Comparative Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Teaching Toward Decolonial Love

• In Event: Revisiting and Reinventing a Feminist Freire: Woman of Color Pedagogies of Love

Abstract

When we define love in Tagalog, love translates to mahal. Mahal means love and expensive. When something is expensive it holds value, therefore when one loves something or someone, she/they place value on that thing or person. Within the colonial context, the colonized places value on the colonial settler and everything they own. Here, the colonized internalizes undervalued notions of self, being, and community, creating a social hierarchy that justifies means for oppression and dehumanization (Fanon, 1963; Memmi, 1991). In US schools, urban classrooms are products of internal colonialism (Blauner, 1972), where American educational ideals are informed by a Eurocentric colonial narrative that creates, reproduces, and maintains social inequity. Consequently, students learn a colonial love, where they place value on a white racial narrative that humanizes whites (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Leonardo, 2009; Rafael, 2000).

In response to oppressive forms of “love”, I take on Chela Sandoval’s (2000) call to complicate the revolutionary subject, where she asserts that the oppositional consciousness of women of color can be an innovative source for informing social change, particularly in educational praxis. The process of decolonization begins when one realizes their humanity (Fanon, 1963), which is witnessed through the writings of womanist and radical women of color writers (Walker, 1983; Anzaldua & Moraga, 1983). This paper analyzes data from a four-year ethnographic case study of the development and implementation of high school Ethnic Studies in a California school district. I draw from semi-structured interviews with high school Comparative Ethnic Studies teachers, participant observation of Ethnic Studies professional development, and classroom observations to investigate how teaching the counternarratives of oppressed peoples, particularly radical women of color, can inspire processes of humanization, specifically self-love and solidarity among students. I draw upon theories of women of color pedagogues where womanist caring, cariño, and alagaan have informed various approaches to critical pedagogy (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002; Ochoa, 2007, Prieto & Villenas, 2012; Valenzuela, 1999; Tintiangco-Cubales, 2011). From these teachings and data collected, I offer strategies for teaching and learning that challenge white notions of caring that are colorblind and fail to consider the experiences, history, and culture of women of color, and students of color in general (Thompson, 1998; Valenzuela, 1999). I argue that teaching and learning Decolonial Love becomes a counterhegemonic tool that goes beyond theory production, when we utilize Freire’s (1970) cyclical process of praxis. I bridge critical praxis with the third shift of feminism, insisting that the psychological, physical, and emotional maintenance of self, community, and workplace is necessary to sustain a movement towards social justice and love. These pedagogies traverse boundaries between students, schools, communities, and families, which ultimately redirects how students and teachers redistribute value in their lives and lived realities.

Author

• Jocyl Sacramento, California State University - East Bay