Culturally Sustaining Practices in the Rio Grande Valley, Aztlán: Aplicaciones de Ciencia Cultural

• In Event: Critical Pedagogies of Place in Aztlán, Gran México

Abstract

Frameworks

Critical and decolonizing education sciences spurn previous education science’s eurocentric, whitened, and universal aspirations. This notion drives toward a pluriversal and situated ecology of knowledges (Sousa Santos et al., 2007) that informs specific global-local and bioregional struggles. Centering on a “political and pedagogical framework… [and] guided by local conditions and contexts” (Guajardo et al, 2012, p. 52), this study explores a curriculum-based critical understanding of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), Aztlán.

Methods, Techniques, Modes of Inquiry

The essay intertwines personal-social learning experiences of ninth grade world geography students with my own critical learning about place. As a method, the narrative essay is “reminiscent of literary short stories…[in which] students’ reflect…on their lives” (Saldaña, 2011, p. 12). The narrative essay provides a method for students and me to critically reflect on the RGV, Aztlán as it supports our processes of conscientization.Via decolonizing frameworks, students and my intertwined writings provide a means of reclaiming our identities and bioregion.

Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials

The data sources include student samples from a Mexican American Studies unit that took place in the Fall of 2021. Data will center on student experiences created through a narrative essay project: “I Am From/Yo Soy De.” Student art work and writing is thereby situated and analyzed alongside my own previous learning reflections, representing what Anzaldua (2009) called braided experiences. Our stories are critical tools “for identity formation, sound pedagogy, and [an] effective advocacy” (Guajardo et al., 2012, p. 54).

Findings

Our findings expand the work of Guajardo et al. (2006). Our findings demonstrate the critical place-based pedagogies 1) increase students’ level of community based-knowledge and ecology, 2) foster an interest in socio-historical aspects affecting the Rio Grande Valley, 3) revitalize cultural knowledge, foster agency, and shape student racial-ethnic identity.

Scholarly Significance

The use of critical place-based pedagogies contributes to the education of activists and visionaries needed to maintain sustainable bioregions in the future. Moving away from “traditional methods...where teachers and administrators control, to a more democratic educational process...become[s] integral in the decision-making process” (Guajardo, 1997, p. 2). Extending students’ experiences by critically exploring place supports students’ learning, identity development, and understanding of the RGV, Aztlán.

References

Anzaldúa, G. (2009). The Gloria Anzaldúa Readers (Ed., A. Keating). Duke University Press.

Guajardo, F. (1997). Studying ourselves in our schools: An idea/project guide for Edcouch-Elsa
and La Villa teachers. El Llano Grande Journal, 1(1), 1-15.

Guajardo, F.; Guajardo, M.; Oliver, J.; & Keawe, L. O. (2012). Framework for a new political praxis. Association of Mexican-American Educators Journal, 6, 52-60.

Saldaña, J. (2011). Fundamentals of qualitative research: Understanding qualitative
research. Oxford.

Sousa Santos, B.; Nunes, J. A.; Meneses, M. P. (2007). Opening up the canon of knowledge. In B. Sousa Santos (Ed.), Another knowledge is possible (pp. xix-lxii). New York, NY: Verso.

Author

• Cecile Michelle Caddel, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley