Reconceptualizing Comunidad: Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies at Pomona High School and Pomona College

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Meaningful, Relevant, and Responsive Education: A Review of Ethnic Studies Policy, Politics, Pedagogies, and Praxis

Abstract

This paper investigates the social, political, and academic ethos of developing a non-hierarchical community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) to unite two Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies courses at Pomona High School and Pomona College for a semester-long project. The scholarship on the politics of positionality and service learning (Villenas, 1996; Ochoa & Ochoa, 2004) was fundamental for providing the students with a framework for critically reflecting on their own positions and challenging traditional college-community relationships that are often rooted in deficiency and service models. We utilize a critical qualitative approach to analyze data from students’ written materials, video footage of student presentations and projects, and artifacts from action research projects from February 2011 through May 2011.
This collaboration–-which resulted in a social justice encuentro--highlights the ways in which young people learn in community and build expertise as critical pedagogues through participatory action research, curricular innovation, teatro, and community organizing. Students enacted a community of practice through investigations of divergent community issues which provided implications for practice and research regarding Chicana/o-Latina/o education. Moreover, this collaboration stresses the significance of Ethnic Studies curricula and decolonizing relationships between universities and high schools.
We find that the bridging of our two Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies classes exemplified a close-knit community of practice that buttressed a relational ontological base (de los Ríos, 2013) while also helped students construct empowered identities oriented toward agency through the authentic learning associated with community action (de los Ríos & Ochoa, 2012). Our students inhabited shifting identities that developed alongside their critical consciousness, demonstrating that communities of practice can be more dynamic than Lave & Wenger (1991) postulated. Furthermore, we analyze the nuanced ways that our students present research findings to community members. While some may term their presentations as testimonios (Cruz, 2012), others as counter-stories (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), we also infer that the students’ presentations of their research findings are exemplars of critical pedagogy.
Within our community of practice, we find that students engage in a range of both critical and academic literacy practices, including: video production; community teatro; the use of social networking sites to disseminate information; the development of curriculum for understanding and supporting undocumented students; conducting videotaped interviews with stakeholders; and presenting at esteemed national conferences. The students’ pedagogy and voices are laced by their existential experiences with inequitable schooling systems yet embellished through their engagement with Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies curricula across communities. Thus, in evaluating learning conditions in urban schools and reforming educational structures, this paper concludes that the legitimization of Ethnic Studies curriculum and teaching and the consideration of youth research contributes significantly to the future of educational research, organizing, and reform.

Authors

• Cati V. de los Rios, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Gilda Laura Ochoa, Pomona College