Testimonio Pedagogies: A Critical Channel to Dismantling Ableism With Preservice Special Education Teachers at a Predominantly White Institution

• In Event: Rethinking Teacher Preparation: Disrupting Marginalization of Children of Color With (Dis)Abilities

Abstract

My experience with ableism in elementary school has informed why I came to value education. As a child, I was medicated to prevent seizures, which caused me to be lethargic in school—I was labeled as a “lazy student.” My mother bridged multiple gaps in my education process. I transitioned through the educational system because of her and the different layers of privilege that I embody and have access to. Although I experienced ableism and was othered in some ways, I also learned how to other. I learned to understand (dis)ability from pitiful perspectives and with a white savior mentality, which to this day, I continue to unlearn.
It is important for students to include critical self-reflection early on in their careers (i.e., coursework). In other words, self-reflection on privilege, implicit biases, and “capital” as key aspects for both undergraduate and graduate programs, or else, the hierarchical structures perpetuate in a constant oppressive cycle (Wong, 2017, p. 91)
Through critical self-reflection, individuals explore how identity and positionality influence their lived experiences and perceptions of the world (Wong, 2017). In light of prevalent deficit portrayals of (dis)ability in academia—largely reproduced by non-disabled people—, Sheldon (2017) sheds light on the need for special education teachers to identify, challenge, and unlearn their biases, prejudice, and bigotry as early as the pre-service teaching stages. According to Burciaga and Cruz Navarro (2015), understanding our role and complicity within systemic oppression is critical when examining inequities and injustice, particularly through testimonio pedagogies.
Testimonio methodology is a Chicana/Latina Feminist approach —a process and a product—in which individuals recount their lived experiences of resistance to systemic oppression (Delgado et al, 2012; The Latina Feminist Group, 2001). Testimonio “privileges and is contingent upon personal and communal experiences as important sources of knowledge” (Burciaga & Cruz Navarro, 2015, p. 34). Therefore, testimonios deliberately challenge dominant narratives as the testimonialista, who recounts their lived experience, is in control of the narrative and portrayal of their own story. This work illustrates how testimonio pedagogies serve as a tool to engage in critical self-reflection, particularly to challenge ableism and its intersections with other interlocking systems of oppression (Tijerina Revilla, 2020). This work illustrates the methodological tenets of testimonio as pedagogy, and is situated in an online learning environment with special education pre-service teachers at a liberal arts college in the US northeast.
The author describes how she employs testimonio as a teaching tool (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012). First, by sharing her journey through (dis)ability frameworks, the values, ideologies, and narratives that informed her lenses of understanding (dis)ability, and how these have shifted and evolved. Second, by describing the effects of using counternarratives and testimonios as foundational sources of knowledge in the classroom. This piece aims to open a dialog about testimonio pedagogies, illustrate concrete examples that faculty can use to employ counternarratives, and the potential that testimonio methodologies has to effectively prepare teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse students with (dis)abilities.

Author

• Ana Cristina Lopez, Lesley University