Shifting Perceptions of Self, School, and Society Through Hmong and Latina/o/x Youth Testimonios

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 4:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Youth (Un)Conference and Testimonio as Educational Research (Table 2)

Abstract

Research shows that Hmong and Latina/o/x English learners, with and without disabilities, continue to face inequitable educational opportunities, as schools label them as needing remediation rather than valuing their rich linguistic, cultural, and experiential knowledge. This study aims to counter these dominant perspectives by advancing equity-oriented learning ecology that promotes students’ sociocritical literacies and their sensemaking of their identities and experiences in relation to educational systems and societal structures, using testimonio writing as a tool-mediated activity. This paper explores how Hmong and Latina/o/x youth’s perceptions of self, school, and society evolved through their participation in GANAS, a summer program based on social design experiment principles aimed at fostering equity-oriented learning and sociocritical literacies.

Authors

• Joan J. Hong, University of Maryland

• Na Lor, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Taucia Gonzalez, University of Arizona

• Mariana Pacheco, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Kate Roberts, University of Wisconsin - Madison