Radicalizing the Classroom: Latin American Testimonios and Popular Education Using Oral History to Develop Critical Thinking for Social Change

• In Event: Remembering Social Change: Education, Collaboration, Transformation

Abstract

As Latin American social movements carry on in the struggle against privatization, U.S students continue to be isolated from the realities of our present era of neoliberalism and globalization. Curriculums in most U.S classrooms follow the same oppress approach to teaching, drawing lessons from a textbook that is not relevant to our present experiences and provide a written summary. By integrating subaltern studies in classes such as Latin American oral history, it allows the student to break away from institutionalized education and it begins a life long process of understanding the narratives of the community’s struggles. Oral history allows the student to recognize the flaws of the educational institution, global issues, and it attempts to expose there own colonial condition. A subaltern narrative is a bridge from the classroom into Latin America and the community as a way to interchange ideas and knowledge. But the sole purpose of applying subaltern studies through oral history in the classroom is more profound than just creating consientizacion, it is to take action collectively and promote social justice through solidarity and community identity. In this essay, I argue that radicalizing the U.S classroom through oral history and popular education promotes social justice, community identity, and develops consciousness of student activism.
As an instructor at CSULA and ELAC I have gained teaching experience on interdisciplinary approaches to social justice by applying oral history. I have developed a syllabus where students can learn from the subaltern narrations of transnational social movements, community organizing, and the immigrant experience. I encourage my students to interact more with the community and to connect their experiences with their class readings through open critical thinking discussions. As a result students can gain first hand grassroots training experience by better understanding the historical struggles of Latin Americans and other ethnic groups.

Author

• Arturo Zepeda, California State University, Los Angeles