Conviviencia Praxis Within Critical Race History Educational Research

• In Event: Illuminating Truth From the Margins: Using Critical Race Methodologies to Conduct Humanizing Research

Abstract

Objectives
This paper engages the audience in a discussion of convivencia, a collaboration praxis within historical education research rooted in a critical race methodology. This methodological insight stems from a larger research project which undertakes a historical analysis of how the civil rights movements of the 1960s shaped the activism of critical Chicana/o librarians to advocate for anti-racism and social justice in children’s literature and library services to inform the fight against racism today. Crafted as a revisionist educational history (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), this paper highlights the importance of collaborating with people directly engaged with organizing around positive portrayals for Latina/o/x students and Students of Color. This paper explores the following question, what does convivencia look like when engaging historical education methods that aim to unearth perspectives of Communities of Color within archival research?

Theoretical Framework (s)
Guided by a Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education theoretical framework (Ladson Billings & Tate 1995; Solórzano, 1997) and Chicana Feminist epistemologies within education (Delgado Bernal, 1998), this paper challenges ahistoricism, race and racism within educational research. A CRT in education examination of history and activism necessitates an understanding of the permanence of racism in the U.S. and how it adapts overtime within library services and literature.

Methods & Methodology
This paper uses a Critical Race Educational History Methodology (CREH) which calls for challenging dominant ideology by acknowledging racism, the need for social justice work and transdisciplinary perspectives, and honoring the experiential knowledge of People of Color (Santos et al., 2017). CREH honors community memory by challenging the single use of institutionalized archives, which have not historically preserved or valued the perspectives of People of Color (Garcia & Yosso, 2020). This methodology nuances the data sources by drawing on eight oral histories and two collections of personal documents shared by Chicana/o librarians. The personal collections included correspondence, and photos shared by collaborators of the oral histories.

Findings & Scholarly Significance
By employing CREH, this project yielded important implications for education research that aims to challenge ahistoricism, race, and racism. Leaning into the tenets of CRT in Education and drawing on Chicana/Latina tools like cultural intuition and engaging a convivencia praxis allows researchers to invite collaborators to co-create a narrative of resistance. Within this project, convivencia praxis was embodied by prioritizing personal documents in (re) constructing the history of Chicana/o librarian activism. In prioritizing the experiential knowledge of People of Color, and in particular the Chicana/o librarians who were involved in challenging racist portrayals in children’s books and library services, this paper advances the CRT tool to challenge the dominant ideology by unearthing the stories seldom heard of the emergence of Latina/o children’s literature between 1960 and 2000. In addition, a revisionist history approach is yet another conceptual tool of CRT that aims to examine the less-known stories of racial struggle. Therefore, by engaging conviencia through oral histories and personal documents with collaborators, we were able to piece together a narrative that nuances the perspectives within archival documents.

Author

• Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento
  Presenting Author