Testimonio, Ancestors, and the In-Between: Personal Narrative in the Secondary English Language Arts Classroom

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: SIG-Latina/o/x Research Issues Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

This qualitative classroom-based study investigates the writing practices, choices, and reflections of high school students during a testimonio writing unit. The study is grounded in a sociocultural theory of writing and draws from Lat Crit and Testimonio to understand how writing about self as testimonio shapes the writing practices of Latino/a, urban youth. The study took place in the researcher’s eleventh grade class at a charter school in a urban center in the southwest. Data collection included writing samples, interviews, and participant observer field notes. Findings focus on the ways participants interacted with the unit of study, how participants used navigational capital to navigate the in-between spaces in their lives: between cultures, between school and home, and between linguistic situations.

Author

• Monica Baldonado-Ruiz, San Diego State University
  Presenting Author