La Malandrina as Maestra: Cultivating Courageous Classroom Leadership

• In Event: 54.047 - Rethinking "Social Justice" Teaching: A Critical Analysis of Teachers' Lives and Teacher Leadership

Abstract

Sandra Cisneros (1994), the famous Chicana poet, once wrote “They say I’m a beast. And feast on it. When all along I thought that’s what a woman was.” Similarly in 1999, Jenni Rivera, who was widely recognized as “the queen of banda” and “la reina del barrio” released the song “Las Malandrinas.” “Malandrina” roughly translates to “bad” and could be considered congruent to other terms such as “chola” and “chonga.” Both Cisneros and Rivera reclaim these bad-woman archetypes which have been used to label Latinas who are considered ‘rough, loud, without class’ or more broadly, women of color who do not perform or adhere to race, class, or gendered forms of respectability politics which demand women be silent, deferential, and soft. This paper explores the ways in which these sensibilities that are often critiqued and misunderstood are in fact worthy of pedagogical examination. I turn specifically to the malandrina archetype because it offers important implications for working-class women of color, teachers of color, and women teachers who are looking for powerful examples of what it looks like to be more culturally responsive to the needs of urban youth in schools.
While great advances have been made in critical race theory (CRT) in teacher education that have begun to account for the commodification (Kohli, in review) and marginalization of teachers of color (Gorski, 2009), this paper argues that the field of teacher training has yet to do for the profession what Jenni Rivera did for banda music - to show teachers how resistance to assimilation politic looks like in practice. As a profession, we have insufficiently addressed intersections of race, gender, and class of teachers as they enter the profession. Perhaps, more problematically, we have yet to honor the experience, perspective, linguistic repertoires and sensibilities of the people who most reflect the population of students that urban schools serve.
In this paper, I use autoethnographic inquiry (Alexander, 1999 & 2005) to illuminate pedagogical principles a malandrina approach to classroom leadership may offer teacher-enablers. Conducting this type of teacher-research in a traditional classroom setting necessitated the use of methods that could effectively document the cultural, ideological, and academic nuances of this practice as it surfaced. To make data-driven assertions, I use bell hooks’ (1995) notion of humanizing rage and Anzaladua’s (1987) mujer mala to analyze qualitative data from the accumulation of field notes, classroom audio and video, and in-depth interviews. All these sources serve to generate grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006). Findings will illustrate ways in which: 1) loudly and unapologetically naming injustice serves as a catalyst for inspiring courageous action; 2) resisting injustice fearlessly is a humanizing practice; and 3) how an ethic of courage serves as a powerful mode for self-actualization.

Author

• Sharim Hannegan-Martinez