Empowering Hispanic Female Teacher Candidates to Teach in the 21st Century: A Testimonio of a Mexican American Teacher Educator and Doctoral Student

• In Event: Reaching Cultural Understanding Through Self-Study

Abstract

Drawing from autobiographical inquiry, this study explores the lived experience of a Mexican-American woman and teacher educator who is concurrently pursuing a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction in a south Texas university. My intent is to understand how my personal and scholarly experiences in education, along with the dynamic and contextual intersectionality of self-dialogue, gender and race, have shaped the meaning that I make of curriculum. This paper presents my personal testimonio of the experiences and tensions which have helped me find my presence and voice as a minority in academe and how this influences my pedagogical work to empower Hispanic female teacher candidates who encounter similar challenges on their path to becoming valuable teachers in the 21st century.

Author

• Diana Cortez-Castro, The University of Texas - Brownsville