Battling White-Washed, Watered-Down Histories Through Testimonio Pedagogy

• In Event: Ethnic Studies Access, Impacts, and Empowerment in a Time of Political Opposition and Erasure

Abstract

Objective
In Arizona, teachers could face a $5,000 penalty for merely having classroom discussions on topics such as racism (Pitzl, 2021), while in Florida, a teacher was terminated because her “entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter” (Bloch, 2021). Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a catch all phrase for any teacher who tackles racial inequity, promotes counterstorytelling (Solórzano, 1997) and incorporates culturally sustaining, revitalizing and emancipatory pedagogies (McCarty & Lee, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2014; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). State bills attacking CRT are using the same playbook utilized in Tucson where the Mexican American Studies program was considered a divisive propaganda program (Anderson, 2016), and recently in California, where a draft of the newly proposed ethnic studies (ES) curriculum was criticized for veering too much toward a progressive agenda (Goldstein, 2019). This paper examines how ES teachers utilize their curriculum to empower, heal, and liberate through testimonio pedagogy.
Framework
This study utilizes theory in the flesh (Moraga & Anzaldua, 2002) which allows for an explicitly racialized feminist approach to construct knowledge from the body, one’s lived experiences, and specifically Chicana subjectivities. Theory in the flesh emphasizes “the physical realities of our lives” (p. 21) and asserts that knowledge is produced through our bodies since it is a discursive site of knowledge that brings together mind, body and spirit to challenge dominant power. It is fundamental to understanding how ES teachers engage counter hegemonic curricular constructs and center a curriculum tied to the physical and lived realities of youth of color.
Data Collection and Analysis
Testimonio was utilized as a methodological approach to capture collective, political acts of resistance (Anzaldua, 1990). The main sources of data for this study were virtual ethnographic classroom observations of four ES teachers at four different high schools in a large urban school district in the Southwest. Each teacher was observed three to four times a week through ethnographic field notes. Semi-structured individual interviews were also conducted. Inductive analysis and the constant comparative methods were utilized to systematically code data, develop categories, and address issues of connectedness (Saldana, 2016).
Findings
One striking observation was that teachers had to nurture students who had lost family members and loved ones from Covid and were dealing with the physical and psychological effects of these deaths. These teachers centered collective struggle, formed authentic relationships, and helped students understand the interdependency of pain and healing, by boldly standing in solidarity, sharing their burdens, and challenging dominant ideologies (Duncan-Andrade, 2009). Another distinctive feature in each classroom was the use of testominos (Huber & Cueva, 2012) to inform students how their experiences rhyme with their ancestors' resilient legacies. Throughout units on student protests, students learned how these students envisioned a revolutionary education, which helped them reimagine the possibilities of education.

Conclusion and Significance
As the battle for unlearning “white-washed” versions of history takes place, through testimonio pedagogy, ES teachers offer counternarratives of water-down histories of their students, highlight their lived realities, privilege healing and wellness, and help students reimagine education as a tool for liberation and freedom.

Authors

• Shiv R. Desai, University of New Mexico

• Nancy López, University of New Mexico