Learning via Testimonio: Sociocultural and Linguistic Factors That Make Up My Identity

• In Event: Testimonios de Aprendizaje in Aztlán, Gran México: Located-Transnational Decolonial Options of Critical Curricular-Pedagogical Praxis

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper, through reflexivity, I ponder upon the realization that I was Mexican American. I hope to describe the dichotomy of pride and prejudice in my feelings and thoughts on being Mexican American and growing up experiencing the absence of connection between school and home life. I could not find value in my identification with the Mexican American culture because I did not associate it with importance. The remnants of colonization in American schools is still felt today. Being different from the hegemonic dominant culture is somehow equated to being deficit. The social injustice being experienced in schools is real.

Theoretical Framework
The framework of border crossing (Anzaldua, 1987) and my experiences as a career science educator of marginalized students of color are used in this paper. I, as a border crosser, am too familiar with the potential power of giving voice to those who have intersecting cultures and languages to contend with.

Methods, Techniques, or Modes of Inquiry
Testimonio is the methodology being used for this paper as a mediating tool in critical thinking. Testimonio is a way to inform and possibly undermine the dominant narratives (Organizer, Calderon Berumen, & O’Donald, 2018). It is used as political consciousness allowing the voices of those who feel inferior to have their histories told.



Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials
The data sources included the reflexivity notes from a researcher journal in an ethnographic case study, the lived reality observations in the classroom, and are used as data sources for theorizing the process (Perez-Huber, 2009).

Findings
I have grown up with mixed emotions that are exposed at different times due to situations that arise in my life. The more educated I have become, the more my feelings of adequacy improve. I was able to reflect on my past and became aware of my own personal understanding. I also become acutely aware of the coloniality of whiteness and the epistemicide of subtractive schooling that stalked my education at every turn.

Scholarly Significance
It is academically significant because through aprendizaje as curricular pedagogical praxis, educators can be aware of their teacher identity. This helps in the understanding of what students are going through in classes where there are a majority of students who are linguistically and culturally diverse from the school culture perpetuated. The implications for practice are for teacher preparation programs to include teacher awareness of the seemingly innocent words they might be perpetuating that serve to mitigate feelings of being unappreciated for who they are.

References
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands, la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute
Books.
Perez Huber, L. (2009). Disrupting aparthid of knowledge: testimonio as methodology in Latina/o critical race research in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(6), 639-654.

Author

• Nora Alicia Luna, University of Texas at Austin