This week I traveled to Anaheim, CA to present at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention “!Suenos! Pursuing the Light.” I participated as a part of a group presentation titled “Enhancing our teaching and research in ELA classrooms by enacting our sueños and illuminating our plurality.” Thank you to Naitnaphit Limlamai for organizing this effort and for connecting this group of scholars.
Mónica Baldonado, San Diego State University
Naitnaphit Limlamai, Colroado State University-Ft. Collins
Sandra Saco, Arizona State University
ABSTRACT:
Teachers and researchers who hold marginalized intersectional identities aren’t positioned as “privileged … but … advantaged” (Ladson-Billings, 2000, p. 271) because of the multiple-consciousness ways in which they interact with and move through the world. Yet their schooling, that occurs within the context of a settler colonial project of white supremacy (Bonilla-Silva, 2003; Patel, 2016), encourages the dimming of their light and their assimilation into this system. Rather than engaging in schooling that perpetuates oppressive systems, however, what would it be like if these researchers and teachers were able to illuminate the kinds of plurality they wanted for themselves as school children and move towards those sueños?
Drawing on Latin American testimonio (Mora, 2015), this presentation seeks to create space for teachers and once-students of color to illuminate our personal stories and schooling experiences; to share how cultivating the light of our own identities has enhanced our learning as teachers and researchers; and to encourage teachers who are engaged with assimilationist practices to broaden and expand their practices of humanization.
