Teaching and Learning "From Below": Social Justice Educators and the Neocolonial Schooling Apparatus

• In Event: 26.051 - Subverting "Permanent" Tensions in Education: Filipina/o Americans in the Struggle Toward Social Justice

Abstract

Objectives:
In his groundbreaking book, Pasyon and Revolution, Reynaldo Ileto (1979) referred to his approach for studying the Philippines as a “history from below.” Extending Ileto’s critical analysis to education research, we submit that in order to identify innovative ways for improving inequitable conditions in schools a similar standpoint is necessary. The central purpose of this paper is to put pressure upon the deeply rooted relationship between U.S. imperialism, colonialism, and the neo-colonial schooling apparatus—the systemic and deliberate reinforcement of the colonial condition (Tintiangco-Cubales, 2011). Specifically, we focus on ways critical Filipina/o American educators teach and learn within the neo-colonial schooling apparatus. Overall this study addresses the following research questions:
1. How has jingoistic-like educational policy and schooling provided a nexus for the war between neo-colonialism and decolonization?
2. Despite the larger maintenance function of schooling, how has it also provided opportunities for innovative and responsive forms of teaching and learning?

Theory:
This paper builds upon what philosopher Louis Althusser (1971) has usefully termed “Ideological State Apparatuses.” That is, the ways in which the neo-colonial schooling apparatus is part and parcel to the conditions from U.S. imperialism enables. From this perspective, the neo-colonial schooling apparatus is easily connected to a wide set of political, social, and historical forces. The authors also draw from anti-imperialist critiques, critical race theory, and ethnic studies. Solórzano and Yosso (2002) reminds us that the experiences and responses to racism and other forms of oppression are “valid, appropriate, and necessary forms of data” (p. 37). Therefore, our study foregrounds the experiences of Filipina/o American teachers to gain insight on ways to better serve students and ways to challenge the pervasiveness of oppression found in schools.

Methods/Data Sources:
Our project is a four-year case study of Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) an innovative ethnic studies educational “counter pipeline,” that has nearly 60 critical educators and serves over 300 students in San Francisco public schools (K-college). Our working conceptualization of the neo-colonial schooling apparatus is guided by data from the case study including interviews, auto-ethnography, and participant observation of PEP teachers. Throughout this study we explored: 1) The impact and influence of PEP teacher training on ways they enact decolonial pedagogies; 2) Retrospectively, the impact of PEP teacher training on PEP teachers currently in teacher education programs; and 3) how their preparedness gained in PEP manifested in the relationships with their students and communities.

Results and Significance:
This approach simultaneously allowed us to push forward the concept of the neo-colonial apparatus and how it affects students, teachers, and communities. Our findings suggest that for Filipinas/os, colonial residue (Halagao, 2010; Strobel, 2000) is very much a part of their educational experiences. Thus, innovative and relevant pedagogies such as those developed in PEP contribute to existing research on culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies and can be applied to multiple schooling contexts. Ultimately, the analyses and pedagogies described in our study contribute to how a social justice praxis must include histories and experiential knowledges “from below.”

Authors

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University

• Edward Ryan Curammeng, University of California - Los Angeles