The challenging of entrenched practices and historical perspectives that reinforce hegemonic constructions of teaching effectiveness and student learning are deconstructed through the reimagining of 'La Clase Mágica' as proposed in Generating Transworld Pedagogy. Deeply entrenched institutional discourses that perpetuate and privilege dominant constructions of how learning occurs are examined. Specific attention is given to the social construction of processes that reduce learning to linear, Western-imbued representations, and limitations that have been imposed on bilingual learners. Contributors to this book advocate for re-envisioning educational practices by shifting current boundaries, integrating new technologies, embracing indigenous 'funds of knowledge' as valued and legitimate forms of cultural capital, recognizing and realigning communal experiences as inclusive critical reflections of knowledge from diverse communities, and embracing opportunities for student voices to powerfully contribute to the enterprise of their own learning. The historical contributions of ancestors, along with the diversity of context and content emerging through formal and informal productions of knowledge define the space for various stakeholders to contribute to expanding current repertoires of practice that can inform and eventually transform learning, thus 'generating transworld pedagogy.' Summing Up: Recommended. Research and professional collections.

Choice Reviews

This critically important volume on the international array of La Cláse Magica programs is both theoretically and pragmatically integrative in its scope. It links local knowledge and culture with informal pedagogical activities, and elucidates the program’s innovative use of new digital media to engage young people in transformative explorations that enable them to find their place and their voice in the world around them.

Charles Underwood, University of California, Berkeley

Rarely has a volume brought together as rich a set of studies and intellectual arguments that capture the generative nature of the complex worlds, cultural histories, knowledge sources, and transformative learning opportunities created by participants in an educational program. Readers of this volume will engage in a journey that transcends the linear process of most texts as they interact with the differing conceptual perspectives guiding each chapter.

Judith Green, University of California, Santa Barbara

Generating Transworld Pedagogy offers a fresh look at how one can theorize a dynamic system of thinking, being, and acting that is necessary for children who are, or are aspiring to be, bi/multilingual. The authors of this volume urge teachers to consider not just what the children bring with them, nor what the teacher can provide them, but what can spark the social imagination of what could be rather than what is.

Maria Torres-Guzman, Columbia University

This book offers an exciting synthesis of cultural-historical theory, digitally sophisticated education programs, and “sacred sciences”—a worldview based on native cultures. The editors and contributors represent an outstanding group of social scientists and educators whose experience with bilingual-bicultural students is extensive and highly influential.

Vera John-Steiner, University of New Mexico

Generating Transworld Pedagogy challenges fundamental assumptions about the preparation of teacher candidates as well as the intersections between STEM and bilingual learners. This book will appeal widely to all educators and teacher educators, as well as those who are passionate about the importance of transformative pedagogy.

Norma Gonzalez, University of Arizona