Mujerista Space in the Latinx High School

• In Event: Mujerista Politics at the Borderlands: Embodied Epistemologies and Praxis

Abstract

This paper is based on a larger autoethnographic study based on eight years of diaries and journals documenting the researcher’s experiences as a Latina high school teacher, teaching Spanish in a predominantly Latinx school. While much has been written on the topic of urban schools and teacher practices, that literature often comes from researchers outside of K-12 schooling, and not from the perspectives of teachers themselves, much less teachers of non-White backgrounds. Grounded in Borderland Epistemology, (Anzaldúa, 2007; Elenes, 2006; Sandoval, 2000) one of the key findings was the formation of a mujerista space (Isasi-Díaz, 1989) among the Latina teachers and administrators at the school.

Author

• Rosemary Hendriks, California State University - Los Angeles