Toward a Critical Latinx Pedagogy: A Multi-Generational Reflection on Teaching and Learning in the U.S. Latinx History Survey and Beyond

ABSTRACT

In this essay we discuss the shared vision for a critical Latinx pedagogy that has emerged from our five-year collaboration as professor and TA of a large undergraduate Latinx history course. We discuss specific classroom practices through which we seek to embrace, engage and empower diverse Latinx students; to provide non-Latinx students with a new appreciation of the centrality of Latinx experiences within U.S. history and an opportunity to reflect on how their own identities and experiences are intertwined with those of Latinx and other minoritized Americans; and to foster new solidarities and social justice commitments among students of all backgrounds.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical pedagogy
• embodied pedagogy
• pedagogies of care
• Latinx history
• social justice education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ When we use the term empower, we refer to the work of guiding Latinx/Underrepresented Minority (URM)/first generation students to become conscious of their own power; of fostering their sense of self-efficacy; and of equipping them with skills and strategies to successfully navigate the unfamiliar and sometimes hostile terrains of higher education.

² For a recent article on Latina/Chicana embodied pedagogies of care see Reyes et al. (2020).

³ For a recent and more detailed historical overview of the mistreatment of Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano/a, and Latino/a students in public institutions of the state see Lopez and Ortiz (2019).

⁴ Funds of knowledge refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of Latinx students (Mariscal et al., 2019; Moll et al., 2005; Vélez-Ibañez & Greenberg, 2005). It refers to Latinx students’ cultural and social capital (Bourdieu, 1973) or knowledge assets that can be based on the cultural values of perseverance, ethnic consciousness, spirituality, or a pluriversal view of social worlds and life (Rendón et al., 2014; Yosso, 2005).

⁵ Ruíz, V. (2006). Nuestra América: Latino History as United States History. The Journal of American History, 93(3), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486408.

⁶ Colbert, S. (2010, August 24). Colbert Stays in Character at Congressional Hearing. PBS Newshour, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWcQEO1OG4Q.

⁷ Schnabel, J. (Director). (2000). Before the Night Falls [Film]. El Mar Pictures; Grandview Pictures.

⁸ Latina/Chicana feminists have centered a pedagogy of convivencia, a praxis of relating, learning, and living together (Bernal et al., 2006). Convivencia is personal and communal affirmation of power, identity, and belonging that acknowledges a collective struggle among individuals and the collective cultural knowledge and identities of resisting and living through historical marginalization (Galván, 2006; Pérez Huber, 2017). As Pérez Huber (2017) asserts “working within a space of convivencia means working together with communities in a collective struggle for liberation” (p. 377).

⁹ Latina/Chicana epistemologies have deepened care through cariño which is an esthetics and affective orientation to a way of life that prioritizes connection and communal wellbeing (Duncan-Andrade, 2006; Reyes et al., 2020; Urrieta & Villenas, 2013).