Pláticas and Femtorship as Pathways for Advocacy, Mentorship, and Healing in Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Places and Possibilities for Equity, Justice, and Belonging

Abstract

This proposal explores how pláticas and femtorship serve as transformative pathways for advocacy, mentorship, and healing among Latina educators across P–20 settings. this work examines how collective dialogue and culturally grounded mentoring disrupt institutional silos, foster identity affirmation, and build healing counterspaces in education. Through four formal pláticas with seven educators, we identified practices of relational mentorship, collective uplift, and resistance to systemic inequities that challenge hierarchical academic norms. Findings highlight how femtorship extends beyond traditional mentorship to center care, reciprocity, and solidarity while supporting advocacy for Latiné students and educators. This study contributes to scholarship on collaborative, justice-centered praxis that reimagines equitable futures in education.

Authors

• Margarita Jimenez-Silva, University of California - Davis

• Janine Bempechat, Boston University

• Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Boston University

• Patricia D. Quijada Cerecer, University of California - Davis

• Melody Esqueda, Northeastern University

• Evelyn C. Baca, Illinois State University

• Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez, University of Utah