Reclaiming Our Stories Con Pláticas y Fotos: Platicas as Pedagogy in K–12 History Classrooms

• In Event: Chicana/Latina Feminista Pláticas in Educational Research: Pedagogy and Praxis

Abstract

Objectives
The goal of this paper is to offer a way to address a specific issue for Salvadoran-American students living in the diaspora--the issue of not having access to their familial and national history while attending K-12 in the United States. Salvadoran history is not properly addressed in the history curriculum across the K-12 continuum leading to historical erasure in the curriculum and heightened by the silences carried by families that escaped war and other traumatic events. This article centers Chicana/Latina feminista pláticas as pedagogy by providing K-12 history educators with a concrete example of a lesson that scaffolds the process of using pláticas with students. Additionally, it identifies several components essential for platicas as pedagogy: cariño y ternura, engaging in culturally responsive and sustaining practices, positioning students to take an active role in their learning, and honoring home pedagogies.

Theoretical Framework
This paper is informed by the Chicana/Latina feminista scholars who have written on cultural intuition and pláticas (Delgado Bernal et al., 2006; Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016). I put this work in conversation with Guanaca/Salvadoran scholars, Ester Hernandez (2017) and Leisy Abrego (2017), who highlight the reasons for the historical silences faced by Salvadorans living in the diaspora and the need to find caring ways to address said silences. Together these scholars outline the needs of Salvadoran-American students while also providing strategies.

Methods & Data Collection
The Reclaiming Our Stories Con Pláticas y Fotos lesson and pedagogical approach was developed through a dialectic process, conversaciones y pláticas con maestrxs y profesores, thus engaging in a data loop process. This process ensured the lesson and pedagogy outlined were tailored to the needs of educators and students.

Findings
Using pláticas as pedagogy proved to be a culturally responsive approach to teaching history. Pairing photographs with pláticas offered a support system for Salvadoran-American students trying to have conversations with family members who might not normally talk about their familial/national histories. Though pláticas was created with Salvadoran-American students in mind, it has proven to be a useful pedagogical tool for all educators and their students, thus reimagining possibilities for teaching and learning history by reclaiming and centering our stories in the classroom.

Significance
Aligned with the goals of the History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools, this article makes the case for why educators should embrace pláticas as pedagogy in the teaching of historical thinking skills from a culturally responsive perspective. Typically pláticas is not centered as K-12 pedagogy, hence this article outlines how I provided scaffolded support for educators through various professional developments and how I supported students by pairing pláticas with family photographs. Using pláticas as pedagogy in K-12 schooling expands the use of pláticas beyond higher education. Additionally, by adding the photograph component to pláticas there is a particular cariño y ternura given to the needs of the Salvadoran community.

Author

• Cindy C. Mata, UC Irvine History Project