy. We argue for expanding such pedagogical models across diverse educational contexts and call for longitudinal studies to assess sustained impacts.</p> <p>Keywords: action research; heritage language learning; human rights; secondary school; Spanish</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-gra-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-gra-0001.jpg" title="." /> </p> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-3">INTRODUCTION</hd> <p>Teaching world languages (WL) with a social justice lens can foster global competence and provide a critical perspective on the languages and cultures studied (Glynn et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref1">15</reflink>]). Increasingly, heritage language (HL) education, and particularly education for Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs), has been touted as a space for these learners to both validate their identities (Leeman, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref2">26</reflink>]; Parra & Faria, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref3">34</reflink>]) and develop academically and linguistically "in ways that support social justice" (Potowski & Henriquez, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref4">35</reflink>], p. 147). Research in this area has put forth a variety of pedagogical possibilities that could aid in HL development (e.g., Beaudrie et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref5">1</reflink>]; Durán Urrea et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref6">10</reflink>]; Gómez, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref7">16</reflink>]; Leeman, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref8">27</reflink>]). However, despite a welcome increase in research on this topic in recent years, additional studies are needed on how innovative HL pedagogies can support these learners' linguistic, academic, and personal development (Torres et al., [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref9">42</reflink>]). Moreover, while a great deal of research has been done on critical approaches to <emph>language</emph> in the HL class, little empirical work exists on the role of incorporating social justice <emph>content</emph>, such as human rights, on SHLL development. Given that WL classrooms are spaces of possibility where all students can gain global perspectives, the incorporation of social justice topics, such as human rights, opens up more opportunities for students to practice critical thinking, make connections between resources, and recognize bias. Furthermore, the current political landscape makes it more imperative that students, and HL learners in particular, practice analyzing points of view to form opinions and advocate for change.</p> <p>Taking up Torres et al.'s (2018) call to conduct collaborative projects in HL education as a way to bridge empirical findings and classroom teaching, in this action research study we discuss an innovative collaboration between a secondary SHLL program and a partner university's "Human Rights Close to Home" (HRCH) pilot program. Using classroom observations, survey data, and close discourse analysis, we discuss how this revised curriculum played a role in promoting engagement, developing critical thinking skills and empathy, and recognizing the need for advocacy. We also emphasize the need for continued, longitudinal research in this area, in particular with respect to understudied contexts such as U.S. secondary language classrooms.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-4">LITERATURE REVIEW</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-5">Social justice and human rights in WL education</hd> <p>Social justice education, particularly in WL, is an approach that not only confronts and disrupts injustices, but also promotes critical thinking and social change while providing material and emotional resources for students to learn to their full potential (Glynn et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref10">15</reflink>]; Nieto, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref11">31</reflink>]). Numerous earlier works (Cates, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref12">5</reflink>]; Ennser‐Kananen, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref13">13</reflink>]; Glynn et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref14">15</reflink>]; Kramsch, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref15">24</reflink>]) strongly advocated for teaching language and culture through global, critical, and social justice lenses, while later works by these authors (Ennser‐Kananen, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref16">12</reflink>]; Wassell & Glynn, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref17">44</reflink>]) and others (Davidson et al., [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref18">8</reflink>]) offered both real‐life examples and practical strategies for how to connect global issues to students' experiences. These authors demonstrated how, by relating these topics to their own lived experiences, students developed a stronger sense of agency and were empowered to imagine changes in the world around them.</p> <p>Human rights education shares with social justice education the goal of inspiring students to become "citizens engaged in self and social change through knowledge and action," albeit with a particular focus on "addressing human rights violations and enhancing awareness of democratic participation" (Yulita & Porto, [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref19">46</reflink>], p. 225). Research on how to integrate human rights into language teaching had early advocates outside the United States, as exemplified by Starkey's ([<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref20">40</reflink>]) statement that "Language teaching is a vehicle for transmitting [...] knowledge and understanding of human rights and a policy instrument for promoting intercultural understanding in a spirit of human rights" (p. 98). A later work by Römhild ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref21">39</reflink>]) described several pedagogical strategies for integrating human rights topics into the language curriculum, including "exploring and practicing language which helps learners advocate for the protection of the rights of others" (p.19) and "strategies of advocacy speech, such as the composition of highly emotive yet convincing argumentation for justice." Using these strategies, "learners are taken seriously as active agents of change" (p. 22).</p> <p>Despite these possibilities, few studies exist on the impact of the explicit integration of human rights topics into WL curricula. Yulita and Porto ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref22">46</reflink>]) and Byram et al. ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref23">4</reflink>]) discussed how discussions on human rights violations related to the 1978 and 2022 Soccer World Cups helped students in Spanish and English language classes develop awareness of the importance of democratic participation. In the United States, works by Clifford ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref24">7</reflink>]), Pratt ([<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref25">36</reflink>]), and Whitford ([<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref26">45</reflink>]) illustrated how human rights‐related topics such as global health, immigration, and land rights, respectively, were incorporated into WL curricula. These latter studies, while not directly addressing human rights violations, did demonstrate how students can develop critical consciousness and transform their perspectives through activities and personal reflection on human rights issues. In the current study, we explore how a WL curriculum explicitly focused on human rights might encourage students to understand the connections between these rights and their immediate surroundings, foster a deeper engagement with the material, and encourage them to become more active, empathetic citizens in their own communities.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-6">U.S. SHLLs</hd> <p>While definitions for heritage language learners (HLLs) are varied and often contested (Ortega, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref27">32</reflink>]; Gómez, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref28">17</reflink>]), for this paper we use Valdés's ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref29">43</reflink>]) definition of "a student who is raised in a home where a non‐English language is spoken, who speaks or merely understands the HL and who is to some degree bilingual in English and the HL" (p. 38). While many HLLs can produce so‐called "native‐like" pronunciation, demonstrate high levels of cultural competence, and utilize dialect‐specific colloquialisms, they may possess less knowledge of metalinguistic or academic vocabulary. Numerous factors may influence HLL proficiency, including immigration circumstances, parental input, and timing of L2 learning (Ortega, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref30">32</reflink>]). In the case of SHLLs, young people who study in a Spanish‐speaking country, or who at least immigrated to the U.S. later in life, are known to maintain more of their Spanish because they are exposed to a Spanish immersion environment for longer (Parra, [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref31">33</reflink>]). Many HLLs need direct instruction to further develop literacy skills and linguistic repertoires in their HL (Ilieva & Clark‐Gareca, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref32">19</reflink>]).</p> <p>It is also known that the ways SHLLs learn Spanish are different from the ways in which non‐heritage speakers learn it, and, moreover, that these two groups are heterogeneous groups in and of themselves (Parra & Faria, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref33">34</reflink>]). Recent research on SHLLs emphasized the importance of validating student identities and student/home varieties of the language (vs. "standard" varieties; Parra & Faria, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref34">34</reflink>]) and incorporating critical approaches into the HLL classroom such as critical language awareness (CLA; Beaudrie & Vergara Wilson, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref35">2</reflink>]; Durán Urrea et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref36">10</reflink>]; Leeman, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref37">27</reflink>]) and critical sociocultural linguistic literacy (Holguín Mendoza, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref38">18</reflink>]). Quan ([<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref39">37</reflink>]), referencing other preeminent scholars in the field, outlines the importance of critical approaches as a way of "rais[ing] learners' consciousness of how politics, ideologies and social hierarchies are manifested, reproduced and socialized through language" (p. 173). The impetus for these approaches lies in the ongoing stigmatization of Spanish in the United States, combined with the marginalization of HL speakers and varieties in Spanish language curricula and pedagogies (Ortega, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref40">32</reflink>]; Quan, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref41">37</reflink>]). As Quan indicated, one goal of CLA is to help heritage learners develop awareness of ideologies and practices to interrogate stigmatizing discourses around HLs. However, SHLLs frequently state that they want teachers to correct their Spanish (Ducar, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref42">9</reflink>]), improve their Spanish skills, and speak "correctly" or "properly." Although CLA and other approaches have alleviated these concerns in certain environments, standard language ideologies in the United States continue to influence SHLLs. While not the focus of this study, we note that our own participants shared similar concerns about wanting to speak "proper" or "correct" Spanish in our pre‐survey.</p> <p>Research and curriculum development around CLA for SHLLs is part of what Loza and Beaudrie ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref43">29</reflink>]) have termed a "critical turn" in SHL education, which calls for not only the integration of CLA but also other social justice‐oriented educational frameworks. Gómez ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref44">17</reflink>]) noted how factors such as demographic changes, ongoing Latino presence in the United States, and developments in social justice pedagogies can all contribute to the incorporation of social justice topics in the SHLL curriculum. Burgo ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref45">3</reflink>]) argued that a social justice approach to heritage Spanish is essential to help heritage learners "develop positive behaviors toward the maintenance of and advocacy for Spanish" (p. 2). Gómez described successful SHLL programs that utilize service learning, identity work, and civic engagement as social justice topics, while Burgo recommended pedagogies and materials such as storytelling, testimonials, oral history, and service learning that "give students a voice to narrate their own life stories and to work for their local communities" (p. 8).</p> <p>A few studies have examined the role of social justice‐oriented material on validating SHLL engagement and identity, although most focus on postsecondary contexts. Leeman et al. ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref46">28</reflink>]) examined the role of a community‐based service‐learning program on promoting student engagement and allowing SHLLs to become "activists for change in HL education in their local community" as well as "expert instructors" (p. 487). Gómez ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref47">16</reflink>]) examined how a Translation Studies course embedded topics such as sociolinguistics and language justice in a way that supported heritage speakers' linguistic, cultural, and identity development. Di Stefano et al. ([<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref48">41</reflink>]) reported on a 2‐year participatory action research project, in which the authors developed and implemented social justice approaches in a teacher education course and 2 secondary Spanish courses containing both heritage and non‐heritage speakers of the language. With a focus on interrogating stereotypes through authentic materials featuring traditionally underrepresented stories of Spanish speakers in and outside the United States, these authors found that students who engaged with these materials developed empathy and were better able to connect with their Latinx peers. Their findings also suggested that a critical approach to Spanish language curriculum "may [...] inspire forms of civil activism among youth" (p. 772).</p> <p>In this review, we have identified a critical gap with respect to the integration of human rights themes in both SHLL and WL education. While social justice‐oriented WL education is increasingly receiving much‐needed attention, additional research is needed, particularly in the areas of human rights‐specific curriculum. Similarly, while research in SHLL has focused on validating linguistic diversity and addressing stigmatization, with a growing emphasis on critical approaches such as CLA, there is still limited research, particularly at the secondary level, on how social justice and human rights topics can foster advocacy and engagement by linking SHLL's lived experiences to broader societal struggles. By bridging this divide, the current study aims to illuminate how uniting these domains can foster critical consciousness and civic empowerment.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-7">CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK</hd> <p>We conducted this study under the conceptual framework of action research, a form of inquiry used by educators to "examine, and ultimately improve, their pedagogy and practice" (Clark et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref49">6</reflink>], p. 8). While action research has been described as both a theory and a methodology, its core understandings draw from postmodernist notions of epistemology; for the action researcher, knowledge is "in a constant process of development as new understandings emerge" (McNiff & Whitehead, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref50">30</reflink>], p. 18). The idea for this study emerged from Amber's desire to develop new understandings of her pedagogical practices around her SHLLs, as well as to increase her own awareness of how a human rights curriculum could contribute to increased classroom engagement and encourage critical thinking. Together, we constructed a study that would allow for this exploration and subsequent reflection. We subscribed to Koshy et al's ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref51">23</reflink>]) conception of the school and classroom as "sites of <emph>socially mediated action</emph>," and aimed for research to provide "new knowledge of how to negotiate these socially mediated environments" (p. 9). Therefore, the "action" taken in this action research was the implementation of human rights lessons, which were then analyzed and reflected upon to determine their role in increasing student engagement, empathy, and advocacy.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-8">RESEARCH QUESTIONS</hd> <p>Research questions for this study were as follows:</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-9">RQ1</hd> <p>What role does the incorporation of human rights topics in the Spanish heritage language classroom play in student engagement, empathy, and critical thinking?</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-10">RQ2</hd> <p>How does a human rights‐focused curriculum influence Spanish heritage language learners' understanding of advocacy and their ability to connect global issues to their lived experiences?</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-11">CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-12">Participants</hd> <p>Forty‐five secondary students were enrolled in the two sections of the focal course, Heritage Spanish 3. Of these, 36 students completed both the pre‐and the post‐survey, while 30 were observed using the engagement protocol over the three valid observation periods (see the Data Collection section). With the exception of the pre‐ and post‐surveys, all students were expected to actively participate in all class activities discussed within this article, including reading and watching provided source materials, completing written analysis and reflection activities, and engaging in small group and whole class discussions. The focal lesson discussion and artifact analysis, therefore, comprised all 45 students.</p> <p>Students were between the ages of 15–19, with 19 participants identifying as female, 25 participants identifying as male, and one identifying as nonbinary. Nearly all participants (36 of the 45) had completed Heritage Spanish 2 before enrolling in Heritage Spanish 3; of the remaining nine, seven students were recent immigrants to the country from Spanish‐speaking countries, and two students had never previously been enrolled in a Spanish‐language content course. Nineteen students had been educated through at least fourth grade in a Spanish‐speaking country, while the remaining 26 students were U.S.‐born speakers of Spanish.</p> <p>In addition to the focal students, 15 of 22 enrolled Heritage 2 students were observed as a control solely for the engagement component of the study. The control group was observed using the same classroom observation protocol as the Heritage 3 students. Their curriculum was focused on developing an argumentative essay and did not include any human‐rights‐related topics. Therefore, no other aspects of the control group, beyond engagement, were analyzed for this study.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-13">Setting</hd> <p>The high school where this study took place is located in a large suburban town in the Northeastern United States, with a current estimated population of 50,000 residents. During the year of the study, nine sections of Heritage Spanish were offered: five sections of level 2, two sections of level 3, and two sections of level 4, with about 225 students enrolled in the heritage speaker program. Across the entire Heritage Spanish program, 49% of the students enrolled in a course within the HL program (<emph>n</emph> = 110) are born in the United States, with an additional 30% of students (<emph>n</emph> = 68) having been born in a Spanish speaking country but completed the majority of their schooling in the United States. The remaining 21% of the enrolled population (<emph>n</emph> = 47) are identified as English Language Learners, taking English acquisition courses, and moved to the United States less than 5 years ago. The courses within the Heritage Spanish program are taught entirely in Spanish, and 95% of the materials presented are monolingual Spanish materials. Because of the unique nature of the course, each class section, including the two focal Heritage 3 classes for this study, has students enrolled in grades 9–12 and of various academic tracks and goals.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-14">Context</hd> <p>Amber developed the human rights curriculum for Heritage 3 during her engagement and collaboration with the state's flagship university's Human Rights Center and School of Education. The center's program, called Human Rights Close to Home (HRCH), aims to engage school and community leaders, K‐12 educators in various content areas, nonprofit organizations, and youth in the state to promote civic involvement and youth activism. HRCH offers K‐12 teachers specialized training on human rights and rights‐based teaching approaches, while also equipping youth with the tools to build an advocacy toolkit focused on social change. The program emphasizes interactive, collaborative learning among teachers, students, scholars, and human rights experts.</p> <p>Data from this study were collected during the first unit of the school year, the theme of which was "Migrant farm workers, past and present." During this 9‐week unit students read Jiménez's ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref52">20</reflink>]) novel <emph>Cajas de cartón</emph>, which narrated his experiences as a child migrant farm worker; watched Romano's ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref53">38</reflink>]) documentary <emph>La cosecha</emph> about modern‐day child migrant farm workers; and became familiar with the state's labor laws around minors. These primary texts provided a rich background for discussions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the right to rest and leisure, the right to adequate housing, and the right to work. Students were asked to reflect on whether or not the individuals in the texts enjoyed these rights and to provide evidence for their opinions. A combination of written worksheets and in‐class discussions was used over the course of the unit. Appendix 1 offers a more detailed description of the unit objectives, as well as links to the materials used.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-15">Data collection</hd> <p>This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Michele's institution before recruitment and data collection. Several types of data were collected via observation, surveys, audio recording, and student‐written work, as described in the following subsections.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-16">Student engagement</hd> <p>Student engagement was observed using Lane and Harris's ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref54">25</reflink>]) classroom observation protocol (Figure 1), which involves choosing five students per day to observe. Michele recorded engaged or disengaged behavior for each student once every 5 min throughout the class period. A total of 20 students in each Heritage 3 and Heritage 2 (control) class were observed over four observation periods using this protocol; however, one observation day was determined to be invalid due to behavioral issues at the beginning of one period, leaving three valid observations of 15 students per class (<emph>n</emph> = 45). Given the relatively small number of students in each class (<emph>n</emph> = 18, <emph>n</emph> = 25, and <emph>n</emph> = 22), Michele was able to observe the majority of students despite the one invalid observation day. Michele also audio recorded these class periods and wrote down field notes that further described focal student behaviors.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0001.jpg" title="1 Classroom observation protocol (from Lane & Harris, [25])." /> </p> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-18">Critical thinking, socio‐emotional skills, and interest in Spanish</hd> <p>Student variation in critical thinking, socio‐emotional skills, and interest in Spanish was assessed via responses to a 10‐question survey (Appendix 1); questions were written in both English and Spanish. Michele distributed the survey to students at the beginning (pre‐intervention) and end (post‐intervention) of the two units taught by Amber during the study, spanning 9 weeks total. The survey consisted of both quantitative and qualitative components; students ranked their agreement on a Likert scale of 1–5 on questions about critical thinking, socio‐emotional skills, and interest in Spanish. There were three questions for each of these topics and one, open‐ended final question. The critical thinking questions were derived from Kobylarek et al.'s ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref55">22</reflink>]) Critical Thinking Questionnaire, while the socio‐emotional questions were adapted from the Basic Empathy Scale (Jolliffe & Farrington, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref56">21</reflink>]) and the SEL assessment (Education Analytics, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref57">11</reflink>]). The Spanish‐related and open‐ended questions were Michele and Amber's own design; the open‐ended questions addressed goals for the Heritage 3 Spanish class (pre‐survey) and opinions on the human rights units (post‐survey).</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-19">Focal lesson</hd> <p>In addition to the survey and observations, one focal lesson on labor laws and human rights was chosen for further analysis of student engagement, critical thinking, and advocacy, corresponding to Week 9 in the unit. For this focal lesson, we analyzed written and oral responses to a classroom assignment in which Amber wrote verbatim the state law on work hours for minor agricultural workers and translated this into Spanish. Amber then prompted students to write their opinions about and reactions to the law. Amber gave students 10 min in class to complete this writing, which formed part of a discussion that took place during the remainder of class.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-20">Data analysis</hd> <p>We conducted a sequential, mixed‐methods approach for this study to increase the validity and trustworthiness of our study through triangulation across several data points (Flick, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref58">14</reflink>]). For our quantitative analysis of student engagement, we first counted the number of "engaged" and "disengaged" activities we observed as per the protocol (e.g., "listening" or "engaged computer use" vs. "off‐task" or "disengaged student interaction"). After examining these counts, we then subtracted the number of "disengaged" activities from the number of "engaged" activities for each student, resulting in a final number representing the total engagement of each student per observation period. Given the small sample sizes (<emph>n</emph> = 15 for each observation period), we utilized a Mann–Whitney <emph>U</emph> test to measure if students were observed in significantly more engaged versus disengaged activities and whether this engagement changed significantly over the three observation periods. We also used a Kruskal–Wallis test to determine if there were differences in engagement between the Heritage 2 control group and the Heritage 3 classes. Furthermore, we conducted Mann–Whitney <emph>U</emph> tests on responses to the Likert scale questions. Because our initial analysis of survey responses suggested differences between the two Heritage 3 classes, we opted for separate analyses for each class period.</p> <p>Our qualitative data consisted of transcribed audio recordings and field notes of observation, as well as the open‐ended survey responses, the focal lesson assignment, and the corresponding focal class discussion. Michele transcribed the class discussion using transcription conventions commonly used with conversation analysis (CA; see Appendix 2 for a list of these conventions). We term this micro‐analytic approach "close discourse analysis" because it subscribes to both the transcription conventions and emic approach of CA and includes information from classroom artifacts that is traditionally not deemed relevant in "pure" CA. Our analytical process involved iterative readings of these transcriptions, notes, and artifacts; open, in vivo coding followed by thematic coding as themes emerged; analytic memo writing on pertinent themes; and regular discussions between the authors on initial findings. We examined where themes converged among students, making sure to highlight participant voices and important contradictions. Our qualitative data thus provided additional depth, detail, and context to the quantitative observation and survey data.</p> <p>We present these data in the following order: First, we present our findings on student engagement (RQ1), which was tracked for all three observation periods. We follow this with our findings on empathy, critical thinking, and advocacy (RQs 1 and 2) from the focal lesson analysis, which took place during Observation 3, followed by findings on both questions from the survey results.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-21">FINDINGS</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-22">Student engagement</hd> <p>With respect to the first part of RQ1 (What role does the incorporation of human rights topics in the Spanish HL classroom play in student engagement?), we found that the number of engaged activities was significantly higher compared to the number of disengaged activities for both Heritage 3 classes over the three viable observation periods (see Figure 2). However, neither class showed an increase in engagement over time, with a decrease in engaged activities by Time 3 for Period B and a slight dip in engagement during Time 2 for Period D. While the difference between engaged and disengaged activities did increase over time for Period D (Figure 3), this was not measured for significance due to the small number of observations. Moreover, neither of the two Heritage 3 classes showed significant differences in engagement compared to the control class (Figure 4). Therefore, although both Heritage 3 classes showed significantly more engagement than disengagement during each observation, this engagement did not increase over time during the three observation periods, nor was it significantly different from the control group, which was engaged in nonhuman rights related activities.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0002.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0002.jpg" title="2 Engaged versus disengaged activities for two Heritage 3 classes. The U‐value is 0. The critical value of U at p < .05 is 7. Therefore, the result is significant at p < .05." /> </p> <p></p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0003.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0003.jpg" title="3 Difference in engaged versus disengaged activities for two Heritage 3 classes." /> </p> <p></p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0004.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0004.jpg" title="4 Engaged versus disengaged activities for treatment and control groups. χ2(2) = 1.16, p = .561." /> </p> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190549425-26">Focal lesson</hd> <p>The themes that we identified from the focal lesson analysis address the second part of RQ1 (What role does the incorporation of human rights topics in the Spanish HL classroom play in [...] critical thinking?) and RQ2 (How does a human rights‐focused curriculum influence SHLL's understanding of advocacy and their ability to connect global issues to their lived experiences?). These themes included opposition to youth labor before age 16; mixed support for youth labor at age 16; and the belief that education should come before work for school‐aged youth. Furthermore, although students were not agricultural laborers themselves, they were able to relate this labor to their own experiences working long hours in different environments. During the in‐class discussions, and with Amber's assistance, students began to tie these opinions to human rights. Additionally, while not a common theme among students, one discussion group did orient to the importance of providing evidence to back up one's claims. We outline these themes in the following sub‐sections.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-27">Age limits on youth labor</hd> <p>Student written reactions to the state labor law included the assertion that 14 was too young to be working in agriculture, but that 16 was an acceptable age for farm labor. Students cited the danger of farm work ("es peligroso [it's dangerous]") and the possibility that younger workers could be made to work involuntarily ("Qué pasaría si obligan a un menor a trabajar? [What would happen if they make a minor work?]"). One student expressed that 14‐year‐olds lacked agency in being asked to work, even if the family needed money ("I think this is ruthless and very unfair for kids who have no choice."). As to whether or not 16‐year‐olds should work, seven of the 36 survey respondents were supportive, stating that these individuals could help provide for their families ("If your family need the money I feel like 16 is a good age"); however, these same students also acknowledged that this study could negatively affect their school and their health. Eight students mentioned that 48 h were too many hours of work for minors in both age groups ("48 horas es mucho trabajo para un menor [48 hours is a lot of work for a minor]"; "Why is a minor able to work the same amount as a grown adult?"). Three students pointed out that the law was not specific enough in terms of when minors could work during the day, which could lead to these individuals working odd hours ("Yo creo que las leyes deben de estar más específico en el tiempo que trabajan los menores de edad [I think the laws should be more specific on the time that minors work]"; "I think that time windows should be added so that they aren't working crazy times"). Transcribed discussions among students while they were responding to these prompts in writing reflected their written responses, with comments including "no lo puedo creer [I can't believe it]," and "48 horas son mucho [48 hours is a lot]."</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-28">The importance of education</hd> <p>Twenty‐two of the respondents wrote about the importance of having education come before work, with comments including "Don't take your kid out of school, mess up their education to go to work" and that students should "enfocarse en los estudios" [focus on their studies]" or "finish school then be able to work." Reasons for this included that work "puede ser un obstáculo en su educación [could be an obstacle in their education]" and that it could leave them "too [...] tired for school the next day." Students raised similar concerns during in‐class discussions, stating that students could "atrasar mucho" [fall behind a lot] if they also had to work. During in‐class discussion, Amber asked students to connect this issue to human rights. Students recognized that education itself was a human right and important for the betterment of their communities and society as a whole, as seen in the following excerpt at at the end of D period:</p> <p>270: Amber: cómo nos afectaría a nosotros si la mitad de la</p> <p> <emph>how would it affect all of us if half of the</emph> </p> <p>271: comunidad no tuviera su diploma?</p> <p> <emph>community didn't have their diploma?</emph> </p> <p>277. H: siento que afectaría tanto a las empresas como de</p> <p> <emph>I feel like it would affect businesses a lot like</emph> </p> <p>278. salud, los hospitales, si no hay gente con diploma</p> <p> <emph>health, hospitals, if there aren't people with diplomas</emph> </p> <p>279. nadie puede hacer estos trabajos.</p> <p> <emph>nobody can do those jobs</emph>.</p> <p>280. Amber: sí, verdad? y eso afecta a...?</p> <p> <emph>yes, right? and that affects...?</emph> </p> <p>281. Students: todos!</p> <p> <emph>everyone!</emph> </p> <hd id="AN0190549425-29">Relating farm labor to students' own experiences</hd> <p>Students used third person pronouns to describe juvenile agricultural workers; this usage, along with their requests for clarifications about the word "agrícola" and the in‐class discussion, confirmed that none of the students in either period worked agricultural jobs. Despite this, students were able to question and challenge the current agricultural labor laws for minors as they were written. During the in‐class discussion, Amber asked students to raise their hands if they worked a certain number of hours per week, increasing the hours of her prompt from 10 to 35. Students expressed surprise that some of their peers were working over 35 h a week outside of school, which corresponded to their written reaction that working 48 h a week was too many hours for school‐aged children. When asked the same question in B period, several students also indicated that they worked between 25 and 30 h a week. Discussions of this type demonstrated how, although students did not work in the agricultural sector, they did work outside of school, often with demanding schedules.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-30">Using evidence/critical thinking</hd> <p>While not a common theme among all students, a notable side discussion during B period showed an orientation toward the need for evidence to support certain statements. Before the discussion, Amber reminded the students that they had received a handout of key phrases to help them express themselves in a debate. One student, A, used one of these key phrases repeatedly as he challenged Student B's responses:</p> <p>102: Amber: ahora, cuáles son las desventajas de poder</p> <p> <emph>now, what are the disadvantages of being able to</emph> </p> <p>103. trabajar desde los catorce años? discuten.</p> <p> <emph>work at age fourteen? discuss</emph>.</p> <p>[...]</p> <p>107. B: no pueden ()</p> <p> <emph>they can't (inaudible)</emph> </p> <p>108. A: dónde dice, dónde dice?</p> <p> <emph>where does it say, where does it say?</emph> </p> <ulist> <item>109. D: () my history lesson.</item> <item>110. A: dónde dice eso o sea, <cómo apoya esta idea?></item> </ulist> <p> <emph>where does it say that or rather, how do you support this idea?</emph> </p> <p>111. cómo apoya esta idea?</p> <p> <emph>how do you support this idea?</emph> </p> <p>112. E: cómo apoya esta idea?</p> <p> <emph>how do you support this idea?</emph> </p> <p>113. B: porque en las ()</p> <p> <emph>because in the (inaudible)</emph> </p> <p>114. A: dónde dice ese? dónde dice ese? ¿cómo eso</p> <p> <emph>where does it say that? where does it say that? how does that</emph> </p> <p>115. apoya? cómo apoya? ¿cómo apoya esa idea?</p> <p> <emph>support? how does it support? how does it support that idea?</emph> </p> <p>116. dónde dice ese? cómo apoya esa idea? dónde</p> <p> <emph>where does it say that? how does it support that idea? where</emph> </p> <p>117. dice ese? cómo apoya esa idea?hHHHHHH</p> <p> <emph>does it say that? how does it support that idea? (laughs)</emph> </p> <p>118. ¿dónde dicehhh ese?</p> <p> <emph>where does it say that?</emph> </p> <p>119. B: en el texto decía que, tener que no, ()=</p> <p> <emph>in the text it said that, not to have to (inaudible)</emph> </p> <p>120: A: =you're just saying that! hhhh</p> <p>In this excerpt, A used a key phrase from the debate tools "How does it support that idea?" starting with a slower, deliberate reading of the phrase (line 110) and escalating to repetition and laughter (114–118), as well as repetition from Student E (line 112). While obviously playful, as evidenced by A's laughter and teasing (lines 117, 118, and 120), this exchange did suggest that at least some students were becoming aware of the need to support an opinion with evidence.</p> <p>The analysis of this focal lesson demonstrated deep student engagement and empathy, as well as some movement toward critical thinking (RQ1). Students actively questioned and challenged the state's labor laws in writing and during class discussions while relating them to their own work experiences. While some students believed that balancing multiple hours of work and school was possible, others recognized the potential for minors to be taken advantage of if they were not aware of their rights. One group also used these discussions to emphasize the importance of providing evidence to support one's claims, which triangulated with one of the survey results, as we describe in the following section.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-31">Survey</hd> <p>While survey results indicated some slight increases on the post‐intervention survey in student agreement statements related to critical thinking, empathy, and interest in Spanish, these increases were only found to be significant for one question in one class. In the first, smaller Heritage 3 class (B Period), student responses indicated significantly increased agreement with Question 3 (When discussing, I try to use practical examples to justify my stance on a particular topic, U = 59.5, <emph>p</emph> = .00672*; see Figure 5). This increase triangulates with findings from the student discussion during the focal lesson, in which A repeatedly challenged another student to provide evidence for their opinion using the phrase "Cómo apoya esa idea? [How does it support that idea?]"</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0005.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0005.jpg" title="5 Period B responses to question 3 pre‐ and post‐intervention." /> </p> <p></p> <p>Another, unexpected finding was that the second, larger Heritage 3 classes' agreement on Question 4 <emph>decreased</emph> significantly (I can often understand how people are feeling before they tell me, U = 79. <emph>p</emph> = .00328*; see Figure 6). During the post‐survey, more students chose "neutral" and one student chose "strongly disagree" in response to this question. We outline possible reasons for this decrease in the Discussion section.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/FLA/01dec25/flan70008-fig-0006.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNLe80Sepq84zdnyOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="flan70008-fig-0006.jpg" title="6 Period D responses to Question 4 pre‐ and post‐intervention." /> </p> <p></p> <p>The remaining survey responses yielded nonsignificant results between the pre‐ and post‐versions. While Question 2 ("I check important information after reading it, even if it seems to be true"), Question 5 ("I am respectful of others' views, even when I disagree with them") and Question 6 ("I get along well with people, even when they are different from me") all showed notable increases in "strongly agree" responses post‐survey, these increases were not significant. Another trend among the nonsignificant results was an increase in "neutral" responses post‐survey, which was observed in responses to Questions 4 ("I can often understand how people are feeling even before they tell me"), 7 ("I want to take more Spanish classes"), and 9 ("I see myself advocating for Spanish‐speakers in my community and elsewhere"). We discuss possible reasons for these nonsignificant results in our Discussion section.</p> <p>However, student responses to the post‐survey's open‐ended question tell a slightly different story from the Likert scale data. In response to this question ("How do you think learning about human rights has helped you as a Spanish speaker, student, and/or human being?"), many students did write that the units helped them learn about their rights and encouraged them to advocate for themselves and other Spanish speakers. One student wrote, "I can understand what my people had to go through and what my rights [...] are," while another wrote, "I know when and how to defend myself and/or others if these rights are being taken away." These comments exemplified the majority of the open‐ended responses, which were equally split between knowledge of human rights for self‐advocacy ("Puedo comprender que tenemos derechos y no nos pueden tratar como se les dé la gana [I can understand that we have rights and they can't treat us however they feel like]") and for advocating on behalf of others ("Porque de cierta manera puedes ayudar a las personas [because in a certain way you can help people]"). These responses demonstrated an increased awareness about the relationship between human rights and advocacy (RQ2), even though the quantitative responses to prompt 9 on the survey ("I see myself advocating for Spanish speakers in my community and elsewhere") did not significantly increase between the pre‐ and the post‐survey.</p> <p>Other students appreciated learning more vocabulary related to human rights ("I learn more words I did not know") and the opportunity to delve deeper into the history and culture of Hispanics in the U.S. ("It has helped me as a Spanish speaker by me learning how hard some hispanics have to work to provide for their family"). These responses corresponded to student goals from the open‐ended question in the pre‐survey, "What do you hope to gain from your Spanish class over the next couple of months?", which included a desire to "gain a bigger vocabulary in my Spanish" and "learn about people's history and our heritage." Although no student in the pre‐survey mentioned learning about human rights as a goal, the responses to the post‐survey prompt indicated that a large majority of the students were able to grasp the importance of this knowledge and how it could be applied both in and outside the Spanish classroom. However, one student did respond negatively to the post‐survey prompt, stating "I don't think it has really helped me, I don't think being hispanic is something I should care about."</p> <p>Another notable trend in the post‐survey responses was how students positioned victims of human rights violations. Of the 34 students who responded to the post‐survey's open‐ended prompt, 18 used third person phrases such as "they" or "other people" to discuss who they had studied in class or whose rights could be potentially violated. For example, one student wrote, "I think it helped me see how <emph>other people</emph> are treated," while another student wrote, "Me ha ayudado entender lo que pasan <emph>otras personas</emph> [It has helped me understand what other people go through]" (our emphasis). This corresponded to the written responses in the focal lesson, in which nearly all of the students used third person pronouns to describe juvenile agricultural workers. Several of these students also took a chronological perspective on human rights violations, stating that they had learned about "what people went through before." However, 13 of the respondents used either first person (e.g., "I now know <emph>my</emph> rights" "que <emph>tenemos</emph> derechos [that we have rights]") or a mixture of third and first person discourse markers (e.g., "I know when and how to defend <emph>myself and/or others</emph> if these rights are being taken away," our emphasis). Because the human rights lessons covered both current and past events related to human rights, as well as human rights that were potentially impactful for students, such as labor laws, this difference in discourse merits further exploration, which we do in the following section.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-34">DISCUSSION</hd> <p>Findings from this study suggest that the incorporation of human rights topics into the Spanish HL classroom can deepen engagement and empathy and increase critical thinking skills (RQ1), as well as begin to orient students toward ideas of advocacy (RQ2). These findings support previous research by Yulita and Porto ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref59">46</reflink>]), Di Stefano et al. ([<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref60">41</reflink>]), Gómez ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref61">16</reflink>]), and others regarding how the incorporation of human rights and social justice‐oriented topics in the language class can foster engagement, critical thinking, and advocacy among SHLLs and other learners.</p> <p>While student engagement in the Heritage 3 classes was not significantly greater than the Heritage 2 control class, students were significantly more engaged than disengaged overall during the observed lessons. The focal lesson analysis indicated that students were actively participating in discussions on labor laws, including analyzing advantages and disadvantages, bringing in personal experiences, and challenging classmates to provide evidence to justify their opinions. Amber, as the instructor for the course, noted their own observation that, while the <emph>quantity</emph> of student engagement may not have increased over the observation period, the <emph>depth</emph> of this engagement did increase from the first weeks of class, as students moved from surface‐level comprehension checks to actively making connections between events and using evidence to argue their points.</p> <p>With respect to empathy, although quantitative results showed a decrease in empathy scores for D period, student responses to the written assignment demonstrated a strong opposition to youth working before age 14 and concerns that these individuals would be taken advantage of. In light of these responses, one possibility for the post‐survey decrease is that the unit caused students to think more critically about their own perceptions, judgements, and preconceptions, which manifests itself as being more doubtful about their own empathetic capacities. Initial confidence in their responses to the prompt may have been modified after studying the inner thoughts and histories of the children in the texts. However, the increase in "strongly agree" responses for similar empathy Questions 5 and 6 shows that at least some students felt more empathetic toward others post‐survey.</p> <p>The use of third person versus first person pronouns in the post‐survey responses, as well as the outlier comment about how being Hispanic "is not something I should care about," also indicate that more work may need to be done for students to consider how human rights topics affect them personally. Given that the students were not themselves migrant farm workers, and this population was the focus of the unit, several students' association of human rights violations as something that could happen to other people is not surprising. However, 13 of the 34 students did use first person pronouns in their responses, and observations from the focal lesson indicated that several students were able to see how labor laws might personally affect them. A subsequent unit on immigration and gentrification could have a greater role in bringing human rights issues to a more personal level for those students who associated human rights with others.</p> <p>With respect to critical thinking, although there was only one significant post‐survey result from one class on this topic, this result did triangulate with the discussion in the same class on using evidence to support claims. Similarly, while quantitative results with respect to advocacy were nonsignificant, both written responses to the post‐survey's open‐ended question and discussion during the focal lesson showed an overwhelming majority of the respondents understanding the importance of learning about human rights as tools for possible advocacy in the future.</p> <p>Possible reasons for the lack of significant quantitative results include survey fatigue or indifference, in which students may not have reflected as carefully upon the Likert scale questions as they did to their responses to the open‐ended question. Still another explanation corresponds to an important limitation of this study; that is, that only one unit was observed. If we were to look holistically at how students thought about human rights topics at the beginning and end of the school year, and perhaps in subsequent years, then it is more likely that statistically significant growth would have occurred.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-35">IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY AND RESEARCH</hd> <p>One of the primary implications of this study is the value of incorporating socially relevant, real‐world issues into the curriculum. Content that connects with students' lived experiences can facilitate more meaningful interactions with the material, encouraging active participation. Therefore, language educators should consider integrating such topics into their curricula to engage students not only linguistically but also intellectually. This is not only important for SHLLs, who still face a variety of stigma with respect to their language use and lived experiences, but for all language learners, so that they might learn how to use language and knowledge of critical issues to advocate for themselves and others. Rather than a focus on proficiency and the "correct" varieties of a target language, language classes could become inclusive spaces where critical issues are explored in multiple languages and varieties, with the goal of increasing intercultural awareness, empathy, critical consciousness, and advocacy. By exploring these issues, teachers can create a classroom environment where students are more invested in the subject matter, leading to enhanced engagement in both language learning and critical discourse.</p> <p>In addition to fostering engagement, the study highlights the potential of such curricula to stimulate critical thinking. Students in the study demonstrated the ability to analyze complex issues, evaluate multiple perspectives, and challenge each other's viewpoints in discussions. This suggests that educators should design activities that encourage higher‐order thinking skills, such as debates, case studies, and critical reflections, where students can analyze social justice issues and defend their positions with evidence. These types of activities not only contribute to the development of critical thinking, but also reinforce the idea that language learning is not solely about acquiring vocabulary and grammar but also about using the language to engage with and critically reflect on the world. By structuring the curriculum around these objectives, educators can help HLLs develop both their linguistic proficiency and their intellectual capacity to navigate complex social issues. Structured opportunities for students to engage in evidence‐based discussions, debates, and written responses would further strengthen their ability to think critically and communicate persuasively. Furthermore, the gradual development of student engagement observed in the study suggests that educators should adopt a scaffolded approach when introducing complex topics. This would allow students to build their confidence and engagement over time, beginning with more structured and supportive activities before progressing to independent analysis and debates.</p> <p>Perhaps the most overt pedagogical implication within the study is the potential for a human rights‐focused curriculum to encourage students to connect their language skills with civic engagement and advocacy. Written responses indicated that most students recognized the importance of learning about human rights as a tool for future advocacy, which suggests that educators have an opportunity to bridge the gap between language instruction and social activism by incorporating advocacy‐driven content into the curriculum. This curriculum can also connect language learning to other subject areas, thus increasing perceptions of relevancy. Teaching students to use their language skills to advocate for human rights and other social justice issues can provide them with a sense of purpose in their language studies as they begin to see the broader societal implications of their learning.</p> <p>Implications for research include a need to continue analyzing how human rights topics increase engagement, empathy, and critical thinking in the language classroom, which in turn will require a continued evaluation of the overall objectives of language study for heritage and non‐HL learners. An increase in research on innovative approaches such as these will also require more collaboration with language teachers in a variety of settings, including secondary schools (which are still understudied compared to postsecondary contexts), HL classrooms, and classrooms with a mix of heritage and non‐HL learners, which are more frequent in U.S. educational contexts. For these collaborations, action research is a key methodology that empowers language teachers to test new curriculum and assess its impact.</p> <p>Finally, findings also demonstrate the importance of data triangulation; in this case, qualitative data from open‐ended responses, classroom observations, and artifact analysis were able to shed more light on emergent ideas of advocacy and critical thinking, compared to the quantitative results. However, the findings also strongly suggest a need for more longitudinal classroom studies on curricular interventions such as this one. The current study took place in two heritage Spanish classrooms over the course of only 9 weeks; the observation of additional units over the course of the school year would no doubt have deepened the analysis and perhaps resulted in more significant quantitative findings in both classroom engagement and responses to the post‐survey.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-36">CONCLUSION</hd> <p>This study highlights the potential of integrating human rights education into Spanish HL classrooms, not only as a tool for linguistic and academic development but as a pathway for cultivating civic awareness and critical consciousness. By centering the lived experiences of marginalized communities within the curriculum, as was done in the curriculum for this study, educators can create spaces where HL learners see their identities and voices valued. Moreover, this approach redefines the goals of language education, shifting from traditional notions of linguistic proficiency to a broader emphasis on advocacy, empathy, and critical thinking. The findings suggest that educators and other stakeholders view language classrooms as critical sites for social change, where students are equipped not just to navigate multilingual realities but to challenge inequities and advocate for justice within their communities. Expanding research in this area is essential to refine methodologies and ensure that these pedagogical innovations reach diverse and underserved educational contexts.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-37">CONFLICTS OF INTEREST STATEMENT</hd> <p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-38">1 APPENDIX</hd> <p>Table A1</p> <p>A1 Table Description of focal unit with live links to resources.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr valign="bottom"><th><p>Migrant Farm Workers, past and present</p><p>Comprehensive unit descriptions, including ties to curricular standards, can be found here.</p></th></tr><tr valign="bottom"><th align="left">Approximate location in the unit</th><th align="left">Brief description</th><th align="left">Associated links</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td><p>Week 3, after finishing chapters 1–4 of <italic>Cajas de cartón</italic> by Francisco Jiménez</p></td><td><p>Students unpack the academic formal language of the UDHR articles ("intro"). Teachers should guide student discourse to ensure the meaning of each article is clear, defining individual vocabulary words and phrases as needed</p><p>Afterwards, the teacher uses the provided slides to guide student understanding and discussion to further unpack the article from the UDHR, as it is both verbose and dense. Throughout the discussion, students should use the worksheet to document their thinking and encourage critical thinking.</p></td><td><p> Warm up: Adequate Living Standard </p><p> Teacher presentation </p><p> Student worksheet </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Week 4, after finishing chapters 5–8 of <italic>Cajas de cartón</italic> by Francisco Jiménez</p></td><td><p>Students unpack the academic formal language of the UDHR articles ("intro"). Teachers should guide student discourse to ensure the meaning of each article is clear, defining individual vocabulary words and phrases as needed.</p><p>Students use the UDHR "right to rest and leisure" to interrogate the text and find evidence that supports their claim as to whether or not individual characters are having this particular right upheld based on the narratives presented.</p></td><td><p> Warm up: Rest and Leisure </p><p> Student worksheet </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Week 7, after finishing chapters 9–12 of <italic>Cajas de cartón</italic> by Francisco Jiménez</p></td><td><p>Students unpack the academic formal language of the UDHR articles ("intro"). Teachers should guide student discourse to ensure the meaning of each article is clear, defining individual vocabulary words and phrases as needed. Students use the UDHR "right to work" to interrogate the text and find evidence that supports their claim as to whether or not individual characters are having this particular right upheld based on the narratives presented.</p></td><td><p> Warm up: Right to Work </p><p> Student worksheet </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Week 9, after viewing documentary "The Harvest"/"La cosecha"<xref ref-type="tfn" rid="tfn1">*</xref></p></td><td><p>Students complete the worksheet individually to consider the connections between the teens represented in the documentary with our main character from the autobiography, Francisco. Then, they'll unpack State Law as it relates to child labor.</p><p>After students have been given ample time to think critically about connecting our various sources, they'll participate in a think‐pair‐share group discussion to interrogate the rights and responsibilities of various stakeholders as it relates to child labor, as well as its intended and unintended consequences.</p></td><td><p> Student worksheet </p><p> Discussion questions slides </p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 indicates focal lesson</p> <hd id="AN0190549425-39">2 APPENDIX TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS</hd> <p>(Retrieved and adapted 27 January 2025 from https://universitytranscriptions.co.uk/jefferson-transcription-system-a-guide-to-the-symbols/)</p> <hd1 id="AN0190549425-40">Language</hd1> <p> <emph>italics:</emph> English translations</p> <p>regular: English or Spanish original</p> <hd1 id="AN0190549425-41">Conversation transcriptions</hd1> <p>= utterances with no discernable silence between them</p> <p>() inaudible stretch of talk</p> <p>(right decision) authors' best approximation of talk.</p> <p>falling/final intonation</p> <p>?rising intonation,continuing intonation</p> <p>‐ cut‐off or self‐interruption</p> <p><cómo apoya esta idea> decreased speaking rate</p> <p>((cough)) transcriber description of events</p> <p>hhHHH aspiration or laughter</p> <p>GRAPH: Supporting information</p> <ref id="AN0190549425-42"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref5" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> 2025 Dedicated Issue: Sustaining and Expanding Language Education Opportunities</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0190549425-43"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibtext> Beaudrie, S., Amezcua, A., & Loza, S. 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  Data: 'No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la Gana:' Engaging Spanish Heritage Language Learners through Human Rights Education
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  Data: English
– Name: Author
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Michele+Back%22">Michele Back</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9558-8908">0000-0001-9558-8908</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Amber+Dickey%22">Amber Dickey</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Foreign+Language+Annals%22"><i>Foreign Language Annals</i></searchLink>. 2025 58(4):776-798.
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  Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
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– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
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  Data: 23
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2025
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Label: Education Level
  Group: Audnce
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Spanish%22">Spanish</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Second+Language+Learning%22">Second Language Learning</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Heritage+Education%22">Heritage Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Native+Language%22">Native Language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learner+Engagement%22">Learner Engagement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Civil+Rights%22">Civil Rights</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Migrant+Workers%22">Migrant Workers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Second+Language+Instruction%22">Second Language Instruction</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
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  Data: 10.1111/flan.70008
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  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0015-718X<br />1944-9720
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: In this study, we investigate how human rights education (HRE) can enrich Spanish heritage language learning (SHLL) in U.S. secondary classrooms. Using a mixed-methods action research design, we examined a 9-week unit on migrant labor rights taught in two Heritage Spanish 3 classes. Data sources included classroom observations, surveys, and a focal lesson analysis. While quantitative findings showed limited shifts in engagement, empathy, and advocacy, qualitative evidence revealed that human rights themes encouraged students to critically reflect on labor laws, connect curricular content to their lived experiences, and express growing awareness of their own rights. Classroom discussions demonstrated emerging critical thinking, with students demanding evidence during peer debates and drawing parallels between educational equity and societal well-being. Students also articulated a newfound sense of civic responsibility, particularly in advocating for Spanish-speaking communities. These results underscore the potential of HRE-infused SHLL curricula to foster deeper engagement, empathy, critical consciousness, and advocacy. We argue for expanding such pedagogical models across diverse educational contexts and call for longitudinal studies to assess sustained impacts.
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  Data: 2026
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  Data: EJ1493627
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      – Text: English
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      Pagination:
        PageCount: 23
        StartPage: 776
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Spanish
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Second Language Learning
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Heritage Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Native Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Learner Engagement
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Civil Rights
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      – SubjectFull: Secondary Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Migrant Workers
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      – SubjectFull: Second Language Instruction
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      – TitleFull: 'No nos pueden tratar como se les dé la Gana:' Engaging Spanish Heritage Language Learners through Human Rights Education
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              Y: 2025
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