Xatli Stox is a Worthy Educator and a Champion for empowering
teachers, with an impact plan centered around building their voices and leadership capacity through communities of practice.
She is a Spanish-English bilingual educator currently serving as a Policy and Planning Analyst/WIDA State Relations Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I fell in love with linguistics and cultural studies in high school. I was interested in understanding languages, learning from other people’s perspectives based on their languages and cultures, and learning how languages change depending on the context in which their speakers use them. I was fascinated by the idea of being able to communicate with others in their language and seeing the world through their eyes. I also wanted to develop the necessary skills to help people learn other languages and experience the same. I had the opportunity to go to college, so I decided to study Philology and Languages.
My career started in a Spanish-speaking context in which learning another language was an asset; a skill that would open doors to new opportunities for a better future. Speaking another language (becoming bilingual or multilingual) was a privilege, and students were curious and willing to try their best to communicate using the expressions they would learn every day. This inspired me to pursue new ways to improve my communication skills in the language I had focused my studies, English, and learn more to show my students a little piece of the world from the eyes of an English speaker. As I went through college and started my teaching practice, I realized my purpose was beyond helping others learn a new language, I was taking the responsibility to help others grow an understanding of another culture and another way of seeing the world. My goal wasn’t to privilege one language over the other, it was to explore with my students other cultures, their traditions, their history, and more, as a way to enrich our own.
I moved to the US, a new context in which the main language was English, and my students were speakers of other languages joining a new school community. They were expected to learn the language as soon as possible to be able to access all academic and social opportunities as their English-speaking peers. It was a rewarding experience for me as a language educator. Frequently, I had to wear different hats that allowed me to help my students and their families, not only with their language development but mainly with developing skills to navigate their new community and culture. I realized then that my calling wasn’t only developing my students’ language skills in Spanish or English. I was there to help them find their place in their new community, support them, and empower them through their learning process. It took me back to my roots, I wanted to learn and help others so we would appreciate the world from someone else’s perspective. This time however, instead of working with my students, I had to help those individuals around them to see them from their strengths, beautiful languages, and rich cultural backgrounds, rather than seeing them as individuals with deficiencies in need of remediation.
When I reflect on my journey and the wonderful individuals I have met, I’m grateful that these experiences have helped me build understanding for each other and appreciate what we all bring to this world. However, sometimes it looks like we forget to be curious about the unknown and be excited about discovering differences and similarities with other human beings. My work with multilingual learners and their educators reminds me every day that we need to develop a deeper appreciation for individuals, respect them, and advocate for their needs “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states. We constantly discuss the importance of cultural awareness and empathy, increasing tolerance, and global awareness. Nonetheless, it surprises me how easily we can lose focus and forget that we are talking about human beings and their rights.
This month, people around the world celebrate Human Rights Day on December 10, as a way to honor the adoption of the UDHR by the United Nations. This year’s theme is Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now highlighting that,
“Human rights can empower individuals and communities to forge a better tomorrow. By embracing and trusting the full power of human rights as the path to the world we want, we can become more peaceful, equal and sustainable. This Human Rights Day we focus on how human rights are a pathway to solutions, playing a critical role as a preventative, protective and transformative force for good.”
What a nice reminder! Human rights need to be at the center of all conversations. The purpose of these conversations should be to protect individuals and offer them a life free from fear in which their fundamental rights are recognized and respected. Communities need to move beyond political parties, gender, and race to focus on what truly matters; that is doing what is right for the future of humanity. A future that brings us all together to figure out how we can be better and not how we can survive.
Language teaching was the path I chose to communicate across cultural and linguistic boundaries and grow understanding and respect for other human beings. I embraced the responsibility of helping others grow an understanding of another culture and another way of seeing the world. Similarly, when we discuss human rights, communities should welcome and learn from other cultures, their traditions, their history, and more, as a way to enrich their own. More than speaking the main language of our context, we should aim at speaking the universal language of human rights. This would help us assess the future with a critical eye, engage in conversations about how the world is changing and how we are adapting to these changes, and how we can advocate for those who don’t have access to the same opportunities. By developing our skills in the universal language of human rights, we would be able to demonstrate to future generations that it’s possible to live together, respecting and valuing one another as free and equal individuals.
As we reflect on what we have accomplished this year, let’s think about how we are speaking the universal language of human rights with our community, our family, our coworkers, and those that we serve. We need to get back to a position where human rights have meaning and we value and celebrate others for their differences.
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