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Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology. Dolores Delgado Bernal, C. Alejandra Elenes, Francisca E. Godinez, and Sofia Villenas, eds. New York: State University of New York Press, 2006. 292 pp.
Reviewed by: Melissa Moreno At the heart of Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology is the remaking of social analyses about education and knowledge production from the standpoint of Chicana/Latina scholars. This collection of studies and essays contributes to interdisciplinary bodies of literature in Education, Gender, and Ethnic studies concerned with inequalities and agency. Given the xenophobia in U.S. society, this anthology represents counternarratives of Chicanas/Latinas contending with cultural borders and institutions. Editors Delgado Bernal, Elenes, Godinez, and Villenas, along with several authors, examine how Chicanas/Latinas across generations learn forms of resistance to intra- and interethnic group marginalization in schools, community, and society. Methodologically, this anthology is aligned with the politics of qualitative research-and not with positivist or modernist research approaches often disguising validity in sample sizes. Like other qualitative researchers, these scholars draw heavily upon narratives based on ethnographic, case study, or personal testimonies, while weaving education, cultural studies, and group standpoint theories to present interpretive and discursive critical social analyses of schools and society. They implicitly refer to group standpoint theories as feminista or mujerista theories, which, "…are not about women's rights per se but about community rights" (p. 8). These studies and essays demonstrate the methodological skill and validity of using interpretive and discursive analysis that contextualize sociopolitical meanings of education, pedagogy, and epistemology to present social theories that are multidisciplinary. Unlike other scholarship, this anthology provides readers with an understanding of multiple generations of Chicanas/Latinas and their broad educational trajectories. It dedicates the first three sections to youth, young adult, and adult women; the fourth section takes up the methodological and theoretical tools used throughout the book. The first two sections offer insights into the invisibility and cultural expectations that some Chicanas/Latinas encounter during their early identity formation in family and schools. Also, they call for a reevaluation of deficit approaches used in schooling and a consideration for the value of cultural knowledge. In the first section, Godinez analyzes how the narratives of high school youth attest to the ways deficit perspectives associated with dropouts overlook their intelligence, excluding them from becoming college-bound students. In their study, Knight and colleagues examine how teaching and learning critical literacies in community educational programs play a key role in the lives of college-bound Latinas. With educational and cultural resources, some Chicanas/Latinas do manage to attend universities. The second section focuses on ways Chicanas/Latinas endure their educational journey in predominantly white institutions. For example, in her study Bañuelos points out that, "While the women…did perceive exclusion, they often challenged this exclusion by collectively creating counterspaces of cultural citizenship. That is, their resistance was linked to a collective claim to space rights within the university" (p. 99). Chicana/Latina college participation, as indicated in Delgado Bernal's study, is sustained by their bicultural knowledge, commitment to communities, and spiritualities. The emphasis on resilience and cultural resources are at the center of these studies and also indicate structural barriers. The third section addresses the narratives of adult women who have grappled with learning the cultural politics of their communities and society in the context of mothering, work, and spirituality. In examining the testimonies of immigrant mothers, González argues that "Mothers' narratives are important because they speak to children not only in what is said, but what is unsaid, the enduring will to survive, and the refusal to be defeated by life" (p. 197). In the narratives and experiences with campesina women in Mexico, Trinidad Galván finds that spirituality is a pedagogical tool used to survive economic and gender oppression, and as a pedagogical means it "… encompasses a more holistic understanding of what people bring to teaching and learning relationships" (p. 175). Everyday relationships, as Carrillo shows in her study, include pedagogies of humor that Latinas negotiate and use in deflecting oppression and life in community and workspaces. The array of pedagogies encountered by women, young adults, and youth are implicitly shaped by larger geographies and the academy. Theoretically, Elenes, Pendleton Jiménez, and Dicochea in the fourth section examine the methodological tools utilized throughout the book. They conclude by providing an understanding of the ways multiple pedagogies in everyday life coupled with the politics of the borderlands and academic disciplines inform the ways some Chicana/Latina scholars and community leaders engage in teaching and learning practices related to social justice projects. Rather than upholding traditional theories and methods, this anthology features diverse narratives and social analyses that explain how Chicanas/Latinas contribute to the cultural production of knowledge in their communities, schools, and society. Continuing the legacy of Gloria Anzaldúa and other feminists, they illustrate a collection of cultural practices and moral discourses that Chicanas/Latinas use in teaching and learning dignity in the mist of resisting multiple-citizenship injustices. They represent Chicanas/Latinas as "educated persons," as defined by Levinson and Holland (The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: Critical Ethnographies of Schooling and Local Practices, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996). With a background in qualitative studies and interpretive research approaches, this text is useful in facilitating dialogues among faculty and students about multiple forms of power, agency, and intragroup diversity. |
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