Tu Eres mi Otro Yo: Teaching Critical Literacies as a Practice of Freedom

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Collective Reimaginings: Women of Color Storying and Transforming Teacher Education

Abstract

While communities of color are often stereotyped as not caring about their children’s education, research has shown that their involvement is often invisible to the teachers and administrators who serve them (Moreno & Valencia, 2011). Specifically, among Latinx families familial involvement in education is often focused on preparing their child to be “bien educado”, to have integrity and values such as respect, responsibility and hard work (Moreno & Valencia, 2011). However, teacher candidates and in-service teachers are often unaware of this definition of education and familial involvement in Latinx families.

In this paper, I highlight how women of color teacher educators prepare future teachers to center the lives, lived experiences, knowledges, and involvement of families of color. Using a framework at the crossroads of engaged pedagogy (hooks, 1994) and humanizing pedagogies (Paris & Winn, 2014), data for this study includes autoethnographic journal entries, semi-structured interviews, and critical inquiry groups with women of color who are teacher educators across the U.S. The findings from this study speak to the ways that the lived experiences of women of color teacher educators informs their practice and curricular choices as they develop the critical literacies of teacher candidates to understand the often invisible, yet rich critical literacies that families and communities use to contribute to their loved one’s education. Furthermore, this study reaffirms the need for critical inquiry and institutional support for women of color teacher educators whose goal is to center the lived experiences of communities of color.

Author

• Lorena Gutierrez, University of California Riverside