Mediating Nepantla through Multimodal Testimonio: First Year Latine Educator Teaching Philosophies

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores how two first year Latine teachers use communal multimodal testimonio to mediate tensions in their identities, and how engaging in testimonio impacts their teaching philosophies as they experience constraints in their teaching contexts. The research questions were: how does engaging in communal multimodal testimonio mediate how we make sense of nepantla? And how does engaging in communal multimodal testimonio influence our teaching philosophies as we experience the constraints in our current educational context? Both participants participated in a in an initial semi-structured interview to share their teaching philosophies, views on multilingualism, and teaching contexts. Data was collected through two virtual communal multimodal testimonio sessions. The findings in this study suggest that multimodal testimonio in community can be a healing and powerful experience for mediating and embracing tensions while also unearthing values and commitments to co-construct knowledge for navigating constraints and thus enriching our teaching philosophies.