How can disproportionate elite political, economic, and social power -- the essence of inequality -- be challenged peacefully and democratically with empowerment from below through critical pedagogy? Paraguay presents a fascinating case study to address this question, especially considering how its history of colonization, authoritarianism, and…

In this paper, I assert that professors can develop transformative pedagogies from exposure to social injustice in everyday work and teaching or from studying it in graduate programmatic and course settings. I make this assertion based on data from a qualitative study where I interviewed five public university professors (n= 5) from humanities and…

A particular twenty-first-century understanding of the Aztec concept "nepantla," one which has recently taken hold in critical education thanks to the writings of Gloria Anzaldúa, does not accurately reflect traditional Aztec history and philosophy. This essay reveals why this is the case, demonstrating in detail the meaning of…

This study contributes to the limited research on emergent bilinguals, perspective taking, and second language reading of informative text. The explicit integration of Freire's (1993) notion of conscientizacao, or consciousness-raising, with the constructs of empathy and embodiment (Gee, 2001; Hurtado, 1996) and with translanguaging (García, 2009)…

This storytelling begins with a positioning of why and how we use "testimonio" as part of a larger project of social justice and transformative pedagogies. In this collective "testimonio," 5 working-class Latina scholars tell the stories of their struggles to overcome the challenges of language and assimilation, of gender discrimination and…

Mounted on the walls, windows, and bookcases of Ms. Cati de los Rios's Pomona High School classroom are a multitude of faces, mainly heroes, martyrs, and leaders of Latina/o and African descent. These faces are a symbol of the countercultural and student-centered approach to education that occurs in her classroom. The mere presence of these…

Influenced by Freinet, Freire, and Sherover-Marcuse, the author describes the evolution of her pedagogy, including a demystifying and empowering approach to working with graduate students in the dissertation process. Alma Flor Ada's educational philosophy and praxis, grounded in critical pedagogy and transformative education, developed in the…