Faculty pair land best seller

June 8, 2026 — DENTON — Ale Babino, PhD, co-wrote “Latina Pedagogies of Care” with a former graduate student of hers and current TWU adjunct professor Rocío Almanza, EdD. The book, published May 18, is already receiving high praise on Amazon’s best sellers lists.

“The ideas in this book are not new. Latina educators, families and community leaders have been living this work for generations,” Babino said. “What we hope we’ve contributed is a way of naming, braiding together and sharing the wisdom in a form that can travel to more people. We see ourselves less as the creators of these ideas and more as their stewards, entrusted with helping tell a story that was already unfolding.”

Babino’s book with Almanza is the top new release on Amazon’s Inclusive Education list since coming out and even made it to No. 1 on the Inclusive Education Best Seller list, a list on which it still remains.

“These numbers speak to the resonance of the topic: teachers are tired, and they’re thirsty for a response that is both honest and wholehearted,” Babino said. “We feel humbled and grateful to have had the opportunity to gather, learn from and help amplify the rich, curious, countercultural wisdom of Latina teachers and advocates.”

“Latina Pedagogies of Care” centers on Latina voices in educational theory and practice.

“When we wrote this book, we were writing as if we were having an intimate conversation with the reader in which our dialogue validated their experiences and ways of being. This book is our love letter to educators and the in-betweeners of language, culture and other paradigms,” Almanza said. “It doesn’t focus on educators as cumulative knowledge and strategies, but as humans who need time to acknowledge their wounds and empower themselves.”

The duo brings a combined 44 years of classroom teaching experience along with insights from their research to a book they “hope feels like a warm hug from someone who has walked the same road as the readers,” Babino said.

She added that through the process of writing the book, Babino and Almanza grew to love and admire their colleagues in a way they hadn’t expected. Babino also expressed how fulfilling it was to write the book alongside Almanza.

“We were surprised at the joy in co-creating a product that was more thoughtful and responsive than either one of us could have imagined,” Babino said. “We each couldn’t wait to see what each other would comment on our drafts. The writing process together was a joy.”

Learn more about "Latina Pedagogies of Care"

Page last updated 5:26 PM, June 8, 2026