Momentos de Cambio: Cultivating Bilingual Students’ Epistemic Privilege through Memoir and Testimonio

Authors

  • Lara J. Handsfield Illinois State University
  • Patricia Valente McLean County Unit 5 School District

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v18i3.1200

Keywords:

memoir, testimonio, biliteracy, epistemic privilege, interpretive authority

Abstract

In this article, we describe how students were invited to write and publicly read their momentos de cambio (moments of change) stories—memoirs in which they recount moments of significant change, both joyful and traumatic, in their lives. Drawing from elements of Latino critical theory, we conceptualize these stories in part as testimonios—opportunities for the students to voice their own truths and experiences in the world. We describe how the concept of momentos de cambio served as a rhetorical resource for claiming epistemic privilege and interpretive authority across the school year.

Author Biographies

Lara J. Handsfield, Illinois State University

Lara J. Handsfield is Associate Professor of literacy and elementary education at Illinois State University. Her research centers on literacy instruction in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, teachers’ negotiations of multiple political and pedagogical demands in their literacy instruction, and implications for student and teacher identities.

Patricia Valente, McLean County Unit 5 School District

Patricia Valente is a fourth grade bilingual teacher at Cedar Ridge Elementary School in the McLean County Unit 5 School District in Bloomington, IL.

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Published

2016-10-28

How to Cite

Handsfield, L. J., & Valente, P. (2016). Momentos de Cambio: Cultivating Bilingual Students’ Epistemic Privilege through Memoir and Testimonio. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 18(3), 138–158. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v18i3.1200

Issue

Section

Praxis Articles (Peer-reviewed)