Chapter 9: Cuban/U.S. Educational Boundaries: The Unspoken Political-Cultural Contexts of Research Agendas

The ways in which we understand and interpret global research literature involving shared educational practices requires a common set of lenses within which to define research practices and paradigms used. Perhaps most importantly, we must recognize and value different political-cultural frames which enable us to articulate and identify educational concerns within our respective nations. Collaborative work with U.S. and Cuban higher education faculty colleagues reminds us that political-cultural understandings are invisible to us as “insiders.” We must define and contextualize the cultural frames that surround our research practices in ways that allow us to illuminate the research-in-situ locally and internationally. In terms of teacher preparation and practice, these contextualizations are needed specifically when we discuss social justice as paradigms of pedagogy and practice. Social justice, as generally understood in teacher preparation in the U.S., is framed around understandings of “other” and often mandates explicit recognition of oppression and injustice around such classifications as gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, or sexuality. This chapter explores and explicates the often unrecognized cultural imperatives that underlie research and practice expectations and understandings in the U.S. and Cuba especially in light of teacher preparation practices in both nations.