Toward a Queer LatCrit Epistemology in Education: Methodological and Pedagogical Possibilities

• In Event: 44.069 - New Approaches to Queer Methodologies in Education: Engaging the Queer Research Process

Abstract

Queer of Color (QOC) critique is a theoretical, epistemological, methodological and pedagogical framework that employs an intersectional lens to understand the different and shifting relationships between race, sexuality and gender. Within education research, scholars are charting new territories to analyze the schooling and educational experiences of queers of color that consider the intersectional nature of race, gender, sexuality (Brockenbrough, 2011; Cruz, 2011; Grady, Marquez & McLaren, 2012, Kumashiro, 2001; McCready, 2001, 2004, 2010; Quinn, 2007). Building on the work of queer of color scholars in education, this paper discusses what I call a “Queer LatCrit Epistemology” by examining the discursive and pedagogical practices of a group of immigrant Latina mothers in Los Angeles who teach a workshop series that engages Latina/o parents in conversations about queer brown identities. The LGBT Acceptance Project is a LGBT curriculum designed and taught by the Promotoras of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. Applying a heuristic case study approach, (Mitchell, 2006) I explored and made sense of how the Promotoras engaged and facilitated conversations and activities with Latina/o immigrant parents and community members that lead to moments of “queer brown body sense-making” (Cruz, 2001). This perspective accommodated my interest to explore possible theories about the methods, strategies and language the Promotoras and parents used as they grappled with creating new and different ways of understanding and discussing to the intersectionality of gender, race and sexuality. Since a significant part of this study entailed capturing the interactions between Promotoras and parents as they come to understand and make sense of the lives and experiences of queer Latina/os, a heuristic approach also recognizes that the researcher’s understanding of the phenomenon and case at hand can actually strengthen the analysis.

A Queer LatCrit Epistemology draws from both Harper’s (2005) work on “speculative knowledge” which attest to the power of relying on our own “felt intuition” to pose questions and make sense of experiences. In addition to Delgado-Bernal’s (1998) Chicana feminist epistemology, and notion of “cultural intuition”, which is a mixture of preexisting and emerging knowledge that comes from (a) the combination of personal experience, collective experience and community memory; (b) existing literature; (c) cumulative professional experience; and (d) the analytical research process itself. In summary, I designed a method and epistemological standpoint consistent with developing a heuristic case study to examine the process by which parents and Promotoras arrive at a shared language and understanding of what it means to be queer as mediated by their backgrounds, experiences and language use.

Author

• Rigoberto Marquez, Stanford University