Interrogating the Barriers to Transformative Teaching: A Critical Race Nepantlera Methodology Analysis of Autohistorias

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Eighteen
  In Roundtable Session: Autohistories, Becoming, and Reflexive Discomfort in Education Research (Table 4)

Abstract

In this study, I apply Critical Race Nepantlera Methodology to a critical analysis of autohistorias written during the 2021-2022 school year. The autohistorias feature my experience, as an educator, of the implementation of Texas House Bill 3979 and the resulting barriers to transformative teaching. Here, I define “transformative teaching” as an encapsulation of culturally sustaining (Ladson-Billings, 2014) and critical pedagogies (Freire, 2000) as I attempted to enact them in an elementary school. Despite the democratic possibilities in transformative teaching, there remain significant challenges in its implementation (Chang & Viesca, 2022; Skerrett et al., 2019). By analysis of barriers to transformative teaching, we can learn to resist and navigate those barriers, ultimately leading towards emancipatory educational practice.

Author

• Christina Salazar, Texas Woman's University
  Presenting Author