Precious Knowledge and Sacred Pedagogies: Centering Ethnic Studies Principles in Practice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Decoloniality occurs simultaneously alongside coloniality (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). This symposium then investigates ways of preserving sacred knowledge and rejecting coloniality through the questions, what is sacred within Ethnic Studies (ES) pedagogy? What values, principles, and precious knowledge guide the application of ES pedagogy within organizational cultures, structures, and practices? How might decoloniality be mapped from these processes? Drawing from Ethnic Studies pedagogy (Tintiangco-Cubales, et. al., 2014) and Meso-American Indigenous Epistemologies (Acosta, 2007, 2015; Arce 2016), this symposium applies critical narrative ethnography in three community contexts -- the ES classroom, teacher development, and new school design. This scholarship additionally seeks to protect the authenticity, fidelity, and sacredness of the knowledge shared as California implements ES across the state.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 5: Inquiry, Transformation, and Communities

Chair

• Cati V. de los Rios, University of California - Berkeley

Papers

• Humility, Love, Precious and Beautiful Knowledge: Sacred Principles That Humanize Learning Spaces - Orlando Leonel Carreon, University of California - Davis

• In Lak Ech Pedagogy: The Decolonial and Humanizing Potential of Ethnic Studies Pedagogy - Curtis Acosta, The University of Arizona

• Reimagining the Demonized: Centering Ethnic Studies Pedagogies in the New School Design of the Homies Empowerment Community High School for Oakland Success - G. T. Reyes, California State University - East Bay

Discussant

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University