Testimonio as Pedagogy on the U.S.-Mexican Border

• In Event: Testimonio as Curriculum and Pedagogy: Toward an Understanding of Hispanophone Cultural and Educational Traditions

Abstract

This paper explores the use of testimonio as autobiographical pedagogy for engaging students in academic learning along the US-Mexican border. As Bigelow (2006) states, “immigration and the border offer rich possibilities for students,” it is learning about “them and us” (p.125).

Working with testimonio as perspective on classroom pedagogy, this study provides an answer to the following questions: How can transnational students living in Matamoros, Tamaulipas and studying in Brownsville, Texas integrate themselves into classrooms yet at the same time critically engage a culture of privilege in the United States? How can teachers create a classroom environment that is conducive to learning despite different pedagogical and curricular structures that often work toward subtraction of their cultures (Valenzuela, 1999; Valenzuela & McNeil, 2000)? Testimonio, often understood as historical literary genre for social justice, also contains potential dimensions for pedagogical practices in classrooms (Valenzuela, 2005). This study develops and investigates an intervention focused on critical uses of testimonio for social justice in South Texas classrooms.

Using critical ethnography described by Kincheloe and McLaren (2002), the purpose of this research is to: 1) explore the lived curriculum of U.S./Mexico border through testimonio and its intersection with curricular practices of schooling in a local, border context and 2) connect local curricular and pedagogical practices to larger, transnational curricular issues. Studying two classroom interventions based on students’ reading and writing of testimonio as curriculum and pedagogy, this critical ethnography collected data in three ways: field notes, transcribed recordings of classroom interactions, and students’ classroom work. Additionally, my own educational testimonio recollections, developed in reflecting on the classrooms, formed a fourth data source.
The provisional findings suggest that students have become accustomed to being a transnational minority group. Reading and writing testimonio, in contrast, provided a pedagogical rallying point for transnational students in which students:

1.Identified themselves in the curriculum;

2.Made critical connection between literatures read, writing developed, their lives; and,

3.Showed increased engagement in academic assignments.

Testimonio can be developed as a powerful pedagogical tool that allows students to integrate their cultural capital into classrooms. Testimonio narratives of transnational students and their families allow not only their stories to be heard, but they also present an opportunity for educators to find new ways of promoting cultural capital within a minority group.

References

Bigelow, B. (2006). The Line Between Us: Teaching about the border and Mexican immigration.
Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking schools.

Kincheloe, J. & McLaren, P. (2002). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In E.T.
Trueba & Y. Zou Ethnography in schools. New York: NY: Rowman & Littlefield.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Valenzuela, A. (2005). Voice, presence and community: challenging the master narrative. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 18(2), pp. 139-146.

Valenzuela, A. & McNeil, L. (2000). The harmful impact of TAAS system testing in Texas. Beneath the accountability rhetoric. ERIC document: 443872

Author

• Luz Evelin Zuniga, The University of Texas - Brownsville