The Co-Construction of Spatial Knowledge With Rural Latinx Ground-Truthers Through Chicana/Latina Feminist Pláticas Methodology

• In Event: Co-Constructing Truth(s) With Latinx Research Collaborators Through the Chicana/Latina Feminist Methodology of Pláticas

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to position rural Latinx students as “ground-truthers” in educational research. The term “ground-truthing” derives from the field of geographic information systems (GIS). Critical race spatial scholars in educational research have appropriated this term to refer to the process of inviting community members from institutionally marginalized groups to verify spatial data that was collected by researchers. This paper extends Vélez and Solórzano’s (2017) theorization of “ground-truthers” to 16 rural Latinx high school seniors from California’s San Joaquin Valley. In a mixed methods study, rural Latinx students severed as ground-truthers by co-constructing spatial knowledge with the researcher about living and learning in a white, conservative, and anti-immigrant sociopolitical context.

Theoretical Framework: This paper employs Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) (Vélez & Solórzano, 2017), which is an explanatory framework and methodological approach for studying the interconnections between race, space, and education. CRSA demands that community members are engaged as co-constructors in the mapmaking process so that multiple truths can be co-constructed using both secondary quantitative data and lived experience.

Methods & Data Sources: This paper draws on qualitative and quantitative data from a larger convergent mixed methods research study. The qualitative data consists of two Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016) conducted with 16 rural Latinx high school students for a total of 32 pláticas. Additionally, secondary quantitative data that was consistent with the themes that emerged from the pláticas data was extracted from the American Community Survey (ACS) and used to create several maps using geographic information systems (GIS). During the second plática, the rural Latinx students ground-truthed the maps by drawing on their lived experiences to nuance the secondary data and GIS maps.

Findings: The co-construction of spatial knowledge through pláticas methodology and GIS mapmaking led to several findings. One, secondary quantitative data and GIS tools like the map were unable to reveal the root causes of structural inequities. The maps revealed disparities in educational access and resources in rural Latinx communities, but as the students pointed out, the secondary data was unable to show the structures, such as racism and classism, which led to such inequities. Two, rural Latinx students served as co-cartographers. A cartographer is typically defined as someone who wields statistical and technical knowledge of mapmaking. Yet, the students drew on their lived experiences to imagine and create new spatial data that more accurately reflected their spatial truths and realities. Three, platicando about the educational inequities displayed on the maps allowed rural Latinx students to center their emotions, including anger, hurt, and hope, which are alternative forms of truths that are traditionally marginalized in fields like education and GIS.

Significance: This paper uses multiple methods, pláticas and GIS maps, to co-construct truth with rural Latinx students about their educational experiences and opportunities in the San Joaquin Valley. This paper highlights some of the limitations of solely relying on secondary quantitative data and tools like GIS maps and the strengths associated with using pláticas methodology to navigate those methodological limitations.

Author

• Mayra Puente, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Presenting Author