Reclaiming the Classroom: Oaxacan Indigenous Students and the Limits of Ethnic Studies Implementation

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Three
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT051 (Friday)

Abstract

The absence of our histories in classrooms disrupts how we understand ourselves and others. This study examines epistemic and cultural violence in education and its impact on the identity formation of first-generation, Spanish-speaking Oaxacan Indigenous students in California’s public schools. Using a decolonial approach grounded in Autohistoria and Autohistoria-teoría, I center embodied epistemologies and lived experiences. This work reveals how invisibilization produces disconnection and erasure while showing how storytelling and nontraditional practices can cultivate belonging, pride, and resistance. It calls for decolonial pedagogies that affirm Indigenous presence and reimagine curriculum as a site of healing, survival, and collective transformation.

Author

• Jissel Antonio, San Jose State University