I do this Because I Care: Testimonios from Latina Educators, Career Advisors, and Faculty

• In Event: Encuentros, Pláticas, y Testimonios for Imagining New Visions of Early Childhood Research

Abstract

Purpose
Building from prior work discussing the dilemmas researchers face when doing participatory designs with community partners, this session will present initial findings from year one of a Research-Practice Partnership. This session will share the lived experiences, challenges, and aspirations of Latina family childcare providers, early childhood career advisors, and higher education faculty through the methodologies of testimonio and participatory research. By engaging family child care educators, career advisors, and higher education faculty in reflective inquiry, their experiences engaging in this research reveal important considerations for how sharing one’s story or testimonio can be a form of connecting, healing, and renewal.
Theoretical Framework
This work is situated in three frameworks that all aim to disrupt dominant views that position women of color as deficient and inadequate. Testimonio is a form of storytelling that allows marginalized individuals to share their personal stories and experiences of resistance and resilience (Blackmer Reyes & Curry Rodriguez, 2012). It provides a platform for Latina childcare providers to voice their struggles and resilience. Participatory action research (PAR) is both a theoretical and methodological approach to doing research in partnership with multiple stakeholders to allow for ongoing feedback loops to inform design and data generation. Finally, Cultural Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) (Yosso, 2020) provides a lens that guides the research process in the identification of Latina FCC providers’ strengths, assets, and forms of resistance they encounter as they pursue higher education.
Mode of Inquiry
Through multiple forms of qualitative inquiry (e.g., focus groups, interviews, conversations, texting) we will share how this process of telling one’s story evoked many emotions that surfaced for both the researcher and participant (co-researcher). In this process of reflecting on our individual journey and our positionality we discovered that our individual stories connect to larger socio-political issues that need addressing to address inequities women in early childhood experience.
Point of View
Our data-sharing process will invite the audience to witness our stories of transformation and call to action through testimonio, photography, and quotes. The audience will bear witness to key themes connected to Cultural Wealth, intersectionality, and our different positionalities in this collective work. As a collective of women, we will share some of our practices and processes for engaging in participatory co-design and how our learnings inform our respective work in higher education institutions, students, communities, and families. Finally, we offer some recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to think about how to support community-embedded research through testimonios.
Scholarly Significance
Building on our collective work, we will emphasize how the collaborative approach of participatory research and story-telling through testimonios can lead to meaningful change and support the identity development of Latina childcare providers, career advisors, and higher education faculty within the early childhood educational and professional landscape.

Authors

• Cristina M. Medellin, Bank Street College of Education

• Claudine Campanelli, City University of New York