Testimonios as Pedagogical Tool in the Two-Way Bilingual Education Classroom

• In Event: 18.039 - Critically Engaged Educational Research: Leveraging Creative and Collaborative Pedagogies for Transformative Change

Abstract

Purpose
This study highlights the integration of “testimonios” (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012) from parents and community members in a classroom study about gentrification in a fifth-grade Two-Way Bilingual Education (TWBE) classroom in Central Texas. The “generative theme” (Freire, 1968) of gentrification was impacting the community and TWBE program, which prompted the urgency for the researcher and classroom teacher to design and implement the study.

Theoretical Framework
Critical scholars are calling for a “reissuing” of Valdés’s (1997) “cautionary note” on TWBE due to the neoliberal processes impacting these programs (Author, 2018). These processes have contributed to the “whitening” (Flores & García, 2017) and “gentrification” (Valdez et al., 2016) of TWBE, programs that are rapidly growing due to the surging interest of white middle-class families. These processes have also engendered a call from the recent edition of the Guiding Principles for Dual Language to center equity and promote social justice in TWBE (Howard et al., 2018) and to incorporate a fourth ‘pillar’ of TWBE around the development of critical consciousness (Author, 2017). A key element in operationalizing critical consciousness in TWBE is through a humanizing pedagogy that interrogates power “by creating intentional spaces for historically marginalized or subjugated voices to emerge and to be centered in the classroom” (Author, in press). This study offers an example of humanizing pedagogy by integrating testimonios as a pedagogical tool in a unit about gentrification.

Methods and Data Sources
The study was part of a nine-month critical ethnography (Madison, 2012; Palmer & Caldas, 2015) that focused on the impact of gentrification at the schoolwide level, and explored how a fifth-grade teacher centered the interests and realities of her Latinx students and families amidst gentrification processes that were pushing these families to the margins of the city. The teacher played a crucial role in the data analysis process, as she was an “anthropological confidant” (Foley & Valenzuela, 2005) who collaborated intimately with the researcher in making sense of data at the schoolwide and classroom levels. Data sources included field notes, student interviews, and student blog posts during the gentrification unit.

Results
Findings revealed students’ nuanced understanding of how gentrification processes were impacting their realities at macro- and micro-levels. Students engaged in critical listening (Nancy, 2007) around testimonios from minoritized populations, which provided opportunities for students to historicize local narratives in their communities (Darder, 1991/2012). Through the centering of subaltern voices, students from the dominant group gained powerful insights into the challenges faced by those directly affected by gentrification (Author, in press).

Scholarly Significance
This study highlights how a TWBE classroom teacher and researcher collaborated on a unit around the “generative theme” of gentrification and centered the fourth pillar of TWBE with the goal of fostering critical consciousness. As TWBE programs continue to proliferate due to the surging interest of white middle-class families, it is crucial to ethnographically document how a teacher and researcher can center the realities and interests of minoritized populations as a vehicle to promote critical consciousness for all.

Authors

• Dan Heiman, University of North Texas

• Michelle Yanes, University of Toronto