Enacting Cariño and Embedding Restorative Literacy in Community College Using Counter-Storytelling

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Transformative Spaces: Faculty and Counterspaces Fostering Inclusion, Belonging, and Critical Care in Higher Education (Table 5)

Abstract

This counterstorytelling study’s purpose was to examine the perceptions and experiences
of Practitioners of Color (POC) who enact cariño(critical care) and embed restorative literacies
or anti-racist literacies practices in literacy classrooms at community colleges to create a safe and
healing counterspace for racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students. The problem
addressed is that Students of Color (SOC) in postsecondary classrooms can feel invalidated and
distressed if they do not see their cultural, communal, or ancestral histories represented in the
curriculum. Thus, they could lose motivation to stay in college. The significance of this research
is to amplify the voices of POC and illuminate their lived experiences, who teach SOC how to
push against systemic racism and deficit narratives.

Author

• Yvette M. Regalado, University of Texas - San Antonio