Toward an Abuelita Pedagogy in the Higher Education Classroom

• In Event: Feelin' Myself: Possibilities of a Pedagogy of Listening

Abstract

Objectives
This paper explores the rich pedagogical lessons learned through the counter narratives of my Mexican immigrant grandmother with 3 years of formalized schooling. Through the storytelling (Delgado, 1989) of Hermila Yanez, my 89 year old grandmother, I focus specifically on critical moments in her educational, spiritual, and parenting lived experiences. These experiences provide important lessons,, as Delgado (1989) reminds us that stories can “shatter complacency and challenge the status quo” by opening “new windows into reality, showing us that there are possibilities for life other than the ones we live”. It is from this space of possibilities emerging from stories, that relevant pedagogical lessons for higher education classroom are born.


Theoretical Framework
Drawing from critical race counterstoryelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002) I document my grandmother’s narrative use (Delgado, 1989) from her wealth of lived experience and years working with and teaching youth in informal home and community spaces. According to Bernal (2001) these pedagogies of the Mexican home extend critical pedagogy discourses by “putting cultural knowledge and language at the forefront to better understand lessons from the home space and local communities” (p. 624). A particular home based pedagogy is what Garcia (2008) refers to Abuelita Theology, or the spiritual and religious guardians of youth and the families and particular way of transmitting cultural memory. These home based pedagogies are daily praxis that help sustain hope through resistance to oppression and serve as non academic, non institutional ways of religion and spirituality.

Methods
Data was collected through life history interviews with the author’s grandmother Hermila Yanez. More than 10 hours of conversation were recorded and in 2008 and again in 2010 covering themes of education, labor, migration, engagement in children’s schooling and role of religion and spirituality as a guiding pathway. I began data analysis by focusing on powerful quotes and stories in the interviews, writing theoretical memos, and on developing codes. I relied on contextualizing strategies for the analysis of the life history interview data (Maxwell, 1996). The strengths of contextualizing strategies lie when we “look for relationships that connect statements and events with a context into a coherent whole (p. 79).

Findings
The life narrative of Hermila Yanez reveals several key findings. First, the limited access to a formal education and derailing of her life goal to become a teacher inspired her to take on teaching roles in non-formal community spaces. Second, while being denied an education and a profession due in part to patriarchal norms of the 1940’s, Hermila would not allow patriarchal beliefs to derail the goals and dreams of her children in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Finally, Hermila’s familial religious and spiritual home based practices not only serve as the transmission of cultural memory, but as space that fosters hope in resistance to internal and external social oppression.

Scholarly Significance
This work is significant because it highlights specific home based pedagogies and their potential contributions to the higher education classroom. Abuelita Pedagogy centers and values often ignored home and community based educational practices that students from minoritized groups experience.

Author

• Pedro E. Nava, Mills College