Toward a Pedagogy of Border Thinking: Building on Latin@ Students’ Subaltern Knowledge

Abstract

Based on Walter Mignolo’s (2000) notion of border thinking , that is, the subaltern knowledge generated from the exterior borders of the modern/colonial world system, this article extends current conceptual frameworks for the implementation of a decolonizing border pedagogy with Latin@ students in secondary schools. In particular, Cervantes-Soon and Carrillo draw from their own positionalities as border pedagogues, from Mestiz@ theories of intelligences (Carrillo, 2013) and Chicana feminist thought as exemplary articulations of border thinking, and from ethnographic research at a high school in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands to offer three pedagogical practices with the potential to cultivate border thinking and foster student agency toward social transformation.

The Schooling of Young Empowered Latinas/Mexicanas Navigating Unequal Spaces

“…Hence, young Latinas must navigate the complicated intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality (Marisglia & Holleran, 1999) to challenge and negotiate traditional race-gendered scripts (Faulkner, 2003). This constant straddling (Carter, 2006;Cervantes-Soon & Carrillo, 2016) fosters pedagogies of everyday life that cultivate resistance, resiliency, supervivencia/sobrevivencia, and agency (Delgado Bernal, Elenes, Godinez, & Villenas, 2006;Villenas, 2001;Cervantes-Soon, 2016;Kasun, 2015).…”

Translanguaging Practices of Multilingual Learners of German

“…While Anzaldúa (1987) differentiates the various languages she speaks in Borderlands/La Frontera as standard English, standard Mexican Spanish, standard Spanish, working class English, North Mexican Spanish dialect, Chicano Spanish with regional variations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, Tex-Mex and Pachuco, translanguaging is moving away from the concept of different distinct language systems that exist inside the multilingual person's mind but it maps those as part of one fluid language repertoire. Translanguaging is the lived practice of students around the border (Cervantes-Soon & Carillo, 2016;Collins & Cioe-Pena, 2016;Creese & Blackledge, 2010;Esquinca, Araujo, & de la Piedra, 2014;García, Homonoff Woodley, Flores, & Chu, 2012;Lewis, Jones, & Baker, 2012;Mazak & Herbas-Donoso, 2015;Melo-Pfeifer, 2015;Ramirez, Ross, & Jimenez-Silva, 2016;Rios, 2013;Salinas, Vuckery, & Franquiz, 2016;Velasco & García, 2014). Speakers effortlessly include both elements of their Spanish and English language repertoire into a conversation, students who are learning an additional language such as German in the case of this study will include German into their available register and make use of Spanish, English and German depending also on the communicative needs of their interlocutor.…”

Toward aCorridistaConsciousness: Learning From One Transnational Youth's Critical Reading, Writing, and Performance of Mexican Corridos

“…Although still limited in scope, inquiries aimed at understanding transnational youths' unique border thinking in school communities and in the field of literacy are expanding (Cervantes-Soon & Carrillo, 2016;de los Ríos & Seltzer, 2017;Ghiso & Campano, 2013). Taken together, I see Mignolo's (2000) work on border thinking, concepts of transnational and translanguaging literacies, and Latinx new literacies as integral to inviting into the classroom the cultural, epistemic, and discursive borderlands (Anzaldúa, 1987) that U.S. Latinx transnational youths deftly navigate.…”