Cultivating Caminata Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning while Walking with Emplaced and Embodied Knowledges in Texas

• In Event: Cultivating Caminata Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning while Walking with Emplaced and Embodied Knowledges in Texas

Abstract

As teacher educators working with pre- and in-service teachers in central Texas, amidst escalating legislative attacks on curriculum that addresses the histories and perspectives of our communities of color, we gather to cultivate and reflect on our pedagogical practices during these times. We collectively offer a “testimonial co-creation” (Prieto & Villenas, 2012) of our experiences growing our caminata pedagogies— the practice of walking with our students in local lands, through historically-rooted neighborhoods, and across racialized geographies and architectures of our campus—to critically inquire about place, racism, capitalism, and colonialism. We highlight how, despite increased censorship, caminatas enable us to center on familia and comunidad-based saberes, emplaced and embodied knowledges and languages of the land, our students, and communities of color.

Authors

• Marial Quezada, University of Texas at Austin

• Celine Vallejo Norman, The University of Texas at Austin

• Patricia Núñez, University of Texas at Austin

• Leticia Garza, University of Texas at Austin