Literacies of the Heart and Antiracist Pedagogy

Authors

Lilia D. Monzó, Chapman UniversityFollow
Elena Marquez, Chapman University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2-2024

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.

Comments

This article was originally published in Critical Education, volume 15, issue 4, in 2024. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v15i4.186848

Recommended Citation

Monzo, L. D., & Marquez, E. (2024). Literacies of the heart and antiracist pedagogy. Critical Education, 15(4), 74- 95. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v15i4.186848

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

The authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.