Critical Mixed Consciousness Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning Through Mixed-Heritage Counternarratives

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Decolonizing Evaluation: Case Studies of a Critical Framework of Review on Culturally and Community-Responsive Curricula

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to engage in critical dialogue about the current discussion of the intersections of racial identity within education. This study deconstructs the boundaries and hierarchies of identity as constructed under the oppressive system of white supremacy. Utilizing the process of critical praxis, this study redefines identity within, between and beyond “borderlands” through the examination of mixed heritage identities and experiences. By centering mixed heritage experiences, essentialized constructions of identity are challenged and mixed heritage voices are given a space within academia. This study opens a dialogue of the heterogeneity among mixed heritage identities thus deconstructing essentialized notions of mixed heritage narratives as well as providing a space to challenge power hierarchies of identity as constructed within the oppressive systems of white supremacy. Through an examination of the current discourse around race within education, this study challenges the current focus on monoracism and pushes toward a critical analysis of the oppressive system of white supremacy. Thus, a critical analysis of the intersections of identity is necessary to deconstruct identity within white supremacy and understand how people of color experience and challenge the systems of white supremacy within and beyond education.

Through the development of a Critical Mixed Consciousness Pedagogy and a production of Critical Mixed Heritage Experiences curriculum, this study opens a space within education to deconstruct systems of white supremacy while reconstructing identity through the teaching and learning of mixed heritage counternarratives. Critical mixed consciousness provides a lens to challenge the construction of identity as static, compartmentalized, and singular. The pedagogy and curriculum developed within this study work toward the decolonization of identity in order for people of color to learn self-love and community. This study offers a resource to educators to open a dialogue centering on the lived experiences of mixed heritage people of color. Students and teachers can open a dialogue to understand the hegemonic system of race as a strategy to maintain oppressive power hierarchies of white supremacy.

One of the key pieces to critical praxis is the process of reflection. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the pedagogy and curriculum developed within this study, it is necessary to frame the evaluation within a critical praxis context. Utilizing the Critical Framework of Review developed by Halagao, Tintiangco-Cubales, Cordova (2009), this study provides a critical evaluation of the critical mixed consciousness pedagogy and curriculum. The framework provides a critical lens that engages a dialogue analyzing the effectiveness of curricula specifically utilizing critical pedagogy. Since critical mixed consciousness pedagogy and curriculum is rooted within the framework of critical pedagogy, the framework engages a dialogue that can guide the pedagogy and curriculum within this study to be culturally and community responsive in any context. Thus, the pedagogy and curriculum can be an effective resource within education to challenge white supremacy and reconstruct identity to recognize and acknowledge the lived experiences of communities of color.

Author

• Angelique Lobo, San Francisco State University