The Pushouts (directed by Katie Galloway) interrogates crucial questions of race, class and power in the education system. This documentary focuses on the work UC Santa Barbara sociologist Victor Rios conducted with a group of youths from Watts. The film argues these students aren’t dropout, but rather these young people had been pushed out of school. Victor Rios’s research team, led by Rebeca Mireles-Rios, Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, developed and tested an intervention to help the students finish school, while pushing the school system to provide more emotional support and resources for these students.
The film will be presented as part of a special Presidential Session at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Convention on Sunday, April 15, 10:35 am in the New York Hilton Midtown, Second Floor, Sutton Center. In a discussion after the screening, Victor Rios and Rebeca Mireles-Rios will be joined by director Galloway and Prudence L. Carter, Dean of the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley.
The theme of the 2018 AERA Annual Convention is “The Dreams, Possibilities, and Necessity of Public Education.” The American Educational Research Association (AERA), founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and, by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. AERA is the most prominent international professional organization, with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application.
Rebeca Mireles-Rios is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education specializing in child and adolescent development. She received her K-8 Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and MA from UC Berkeley. Prior to receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Mireles-Rios was a middle school teacher in Berkeley Unified School District for numerous years. Dr. Mireles-Rios’ research examines the educational expectations of Latina/o students and the connection to parent and teacher support. She studies Latina/o adolescents perceptions of teacher support; the role of maternal expectations on education communication; and student trajectories into higher education. She looks at the inequalities in educational outcomes to understand the processes that can potentially increase Latina/o high school student college enrollment and retention rates.