Nurturing a Critical Race Feminista Praxis: engaging education research with a historical sensibility

ABSTRACT

This research article is a theoretical guide for scholars interested in bridging Critical Race Theories, Chicana/Latina Feminist frameworks, and historical sensibilities to disrupt whiteness within research about Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x education. We articulate the contours of a Critical Race Feminista Praxis and provide examples of its application by sharing lessons learned from carrying research centred on the experiences of Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities. We posit, social justice transformation is manifested when Education researchers uplift Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x histories of resilience and resistance by nurturing a Critical Race Feminista Praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x Education
• Education History
• Critical Race Theory
• Chicana/Latina Feminist Theories

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The terms Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x are used to refer to people from whose origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American countries, or other Spanish-speaking Hispanic/Latino, regardless of race. The letters “a/o/x,” are used to be inclusive of gender fluidity.

2 In Anzaldúan Chicana Feminist traditions, the borderlands are a reference to the geographical, emotional, and/or physiological spaces mestizas occupy (Anzaldúa 2012).

3 I coin the term daughterscholar by adapting the term motherscholar (Caballero et al. 2019, Lapayese 2012, Matias and Nishi 2018, Tellez 2015). A daughterscholar is a person who claims the inseparable identities of being both daughter and scholar, both-and and not, either-or. I argue, daughterscholars do not engage in scholarship, without also engaging their roles as daughters.

4 A motherscholar is a person who claims, “the inseparable identities of being both mother and scholar; both-and and not, either-or,” (Caballero et al. 2019, Lapayese 2012, Matias and Nishi 2018, p. 18, Tellez 2015). I argue, motherscholars do not engage in scholarship, without also engaging their roles as mothers.