Dar (a) Luz: Illuminating the Lives of Latina Faculty Through Pláticas

• In Event: Storytelling and Possibilities, Fractures and Legibility

Abstract

As Latina education scholars working across the country, we engaged in pláticas to explore the relationship between plática and Chicana/Latina feminista (CLF) methodology by asking: How do you do CLF pláticas? What does the process entail? What is the necessary positionality work that needs to be done prior to and while engaging in CLF pláticas? What does plática then mean in terms of our “bodymindspirit”? We troubled and applied plática as an analytical approach, finding that plática gives way to espacios sagrados (safe/sacred spaces); pláticas are used to iluminar (illuminate), to reveal who we are as teachers, researchers, and leaders; and enable us to romper patrones (break patterns) in order to imagine new ways of being and leading.

Authors

• Mónica Byrne-Jiménez, University Council for Educational Administration

• Rosa L. Rivera-McCutchen, Hunter College - CUNY

• Sylvia Mendez-Morse, Texas Tech University

• Melissa A. Martinez, Texas State University

• Soribel Genao, Queens College