Seeds for Sharing: The Importance of Relationships in Testimoniando

• In Event: Reflection, Resistance, and Resilience: Latina/o/x and Hmong Youth Expanding Possibilities Through Testimonios and Youth-Driven Designs

Abstract

Paper #2

Objective
Latinx and Hmong youth continue to face marginalization within educational spaces (Chiang, Fisher, J., Collins, W., and Ting, M., 2015; Marrero, 2016). In this study, Latinx and Hmong high school students created testimonios, or personal histories, which push back on colonial means of knowledge production, encourage expansive ways of knowing from nondominant groups, and counter dominant ideologies around learning (Gutiérrez, 2008). Testimoniando, the process of creating testimonios, centers collective knowledge and lived experiences.
In order to share collectively, specifically to share with others very personal life experiences, there has to be space to develop shared connectedness. As Fierros and Delgado-Bernal (2016) noted within plática methodology, robust relational ground is necessary for engaging in testimoniando. We sought to answer the following question: How was relational ground developed in the GANAS program and what impact did relational ground have on creating testimonios?

Theoretical Framework
Drawing upon Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT; Gutiérrez, Engeström, & Sannino, 2016; Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003), we focus our analysis on how relational ground develops within an activity system (GANAS), of which the object is testimoniando. Centering testimoniando as the object allows analysis to focus on how relational ground was developed and how it affected the creation of testimonios. Further, we can analyze specific mediating tools and their role within the the development of relational ground and within the creation of testimonios.

Methods & Data Sources
The data are from a 4-week long socio-critical literacies program, GANAS, in which Hmong and Latinx youth created and presented testimonios. For this specific paper, we draw on multiple units of analysis. There is over 120+ hours of video footage from GANAS cohorts over two years, pre- and post-interviews with 19 youth and their parents, multiple rounds of testimonios in the forms of poems, PowerPoints, videos, papers, etc. We also use the Zoom chats within the groups, email correspondence between instructors and youth, and various surveys and activities youth completed during the program.

Results
Our analysis demonstrates the multiple ways that relational ground was developed. First, we demonstrate that mutual trust, social connection, inclusive environment, and vulnerability continue to be important dimensions of relationship building that allows for robust relational ground to be established (Delgado-Bernal, 2021).
Driven by our analysis of how these dimensions were developed, we also examined how they affected the process of testimoniando. By comparing earlier versions of the participants’ testimonios to their final drafts, we argue that relational dimensions were fundamental to the increasing depth and clarity of message in youths’ testimonios. Specifically, we highlight how testimonios became increasingly “overtly political” (Delgado-Bernal, 2021); that is, the testimonios youth developed had “characteristic[s] of being a political and conscienticized reflection” (Reyes & Rodriguez, 2012).

Significance
Our investigation into testimoniando provides an important springboard for conversations around how to create spaces of liberation for youth within schools. This paper encourages developing robust relational ground (Delgado-Bernal, 2021), which in turn expands our collective knowledge and liberation.

Authors

• Kate Roberts, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Mariana Pacheco, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Taucia Gonzalez, University of Arizona
  Presenting Author

• Joan J. Hong, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author