Abstracts
Abstract
Challenging structural violence is a major project of our time. The massive Black Lives Matter (BLM) uprisings of Summer 2020 brought greater awareness of the systemic racism of universities and a commitment to challenge it. A Marxist-humanist lens recognizes racism as foundational to the racial-colonial capitalist patriarchy and the university as deeply implicated in the development and maintenance of these structures. While all these interlocking oppressions must be eradicated, in the US, racism has historically galvanized more people to action. For this we need a populace with critical literacy to connect their daily oppressions to structural forces. Critical literacy also encourages us to listen to the Oppressed whose “Reason and force” may prove useful toward our liberation. A critical literacy of the heart, drawing of Paulo Freire, is one that challenges us to transform structures of oppression through humanizing antiracist pedagogy. The bulk of the paper is drawn from a duoethnography of two Latina instructors. The stories shared offer insights into the deep-seeded racist policies and practices in education and the complexity of challenging these. We argue that such complexity calls for an intentional antiracist pedagogy of “other doing” that goes against the “commonsense” of our society.
Keywords:
- critical pedagogy,
- racial capitalism,
- racism and anti-racism,
- Marxism,
- critical literacy
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Lilia D. Monzó (she/her) is Professor of Education in the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University and Co-director of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project. Monzó is the author of A Revolutionary Subject: Pedagogy of Women of Color and Indigeneity. Her work engages a Marxist-humanist, revolutionary critical pedagogy to develop a praxis against all forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, class relations and their many intersections with the goal of developing a more human society. Monzó has published significantly in academic journals and public pedagogy. She teaches courses on critical pedagogy, curriculum theory, and social movements.
Elena Marquez (she/her) is currently a doctoral candidate in the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University, researching cultural and curricular studies with an emphasis on critical literacy and its implications on activism. She has spent nearly a decade as an educator, working in public and charter school settings as a secondary English teacher, program director, instructional coach, and curriculum designer. As a current teacher educator and researcher, her commitment is to cultivate liberatory spaces of reflection and expression through embodied humanization and a critical pedagogy of love.