A Xicana's Journey: Navigating and Transcending Academic Institutions

• In Event: Inquiry for Truth: Epistemological Narrative and Testimonio as Self-Discovery and Community Building

Abstract

Objectives & Research Questions:
By centering a more humanizing praxis within academe, we allow students to build critical self-awareness as to how Students/Scholars of Color are situated within systems and structures of power, privilege, and oppression that facilitate student empowerment. Engaging in this work prompts scholars to describe and reflect how inequity, power, and privilege affect populations within academia and their own personal experiences. As a queer Scholar of Color engaging in the creation of the Epistemology of Education Paper (EEP) and our anthology- self-reflection on my time in institutions, as well as my life experience, translates into my scholarly work and identity. This process often raised several questions, which I will answer throughout this epistemological narrative:
1. How does education, as well as geographic location, influence one’s cultural identity?
2. How can oppressive and dehumanizing spaces lead to relatability, reciprocity, and authenticity in the classroom?
3. How can we navigate multiple systems/institutions that were not built with our interests in mind?

Theoretical Framework:
Utilizing testimonio as a theoretical framework (Covarrubias et al., 2018; Delgado 2006), as defined by identity, representation, and Chicanx educational experience(s), the disproportionalities Chicanx/Xicanx students face include underrepresentation, a lack of student-mentor relationships, and low achievement and attainment records. (Solórzano & Solórzano, 1995). Assignments similar to the EEP, that require self-reflection, will allow me to centralize and honor my truths and journey to transcend and engage in more liberating knowledge experiences.
Methods/Sources:
Storytelling and the creation of the EEP invites individuals to self-reflect on their journey to and from education; to analyze and challenge the historic disparities within educational institutions and communities.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions:
Creating our own EEP and co-creating this anthology, resulted/continues to affirm my own educational experience(s), as well as participating in vulnerability and co-creating spaces of healing while de-constructing internalized indoctrination.

Significance:
In alignment with AERA- speaking truth to power and our anthology, we must discuss how education and academic institutions lack adequate representation for Scholars of Color and marginalized communities, historical truth, perpetuate assimilation, erasure, and are targets of misrepresentation. As the push for a more just, equitable, and inclusive educational system becomes more prevalent- in the pursuit of truth, we challenge the role and influence education plays in our individualistic human experience. As the late bell hooks once said, “knowledge rooted in experience shapes what we value and as a consequence how we know what we know, as well as how we use what we know.” (hooks, pg. 185, 2010). As Students of Color, our education is contingent to our experiences in and outside of the classroom. Becoming and staying rooted in the creation of safe (educational and communal) spaces, allows students to practice radical vulnerability, accountability, and healing while remaining vigilant to the decolonization process; consequently, creating community and a cycle of mentorships. This paper and anthology engages in self-reflection and personal pedagogy that allows individuals like myself, as a community organizer and determined future educator, to analyze the role and necessity of testimonio as a means to create space, reclaim one’s identity, and maximize educational opportunities.

Author

• Naomie Gutierrez, San Jose Evergreen Community College District
  Presenting Author