I Found My Barangay: Ethnic Studies Classrooms as Spaces for Community Building, Belonging, and Hope

• In Event: Student Experiences and Benefits of Taking Ethnic Studies: Lessons From Three School Districts

Abstract

Objective
Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association, stated, “[O]ver the last few years, we have seen the same faction of politicians working overtime to reverse decades of progress on racial justice, on women’s rights, on worker’s rights, on LGBTQ+ rights, on voting rights, on our right to privacy, and on our students’ freedom to learn in our public schools” (Schwartz, 2022). Our team has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in numerous ethnic studies (ES) classrooms in the Southwest for the last four years where we have witnessed these educators creating a barangay (village, community) with students that centers hope and resiliency. Thus, we ask: How do teachers and students in ES classrooms create a sense of community that centers students’ voices, cultures, and identities that lead to academic success?

Framework
We utilize barangay pedagogy (Daus-Magbual, Daus-Magbual, Desai, & Tianiangco-Cubales, 2024), which was developed in the Pin@y Educational Partnership (PEP). By utilizing Filipino Indigenous qualities of katarungan (justice) and kalayaan (freedom), it foregrounds community, solidarity, resistance and hope. Furthermore, barangay pedagogy relies on pakikiramdam (shared feelings) and kagandahang-loob (shared humanity) to fortify community because each person is empowered to share their talam-buhay (life story). Through this process, teachers and students share and learn from each other and develop insights into each other’s worlds. Ultimately, the classroom community develops compassionate understandings that are anchored in pakikipagkapwa (shared identity, struggle, survival) and pakikibaka (collective action), which promotes flexible solidarity (Collins 2019).

Data Collection and Analysis
The main sources of data for this study were ethnographic classroom observations of six ES teachers at different high schools in a large urban school district in the Southwest. In addition, each teacher participated in a semi-structured interview. Furthermore, we conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with students from these classrooms. Inductive analysis and the constant comparative methods were utilized to systematically code data, develop categories, and address issues of connectedness (Saldana, 2016) via Dedoose.

Findings
Several students described their ES classrooms as having “a safe, welcoming space”, and where they could “learn about [themselves] and grow”. Students discussed how being in “regular classes” was “venomous” and/or “toxic” because they felt undervalued. Students have called these teachers their “support systems” who they can turn to in times of need and who have stopped them from dropping out of school because of their kagandahang-loob and pakikipagkapwa.

Teachers discussed their deep commitment to social justice and creating a space where students could flourish because they had access to pedagogies that emphasized decolonization and pakikibaka. Each teacher also discussed authentic care (Valenzuela, 2010) because they were invested in their students’ lives, communities and critical consciousness, which created pathways for community advocacy and engagement.

Conclusion and Significance
ES classrooms are powerful because teachers create a barangay with students. In these spaces, students are seen, heard, nurtured and learn about katarungan and kalayaan. Moreover, these classrooms emphasized criticality, community engagement, critical reflexivity and intersectionality as inquiry and praxis, flexible solidarity (Collins 2019), cultural freedom, and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Sleeter and Zavala, 2020).

Authors

• Shiv R. Desai, University of New Mexico

• Nancy López, University of New Mexico

• Sade Bonilla, University of Pennsylvania

• Michelle J Drummond, Albuquerque Public Schools