Reconciling Language Loss to Ground Researcher Epistemology

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher and Student Identity for Bilingual Development

Abstract

The purpose of this testimonio account is to trace the history of language loss and influence of sense-making internalized from my mother tongue on my epistemology and sense-making as it connects to myself as a researcher. I document the rise in my understanding of my origins as a Mestiza who is “cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems” (Anzaldúa, 1999, p.100). It is precisely in this liminal space of a Mestiza consciousness or “psychic restlessness” (Anzaldúa, 1999, p.100) that the history and collateral damage of language loss is visible and therefore, recoverable as an epistemological vantage.

Author

• Amanda J. Cordova, North Dakota State University