Testimonios of teaching from four latina first-year teachers

ABSTRACT

In 2020, first year teachers entered a school system that continued to emphasize policies, measures, and curriculum that support racism and social injustice. But first year teachers also entered at a time when there was renewed interest in openly pushing issues of race, oppression and violence into the forefront. I write about the lived experiences of four Latina teachers that were co-constructed as testimonios through dialogue and conversation. This work centers their voices as their tellings are fundamental to our understanding of the challenges in schools. For these teachers, blaring inconsistencies between their social justice endeavors and what they experienced were made clear and their classrooms became sites of contestation towards realizing teaching as it should be. Their work is situated in schools as focal places that reflect inequitable macro spaces and, at the same time, serve as places to resist subjugation and generate openings of alternate possibilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Latina teachers
• testimonios
• refusal
• sabiduría

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The recent Black Lives Matter protests peaked after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Approximately 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd and others.

2. All names are pseudonyms and chosen by the participants.

3. A higher education qualification in the US.

4. A program in the US that provides literacy and content instruction to all students through two languages and that promotes bilingualism and biliteracy.