Pedagogies from Nepantla: Testimonio, Chicana/Latina Feminisms and Teacher Education Classrooms

Abstract

This article describes a process of testimonial co-creation between two teacher educators. We created testimonios in dialogue to examine who we are, how we “know,” and how we teach as Chicana/Latina educators of prospective teachers in predominantly white institutions (PWIs). An active exploration of our lived experiences growing up as racialized, gendered, and classed Chicanas/Latinas reveal both “the theory of our practice and the practice of our theory” (Latina Feminist Group, 2001, p. 19). As teacher educators engaged in contradictory and transformative ways of knowing, teaching, and learning, our testimonios revealed fruitful tensions for mining the liminal and relational moments across difference and privilege with our prospective teachers. We develop the themes of cultural dissonance, conciencia con compromiso (consciousness with commitment) and cariño (authentic care) as Chicana feminist pedagogies. We close by sharing how Latina/Chicana feminist testimonios articulate nepantla—a space of frustration, discomfort, and always improvised visionary modes of teaching and learning.