Papers by Bert Maria Cueva
Equity & Excellence in Education, 2012
Testimonio in educational research can reveal both the oppression that exists within educational ... more Testimonio in educational research can reveal both the oppression that exists within educational institutions and the powerful efforts in which students of color 1 engage to challenge and transform those spaces. We utilize testimonio as a methodological approach to understand how undocumented and U.S.-born Chicana/Latina students experience the effects of and responses to a systemic, subtle, and cumulative form of racism, racist nativist microaggressions. We draw from critical race and Chicana feminist frameworks to understand the effects of microaggressions as embodied systemic oppression (Cruz, 2006; Moraga & Anzaldúa, 2002b). Our analysis reveals that the students engaged and created counterspaces within K-12 institutions that challenged oppression and sought to transform the educational spaces that marginalized them. Throughout these findings, we explore the process of conocimiento (Anzaldúa, 2002) that allowed the women to engage in reflection, healing, and celebration of their resiliency. Testimonio has been critical in movements for liberation in Latin America, offering an artistic form and methodology to create politicized understandings of identity and community.. .. Similarly, many Latinas participated in the important political praxis of feminist consciousness-raising.. .. Drawing from these various experiences, testimonio can be a powerful method for feminist research and praxis. (Latina Feminist Group, 2001, p. 3) Within the field of education, testimonio continues to develop as a powerful methodological approach that uncovers systemic subordination of Chicanas/Latinas. Testimonio also serves as a feminist research method that repositions Chicanas/Latinas as central to the analysis and reassigns agency to the oppressed (Latina Feminist Group, 2001). At the same time, testimonio reveals the resistance, resilience, and hope we engage in our research to challenge and transform that subordination to collectively move toward social
Proquest Llc, 2013
The data for the Native American educational pipeline (left side) the reflects that only 0.4 of N... more The data for the Native American educational pipeline (left side) the reflects that only 0.4 of Native American women and 0.6 of Native American men graduate with a Ph.D. out of a total of 100 students. In comparison, the Chicana/o Educational Pipeline (right side) suggests that only 0.3 of Chicanas and 0.4 of Chicanos graduate with a Ph.D. also out of 100 students. One must wonder what accounts for the low retention rates within the educational pipelines. Additionally, what is occurring in higher education, as both Ph.D. categories are extremely low for Native Americans and Chicanas/os? Further, one could argue that the low graduation rates reflect larger macro systematic disparities interconnected to political issues, such as systematic racism, educational inequities, economic disparities, and additional power relations occurring throughout the educational pipeline.
This essay is based on two of twenty-one testimonios of women who self-identified as low-income o... more This essay is based on two of twenty-one testimonios of women who self-identified as low-income or working class Chicana 1 or Native American 2 who are pursuing doctorate degrees in the humanities, social sciences, forestry, and education. To better understand women's racial and gendered educational experiences as "U.S. Women of Color, " 3 I critically examine articulation of their experiences navigating through institutional violence via racial and gendered microaggressions in higher education and within everyday racism, white privilege, and complex power relations.
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Papers by Bert Maria Cueva