Methodological Contributions Made in the Book 'Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life'

Introduction

The book shows how the Chicana/Latina live their lives within the educational contexts. It aims to transform the theoretical beginnings and looks to find ways in which we can change the way we look at the Latina/Chicana educational system. This book acts as a bridge between the Chicana/ Latina perspectives and education. As they act as bridges of the family perspectives and education, the authors of this book also teach us how we can use our self-power as educators, critical cultural theorists and the policymakers.

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We are also driven into asking questions about the particular things that women go through. These include the oppression and the sufferings experienced by their children. It also helps us understand how the society has ignored these needs. Race, class and sex divide the Chicana/Latina. The women of colour have been able to survive past the resistance. From the poem I Am by Elizabeth Cruz she states; "I am a strong-willed Chicana, I wonder why you can't accept me. " I want you to respect my colour."

The youth governing bodies provide the young ladies with ways of knowing and living and explaining their experiences. This shows that the girls are active and are active creators of the knowledge and understandings of the power that they hold. For example, in chapter two Francisca Godinez describes the Mexicans as "active thinkers."

This book addresses the manner in which the feminist perspectives affect education. The school experiences of Chicana and Latina. The young scholars experience racism first hand. The ladies however devised methods of survival to deal with the menace. They did this through studying and acquiring the cultural resources from their families. In the sixth chapter, the author analyses how the Latina/Chicana navigate through school and graduation studies. "Scholars often struggle with against this yardstick to experiences of youth of colour, African American girls, white working class and rural girls, or immigrant mothers."

In the third part, "Mature Latina Adults and Mothers: Pedagogies of Wholeness and Resilience," the book recognizes the education of the older Latinas and the middle-aged men. The Latina/Chicana are recognized for their fight against exploitation. For example, in the eleventh chapter, Rosario Carrillo checks how humour has been used to deal with harsh working conditions. The author highlights how some women raise satire and humour with the aim of constructing themselves. "Often we think of educational scholarship whether it concerns youth, adults, or girls and women, a middle-class Euro American norm comes to mind from which adolescence is drawn."

Attention is paid to the mature women and mothers in the society who are key to the empowerment of the children in the society. These women have devised theories and worldviews as survival tactics against poverty and racial discrimination. Part four of the book perfectly describes how the Chicana concepts determine the educational scholarship. The book describes Latina women as women who are predisposed to teenage pregnancies and absenteeism of the parents.

This book can help us understand what children bring from school to their family members. The book also describes how adult women play the role of parents, community organizers and educators. It also helps understand how these concepts inform the teachings in educational institutions.

One of the methodologies used in this book is testimonial. This methodology helps to reveal the oppression that is found in the educational institutions and the efforts made to deal with these challenges. This methodological approach helps us understand how the students face racism. Testimonio acts as a powerful tool that helps to uncover the challenges faced by the Latinas/Chicanas. Testimonio acts like a feminist research method that focuses as a point of analysis and gives hope to the oppressed.

Testimonio methodology also shows resilience and resistance and hopes to challenge and transform the oppressions encountered and make a step towards achieving social justice. Testimonio critiques the discrimination on race grounds that occurs among the Latinas and the Chicanas. Testimonio also helps the Chicana/Latina researchers in documenting and inscribing into existence the injustices and the struggles faced by humans. This methodological approach helps us understand how the Latina/Chicana students face racism and the nativist microaggression.

In the fourth part which entails "Borderlands, Pedagogies and Epistemologies" we are provided with the means to put these methodologies in practice. In every chapter of the book, we are reminded of the theoretical contributions made by the Chicana/Latina Education in everyday life especially when it comes to Education.

Several theoretical frameworks play a big role in education. These theories help us understand the impact of the oppression of the Latina/Chicana and also analyzes the manner in which the women respond to such kind of oppression to heal and become empowered. Critical race theory borrows from different disciplines, challenges the dominant beliefs found in education, and governs the way the researchers understand the education of the people of colour. The critical race theory shows the manner in which the race gender and class discrimination affects education.

The CRT aims to empower the people of colour in surviving the social injustices in the society. This theory has helped the researchers to view clearly the experiences of the Latino communities and therefore come up with proper solutions to deal with the problems faced. These challenges include language, immigration status and ethnicity.

Racist nativism is another theory that focusses on the challenges faced by the Latina/Chicana. This concept assists researchers in understanding how race and immigration play a big role in racialism and colonialism. Scholarships offered to the nativists examines how various immigrants cannot be given the US national identity and how that identity has contributed to fear of those immigrants being referred to as foreigners. The immigrants of colour face the biggest challenge in being regarded as foreigners and hence not belonging in the United States.

Racist nativism occurs in the historical concept and also interconnects with all other forms of oppression. Racist nativism is based on the real immigration status and helps to see clearly how the racial differences connected to the United States have been tied to the social conceptions of being white. The racist nativism is also important since it helps us in seeing how the inferiority of the Latina/Chicana is portrayed in education.

Another theoretical framework involves the racist Nativist Microaggression. This involves the verbal and the nonverbal attacks that are directed toward the communities of colour. These attacked are usually made unconsciously. The racist nativism provides a discussion of the status of immigration and racial discrimination.

Another theory that has been used includes Chicana feminism. The Chicana feminism has challenging issues such as racism, socioeconomic inequalities, patriarchy and sexism. The Chicana feminism has changed over time and usually intertwined with the historical testimonies and the counter-narratives. The Chicana/Latina feminist scholars have been able to theorize sexuality, identity, resistance and empowerment. Also, the scholars have asserted that it is crucial to make the feminist-oriented research practices that criticize oppressions by race sex and class.

Another theory involves the theory in the flesh. This tool derives its approach from constructing knowledge from the body and the day to day experiences. This theory shows how the physical conditions in our lives such as the skin colour and sexual orientation are important aspects of our lives. This particular theory insists that knowledge is realized through pain and trauma that has been created in us through our memories. This theory helps us to preserve and protect the voices of people who have been faced with racism. This is done by documenting the testimonies. This theory helps us in seeing the physical and the psychological effects of oppression. It also provides us with coping mechanisms to deal with these oppressions. "Chicana feminist theories are thus mobilized, transfigured, and even metamorphosed as they are employed in engaging women's lives in diverse contexts and across the lifespan."

Conclusion

This book, in general, gives attention to the social and political role of the Latina and Chicana feminist epistemologies and pedagogies. The communal process and the conviction of the social justice are usually stressed for the benefit of the whole community and beyond. The terms feminists and mujeristas don't just focus on the rights of women, but they also focus the rights of the whole community. As much as a feminista perspective insists that the community challenges are usually associated with children and women. It is important to consider the vulnerable. "Yet a feminista perspective insists that our community struggles must begin with women and children's issues." The Latina/Chicana feminist pedagogies and epistemologies should call for reforms in both the education and social institutions that benefit everyone in the society.