Sowing the Seeds for Transformation: Transformational Resistance in a High School Ethnic Studies Course

• In Event: 47.046 - (Re)Visiting and (Re)Imagining Youth (Transformational) Resistance

Abstract

Objectives
This paper highlights our collaborative work in designing and teaching a 9th grade Ethnic Studies course in a East Los Angeles high school. The study focuses on the varied ways we incorporate a transformational resistance (Solorzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) framework into our ethnic studies curriculum.While literature on transformational resistance has almost exclusively highlighted external forms of resistance there is a need to examine the internal transformation youth experience when engaging in transformational resistance--the authors are uniquely positioned as classroom educators to capture these experiences. This article seeks to further the body of literature on transformational resistance by illustrating how youth and educators, together, become agents of transformational resistance through the practice of imagining and re-imagining new possibilities, both personally and collectively.

Theory / Perspectives & Analysis
We draw on Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) using transformational resistance (Delgado-Bernal, Solorzano, 2001) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) to situate and discuss the impact critical and humanizing pedagogies (Freire, 1970; Salazar, 2013) have on youth transformation. The paper illustrates teacher-student relationships of care, love, and hope (Freire, 1970; Darder, 2017; Ginwright, 2016) in an Ethnic Studies course that centers student dialogue, stories, and testimonios as a liberating praxis (Darder, 2017; de los Ríos, Lopez & Morrell, 2015; Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Flores Carmona, 2016)

Methods/Sources
The case study draws from a 9th grade Ethnic Studies high school program using student written narratives and testimonios, classroom critical dialogue and reflections across four years (Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Flores Carmona, 2016; Freire, 1970). We use personal and collective reflections of curricular artifacts and teaching practices employed in the Ethnic Studies program to shed light on the experiences told by students and teachers (de los Ríos, Lopez & Morrell, 2015).

Findings and Significance
Findings from this study provide new insights for educators who want to design a ethnic studies that incorporates critical frameworks in classroom pedagogies and curriculum. This paper offers what an established critical ethnic studies model looks like in practice, and is particularly significant as ethnic studies continues to grow across school districts and states.

This paper also highlights the significant ongoing, internal transformation ethnic studies students undergo over the course of an academic year. For some students, transformational resistance is explicit and easy to see as they join a social justice organization or campaign. And yet other students begin their journey toward transformational resistance in a more subtle and internal way--it often takes shape in their newfound sense of pride in themselves, their culture, and/or their community. While this form of resistance is easy to overlook, it is profoundly critical to acknowledge and uplift because it is the very root of transformational resistance: it is a shift in consciousness that will develop over a lifetime, guided by a critical understanding of the world and a sense of hope. This is the precise place that allows us to imagine our liberation.

Authors

• Eduardo Lopez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Roxana Daylen Duenas, Los Angeles Unified School District

• Jorge Lopez, Claremont Graduate University