UNC School of Education

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

"An authentically caring pedagogy would not only cease subtracting students' cultural identities, it would also reverse its effects. It would build bridges wherever there are divisions and it would privilege biculturalism out of respect for the cultural integrity of their students."

- Angela Valenzuela

"For it is a very different matter, and results in a very different intelligence, to grow up under the necessity of questioning everything-everything, from the question of one's identity to the literal, brutal question of how to save one's life in order to begin to live it."

- James Baldwin

Blog

Latino Males in U.S. Schools: Dilemmas and Possibilities

Overview

Juan F. Carrillo received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a concentration in Cultural Studies in Education, and a Mexican American Studies Graduate Portfolio from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a native of the barrios of south Los Angeles and is the son of Mexican immigrants. His background includes experiences as a high school teacher in low SES public schools, chair of a high school social studies department, teacher mentor and lead positions in curriculum design.  As a high school teacher, he coached mock trial teams, organized student empowerment trips to the U.S. Capitol, started college access programs, consulted on issues related to adequate yearly progress, and developed a critical pedagogical approach which earned him recognition from students and other stakeholders.

Carrillo’s research includes a focus on Latino/a, Chicano/a education, Latino males (k-12 & higher education), the social and cultural foundations of education, and anthropology of education. His current work explores the schooling trajectories of working-class, Mexican-origin males.  He is particularly interested in exploring competing conceptions of “making-it,” intellectual masculinities, the gender gap in education, and the strategies used by Latino “ghetto nerds” to succeed academically all while affirming a hybrid cultural identity.  Additionally, he is a co-principal investigator in the evaluation of the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate program within Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. He will focus on the impact of mentoring relationships on Latino male students.

His dissertation, So Far From Home: Portraits of Mexican-Origin Scholarship Boys, was awarded the Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to Education. He has published his work in various journals and books including the Journal of Latinos and Education, Handbook of Latinos and Education, the Harvard Educational Educational Review, and in the book, Trajectories: The Social and Educational Mobility of Education Scholars from Poor and Working Class Backgrounds. Carrillo is also working on turning his dissertation into a book and documenting the schooling experiences of Latino males in the new Latino diaspora.

Educational Background

• Ph.D. 2010 – University of Texas at Austin, Curriculum and Instruction, Cultural Studies in Education
• M.Ed. 2004 – Grand Canyon University, Curriculum and Instruction
• B.A. 2000 – Arizona State University, Sociology

Research and Teaching Interests

• Latino/a, Chicano/a Education
• Latino Males (k-12 & Higher Ed.)
• Social and Cultural Foundations of Education
• Anthropology of Education
• Cultural Studies in Education
• Critical Pedagogy

Courses

• EDUC 521: History and Culture of High School
• EDUX 700: Teacher as Researcher II

Honors & Awards

• 2011, American Education Research Association (AERA) Early Career Scholar of Color Fellow
• 2010, The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) Outstanding Dissertation (finalist)
• 2010, Handbook of Latinos and Education, awarded the 2010 Critics Choice Book Award of the American Educational Studies Association (contributing author)
• 2008, Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to Education
• 2008, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Honorable Mention

Selected Professional Affiliations

• American Educational Research Association
• American Anthropological Association
• Council on Anthropology and Education
• National Council for the Social Studies

Selected Publications

Carrillo, J.F. (2010). Teaching that Breaks Your Heart: Reflections on the Soul Wounds of a First Year Latina Teacher. Harvard Educational Review, 80 (1), 74-80.

Carrillo, J.F. (2009). From Compton to the halls of academia: Reflections on the schizophrenic habitus of a Chicano scholarship boy. In Van Galen, J.A. and Dempsey, V.A. (Eds.), Trajectories: the Social and Educational Mobility of Education Scholars From Poor and Working Class Backgrounds. Boston, MA: Sense Publishers.

MacDonald, V.M. & Carrillo, J.F. (2009) Introduction: The United States of Latinos. In E.G. Murillo Jr., Villenas, S., R.T. Galvan, J.S. Munoz, C. Martinez, M. Machado-Casas (Eds.) Handbook of Latinos and Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Carrillo, J.F. (2007). Lost in Degree: A Chicano PhD student’s Search for Missing Clothes. Journal of Latinos and Education, 6 (4), 347-350.

MacDonald, V.M. and Carrillo, J.F. (2006, Jan-Feb.). Review of the book Chicanas and Chicanos in School: Racial Profiling, Identity Battles, and Empowerment, by M. Pizarro.  International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19, 1.