“It Just Helped Me Realize That You Have to Free Yourself”: Latinx Middle Schoolers’ Learning From Chicana Feminism, Nepantlera, and Mindful Breathing Pedagogy

The purpose of this study was to explore, though a qualitative critical ethnographic case study approach, how Latinx students from a sheltered ESOL seventh grade classroom in an urban school context of a southeastern state in the U.S. responded to a mindful and social justice driven seven-week unit informed by Chicana feminism, nepantlera pedagogy, and mindful breathing meditation through the exploration of Esperanza Rising (Muñoz Ryan, 2000). The data were collected through non-participant and participant observation, field notes from the observations, and audio recorded semi-structured interviews. I took photographs of the classroom space and collected student-produced work as artifacts to inform my study. Data were analyzed through a Chicana Feminist framework and Gloria Anzaldúa’s (2015) seven stages of conocimiento (coming to knowing) to interpret how students responded to the unit implementation. The findings highlighted students’ reflective processes through “aha” moments in which they experienced conocimiento that led them to understand what they were learning through a more mindful and holistic perspective. The findings encompassed three overarching macro- themes and ten micro-themes. These came in moments of conocimiento students experienced during their interviews that were in alignment with their comments and behaviors in the classroom and written reflections. The themes addressed a very broad research question by providing some insight into how students reacted to a curricular unit that highlighted student’s reflective processes in relation to themselves, the book, the classroom context, and their overall learning experience with every component of the unit. Students demonstrated they were reflective and critical thinkers by co-creating future learning experiences alongside their teachers

“The feeling of fear was not from my student, but from myself”: A pre-service teacher’s shift from traditional to problem-posing second language pedagogy in a Mexican youth prison

This era of globalization, capitalism, and economic progress has given rise to mass incarceration, as a considerable number of youths in developing and developed countries live behind bars in detention facilities without appropriate educational support. Educators in these facilities deposit knowledge, through traditional pedagogical approaches, under systemic oppression and surveillance deemed necessary for safety and security. This study investigated implementations of Freire’s (2000) problem-posing pedagogy using a participatory action research (PAR) approach through the lens of critical theory. Two of the co-authors helped develop a Freirean language teaching program in an urban youth prison in Mexico, centering student teachers’ critical self-awareness by providing them with opportunities to reflect on their identity, life experiences, and reality while teaching in prison. Through critical, autoethnographic self-reflections of a bilingual teacher candidate on her teaching practices, this study provides insights into how the teacher was impacted by the problem-posing pedagogy and how it was reflected in her transformation to a critical, loving teacher and student progress. This research embraces a humanistic approach to teaching incarcerated youth in Mexico through care and courage by supporting them as students, as well as by empowering their voices and thoughts. Building a learning community, where students and teachers create respectful human connections through dialogue and discussions on language, culture, and lived experiences, is portrayed in this research as essential

A Black mother’s counterstory to the Brown–White binary in dual language education: toward disrupting dual language as White property

There is a rich body of Dual Language (DL) research documenting, primarily, how Latinx students are marginalized in DL programs for the benefit of White students. We refer to this as the Brown–White binary, in which race relations are over-simplified between two racial groups to the exclusion of nuance of other racial categories. This is similar to the ways race relations have often been oversimplified in the United States (U.S.), due to its earlier histories of understanding race through a Black–White binary. In this article, we present Critical Race Theory counterstory research by considering how racialized inequality is perceived and lived from one Black mother in a Southeastern U.S. DL program in a Title I elementary school. Through two years of co-participative storying with this highly engaged African American DL parent/co-author—who also served at the time as the school’s parent-teacher association (PTA) president—we demonstrate a case of how Black families may also be marginalized in U.S. DL programs by White parents, teachers, and administrators. Three overarching themes/processes relating to both neighborhood and metaphorical gentrification of DL emerged for this Black DL PTA president. First, Whiteness was enacted as a property right by other parents in the PTA; resulting in racial battle fatigue, the second theme. Blanton ultimately found forms of resistance and self-care to navigate the physical and discursive gentrification in her school and PTA, the final theme in this research. We also provide recommendations for schools and districts to actively work to promote equity through DL, instead of for the defaulting benefit of White accrual of property