Critical Race Feminista Praxis: Revolutionizing Educational Pathways

• In Event: Beyond Dreams and Possibilities—Revolucionarias en Acción as Movement Intellectuals Preparing Critical Pedagogues

Abstract

Objectives:
This presentation highlights findings from the first decade (2005-2015) of Adelante, a university-school-community partnership we designed to challenge and counter the educational system’s failure to educate Chican@Latin@ students. We present our concept of critical race feminista praxis as one way of applying critical race and Chicana feminist theories in K-12 school settings, and outline our methods for affirming the racial and cultural identities of the students and families with whom we work.

Theoretical Framework: Grounded in critical race theory and Chicana feminist theories, we will delineate the development and sustainability of this partnership. Our research addresses the messiness of our collective theoretical and practical journey and offers consejos (advice) to those interested in disrupting the (mis)education of Chican@sLatin@ students. We present the ways that resilience can challenge colonial legacies of educational inequity that continue to deny equal educational opportunity and academic success for Chican@Latin@ students (Gándara & Contreras, 2009; Pizarro, 2005; Urrieta, 2009), and also share the challenges of sustaining a university-school-community partnership in an under-resourced school located in one of the most politically conservative states in the U.S.

Methods: We share qualitative data that explores the undergraduate mentor component of the partnership. This first year retention program for students of color who served as undergraduate mentors for the Adelante Partnership, sought to develop the mentors’ sense of racial/ethnic identity and social consciousness as a method for increasing student retention. In this part of the presentation, we discuss how the experiences of the college students of color helped us to understand college retention and first year experiences of students of color. We analyze individual interview and a focus group data and discuss how ten Chican@/Latin@ undergraduates who participated in the program narrate their educational and mentoring experiences. Using critical race feminista praxis, we explore how students are impacted by this mentoring experience and enhanced their academic success.

Scholarly Significance
Almost 20 years ago, Gloria Ladson-Billings (1998) warned that critical race theory in education might continue to generate scholarly papers and debate, but she doubted it would ever be seriously engaged in K-12 classrooms and in the daily education of students of color. Today, both critical race and Chicana feminist scholarship continue to be grounded in theory and analysis with few examples of what these theories can look like in practice, especially in public K-12 education. Our presentation and discussion of findings, therefore, stimulates the ongoing scholarly and practical discussions of Chican@Latin@ student success by pushing forward a real-world, revolutionary application of critical race feminista praxis.

Authors

• Dolores Delgado Bernal, California State University - Los Angeles

• Enrique Aleman, The University of Texas - San Antonio