JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION

https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2020.1791120

“We’re All in This Boat Together”: Latina/Chicana Embodied

Pedagogies of Care
Ganiva Reyes a
, Racheal M. Banda a
, and Blanca Caldas b

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; bUniversity of Minnesota, Twin Cities

a

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
In this article, we present narratives that illustrate how Latina/Chicana tea- Critical pedagogy; Latino/a
chers embody care through their pedagogical practices and interpersonal children and families;
relationships with their Latinx students. We identify two foundational com- teacher preparation;
curriculum; qualitative
ponents of Latina/Chicana embodied pedagogies of care (EPC): (1) practicing
research; pedagogy
a shared understanding of care and (2) developing a shared community of
care. Through our Latina/Chicana EPC framework, educators can consider
how to tailor their own pedagogies to best work with Latinx students and
other culturally and linguistically diverse students. We utilized qualitative
critical reflections and meta-study methods to analyze our separate research
studies and present a new theoretical framework.

Introduction
Though teachers are constantly charged with an abstract call to care within the feminized space of the
classroom (Biklen, 1995), this care is often conceptualized through a limited, unidirectional perfor-
mance that aligns with the current, standardized, high-stakes climate. In this paper, we challenge this
notion of care to disrupt this unequal power distribution so that all bodies are empowered to share in
the process of caring. This alleviates the overwhelming responsibility of the teacher as sole caregiver,
which often results in burnout (Chang, 2009). We use a meta-study methodology to develop an onto-
theoretical framework for a humanizing and equitable form of care that can be adopted in teacher
education and professional development.
Care for Latinx students is especially critical given the historical legacy and current climate for Latinx
communities. Latinx bodies have been enveloped in alarmist media discourses like threats of the “brown tide
rising” (Santa Ana, 2002) or the “browning of America” (Chavez, 2013). From Texas Rangers eliminating
Brown bodies through the massacres of Mexican/Tejano populations along the U.S./Mexico border
(Martinez, 2018) to present day fears of terrorism, drug cartels, and job-snatching (Chavez, 2013), Brown
bodies have been consistently dehumanized throughout U.S. history. Manifestations of this history are now
evident in current xenophobic sentiments and political discourse around immigration (Arredondo, 2018).
Within this historical legacy, Latinx youth have undergone racist practices in school including segregation,
cultural marginalization, and linguistic elimination (Pimentel, 2011). In response, Latinx students and
communities have engaged in collective struggle to desegregate schools, implement culturally responsive
curriculum, and fight for bilingual education (Rothrock, 2017; Caldas , 2017).
Moreover, critical education scholars have pointed out that schools are not “cultureless,” but rather
are structured around white and middle-class values and culture (hooks, 2000). For instance, the
cultural knowledge that Latinx students bring into schools are often devalued and stripped away to
instill the behaviors and practices sanctioned by white middle-class values (Burciaga & Kohli, 2018).

CONTACT Ganiva Reyes reyesg@miamioh.edu Department of Teacher Education, Miami University, 210 E. Spring St., 401
McGuffey Hall, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 G. REYES ET AL.

Students who approach school with a different set of values and cultural knowledge are at
a disadvantage, yet they are often blamed for their underperformance in school (Ferguson, 2001).
To make matters worse, Latinx students and parents are often accused of not caring about education
and positioned as culturally, even morally, deficient vis-à-vis a white, middle-class norm (Valenzuela,
1999).
Although Latinx students and communities have been constructed as dangerous and deficient
(Chavez, 2013; Solorzano, 1997), there are educators who work against this stigma by supporting
Latinx students along their educational path. In this article we present key findings across our three,
independently-conducted qualitative studies of Latina/Chicana educators who practice care toward
Latinx students. Through this meta-study (Hoon, 2013), we found that the Latina/Chicana educators
in our studies embodied caring pedagogies that fostered a sense of belonging for Latinx (see endnote 1
one below) students in the classroom. More specifically, we focus on how the educators built flexible
understandings of care that fit the needs of their Latinx students in contextually relevant ways. As
a result of our meta-study, we developed an onto-theoretical framework that explains how teachers
can work beyond deficit paradigms about historically marginalized students to meet their educational
needs: Latina/Chicana embodied pedagogies of care (EPC). This framework is based on the personal
and intimate side of the teaching practices we witnessed. By highlighting exemplary teaching practices
for Latinx students, we offer practices that subvert the stigma and alarmist discourses that perpetuate
a hostile environment for Latinx youth and their families.

Embodiments of care, convivencia & educación

In this section, we present three intersecting areas of research that explain how care is crafted through
interactions, the sharing of personalized experiences, and relationship building as pedagogy. These key
contributions about care from the literature influenced our development of Latina/Chicana embodied
pedagogies of care (EPC). Select works are reviewed.

Theories of care
According to Noddings (2013), care is expressed as teachers learn how to best meet the needs of
students through everyday classroom experiences. There is no single model of caring, but rather it is
through everyday interactions that one arrives at what it means to care and be cared-for, enriching
both the experience of the teacher and student. Teachers and students co-construct knowledge by
learning about one another and their teacher in personal ways. This fosters a sense of belonging in
which students can thrive academically and emotionally (Rogers, 1994). In regards to Latinx students
in particular, Valenzuela (1999) draws on Noddings (2013) work, especially “aesthetic care,” to
demonstrate how teachers usually express care to Latinx students in mainstream schools. Aesthetic
care is an abstract “commitment to ideas or practices that purportedly lead to [school] achievement”
(Valenzuela, 1999, p. 61). Within the context of high stakes accountability systems in U.S. schools,
teachers express aesthetic care by caring about objective measures like students’ attendance, academic
performance, and standardized test scores (Katz, 1999). This is in contrast to “authentic care”
(Noddings, 2013; Valenzuela, 1999) through which care is tailored to suit the personal needs of
students. Examples of authentic care include mentoring students, providing flexibility on assignments
for students with child-care responsibilities, or finding alternative ways to explain difficult concepts in
class.
Critical scholars’ have further expanded care. For example, Thompson (1998) points out that caring
cannot be colorblind or powerblind: “To truly see White, Black, and Brown relations in a raced and
racist society – both as they are and as they might be – we must care enough to abandon our willed
ignorance and political blindness” (p. 48). Thompson suggests that intersectional caring is necessary in
order to attend to relational power dynamics. Critical scholars have also uncovered the indispensable
role of authentic care in providing Latinx youth with meaningful and transformative educational
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 3

experiences (Antrop-González, 2011; Prieto & Villenas, 2012; Valenzuela, 1999; Zentella, 2005). There
is often a cultural mismatch in how Latinx students and mainstream educators understand care. For
Latinx students, it is important that teachers show authentic care by getting to know them, including
their culture and community (De Jesus & Antrop-González, 2006). Authentic care is in line with the
notion of educación in Latinx communities, particularly those of Mexican origin, in which knowledge
is shared through mutual relationships of respect (Zentella, 2005). Educación and authentic care
requires teachers to embrace students holistically through supportive relationships. If any teacher
cares in an aesthetic or impersonal way, this sends the message to Latinx students that teachers do not
care about them or their communities, which often causes students to disengage (Watson et al., 2016).
Authentic care, then, is indispensable in teaching Latinx students.

Latina/Chicana epistemologies
From the standpoint of Latina/Chicana feminist epistemologies, cariño (care) embraces wholeness
rather than a mind/body/spirit split to address the academic, emotional, and personal needs of
students (Calderón et al., 2012). The concept of cariño is more than a word for care in Spanish, but
rather a way of life that prioritizes personal connection and communal wellbeing (Bartolomé, 2008).
One way to understand this is through the notion of convivencia, a Spanish word that holds historical
and cultural significance within Latinx communities (Bernal et al., 2006). To convivir means to live
side by side wherein bodies are attuned to and fully present with one another in the sharing of life
experiences. These intimate, everyday living experiences can be emotional, even spiritual, such as
moments of joy, pain, celebration, struggle, anger, change, and growth (Prieto & Villenas, 2012). Much
like educación, convivencia is about holistic and personalized relationships that develop over time.
Latina/Chicana feminists have centered convivencia as part of a Latina, woman-centered epistemolo-
gical orientation to craft pedagogies that are born from the home (Bernal et al., 2006). As Bernal et al.
(2006) have articulated, “if we center both Latina-womanist-oriented knowledge about the world and
a pedagogy of convivencia (a praxis of relating and living together), we can create school and home
partnerships that truly respect and work from the power of relationships, commitment, wisdom, and
sensibilities born of a life’s work of straddling fragmented realities” (p. 5).
Latina/Chicana feminists also embody different world views, which equips them with unique
cultural tools to engage with students in nuanced and personalized ways. Nepantla (Anzaldúa,
2007), is a Nahuatl word and concept that means in-between space or living between worlds. For
Chicana feminists, while the U.S/Mexico border is a particular geographical location, the borderland
has become a symbolic and conceptual lens from which to make sense of what it means to not quite
belong or fit in on either side of the border. This in-betweenness can foster innovative and imaginative
ways of knowing and navigating competing world views and embracing difference (Hurtado, 2003).
Pedagogically, nepantla has been used by Latina/Chicana educators to disrupt teacher/student power
dynamics and allow both to connect through convivencia (Prieto & Villenas, 2012; Reza-Lopez et al.,
2014). Thus, Latina/Chicana epistemologies deepens care by sharing and co-constructing learning
experiences.

Critical pedagogies
Finally, a critical stance informs pedagogical practices by insisting on an education that is liberating;
education “must be forged with, not for, the oppressed” (Freire, 2000, p. 48, italics in original). Freire
(2000) outlines how reading the world humanizes and reveals silenced voices. Through a critical
reading of the world and word, students understand how macro-level mechanisms of oppression
affects their daily lives. Freire proposes a pedagogical space where multivocal dialogue can be possible
in order to develop conscientização or critical consciousness (Freire, 1973). This contrasts banking
methods that confine people to ahistoricity and lack of compromise and contestation (Freire, 2000).
Freire (2005) calls upon educators to be cultural workers and engage in critical conversations with
4 G. REYES ET AL.

students that challenge institutionalized claims “of objectivity, meritocracy, color-blindness, race
neutrality, and equal opportunity” (Yosso, 2005, p. 70). Such critical conversations validate students’
cultural knowledges and experiences as they develop a consciousness that leads to social change. This
reflective action for social change, or praxis, gives hope that, pedagogically speaking, “another class-
room is possible” (Armbruster-Sandoval, 2005). Moreover, Freire’s critical pedagogy calls for
a disruption of oppressive practices in teaching and research, and a transformation of research as
a vehicle for a more democratic society (Denzin, 2006).
There are several examples of critical pedagogy in the context of Chicanx/Latinx education. Moll et al.
(1992) and Yosso (2005) reframed students of color and their communities through asset-based
conceptions that view their cultures, traditions, knowledge, and skills as valuable; and as being both
holders and creators of knowledge (Bernal, 2002). During the 1990’s, scholars (Irvine, 1992; Villegas,
1991) highlighted the cultural and racial dimensions that imbue everyday classroom interactions
between teachers and students. Ladson-Billings (1995, 2009) framework of culturally relevant pedagogy
shows how teachers can bring student knowledge into the classroom and connect with students’
communities. Critically compassionate intellectualism (Cammarota & Romero, 2006) and barrio peda-
gogy (Romero et al., 2009) are two other pedagogical approaches that relies on “compassionate relation-
ships” that are built on mutual respect. Finally, Darder (2011) revitalizes Freire’s vision of a humanizing
pedagogy through critical bilingual pedagogy. In sum, critical pedagogies value and legitimize cultural
knowledges through pedagogical interactions.

Methodology
The following research questions guided our cross-study analysis: (1) How do Latina/Chicana educa-
tors engage in practices of care with their Latinx students? (2) How do these practices enrich our
understanding of care, particularly with regards to Latinx students? We drew upon qualitative critical
reflections (Stanley & Slattery, 2003) to collaboratively engage in our “meta-study” (Hoon, 2013,
p. 524). Hoon (2013) describes meta-study as “an exploratory, inductive research design to synthesize
primary qualitative case studies for the purpose of making contributions beyond those achieved in the
original studies” (p. 527). Meta-studies involve the accumulation, analysis, and synthesis of evidence
from previous studies in a way that does not merely reuse the first-hand data gathered by researchers,
but rather challenges researchers to co-construct a “conceptual consolidation” (p. 527) of their work to
build theory.
Through our meta-study, we identified cross-study patterns and themes that signaled common
practices among the educators in our studies. Before we came together, Reyes conducted an ethno-
graphic study of an alternative high school, Banda conducted a case study of an urban middle school
teacher, and Caldas carried out a critical ethnography of her teacher preparation class. Each study
examined pedagogy from the vantage point of teacher-student interactions, community, or perfor-
mance. Each study focused on pedagogical practices to examine: (a) the implementation of caring
pedagogies, and (b) the exploration of social justice issues (Darder, 2012; Zeichner, 1996). At this stage
we had already previously analyzed our own data (see endnote 2 below) and wrote about some findings
for different projects (Reyes, 2019a, 2019b; Rothrock, 2017, 2018; Caldas, 2017, 2019).
We met eleven times (in person and virtually) to engage in a collective, iterative analysis of each
other’s work – shifting back and forth between the individual and collective. To begin, we drew from
previous work to spark our conversations. We then returned to our raw data as various themes and
ideas emerged through our initial conversations, and in doing so, we further extrapolated connections
across our studies. Thus, our meetings guided the iterative analyzing of raw data. We also told stories
about our research experiences which revealed who we are as researchers, as well as how and why we
conducted our research. This self-reflection facilitated deeper analysis to construct cross-study themes.
We also wrote reflective pieces then analyzed each other’s writings, research findings, and publications
between meetings to support a robust and credible interpretation of our research. Our meta-study
methods, then, was a recursive process that included sharing individual data analysis of previously
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 5

published work and raw data, self-reflection, collective analysis, and collective theme synthesis and
theoretical discussions.
Figure 1 shows the process of our meta-study analysis and development of EPC. Although we began
our meta-study from the vantage point of our own original theoretical framings, our analysis resulted
in a new framework that bridged cross-study themes. Thus, our multilayered coding process revealed
a new theoretical framework (embodied pedagogies of care) that explains the interconnections between
the educators in our studies.

Embodied pedagogies of care (EPC)

EPC is a critical, ontologically-based theory that recognizes bodies as central in the practice of co-
constructing a shared understanding and practice of care in educational spaces. Through this framework
we conceptualize an ontological orientation that makes critical, caring pedagogies possible. That said,
EPC is not a curriculum or teaching model that teachers must subscribe to in order to care in regimented
ways, instead it is an orientation toward developing rapport and caring relationships with students so that
a caring culture is fostered in educational spaces. EPC, then, results in the co-construction of a shared
community of care in which the bodies of teachers and students construct new cultural norms and
dynamics of what it means to care in their particular setting. This caring community reflects and
privileges all members and their ways of being. By embodying care in this way, a teacher becomes part
of building an authentically caring community with students in ways that impacts her own way of being.
Thus, students are co-writers in crafting the practices, routines, and rituals of care in the classroom.
This understanding of care escapes several trappings, such as placing all responsibilities on teachers
to learn about “other” cultures (as if cultures are static), and the idea that teachers must provide care in
any educational space that is disconnected from shared living experiences. While LatCrit traditions
(Moll et al., 1992; Yosso, 2005) have repositioned Latinx students as full of cultural resources for
teachers to use in crafting meaningful curriculum, EPC moves away from cultural models or taking
Stu
1
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Study 1 Collaborative
Stu

Work Meetings Common Themes

& Analysis Across Studies
Study 3 Collaborative
Work Meetings
& Analysis
Study 2
Study 3

Connecting & Speaking

Back to Theory
Lat istem
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ory

Practicing Developing
/Ch ogi
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Figure 1. Dialogic process of meta-study analysis & development of onto-theoretical framework (EPC).
6 G. REYES ET AL.

inventory of students’ cultural wealth. Instead, we propose that in order to connect with students,
teachers must not only be anti-deficit (Valencia, 2002), but also fully invested in the moment of
interacting with students.
By embodying intimate and relational experiences with students in the moment and being fully
present with students, the educator not only learns about the student’s cultural knowledge in non-
essentialized ways, but also accumulates shared experiences that take on their own cultural currency.
The teacher lets the interaction educate them about their students’ culture, and each interaction builds
upon the previous one. EPC situates the teacher in the moment and it orients the teacher to learn more
about themselves by relating with students and developing a new cross-cultural understanding of what it
means to care. An understanding that is relational, situational, and embodied temporally, moment to
moment. Hence, while an embodied practice of care is informed by the culture of the student and the
teacher, it is not a one to one replication of an imagined idea of culture, but rather its own culture in
and of itself. This results in a more genuine and context-specific connection. Thus, practicing care in
this way enables teachers to sustain cultural competence (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Paris & Alim, 2014)
and avoids essentializing students. Next, we map out two central components to EPC: (1) practicing
a shared understanding of care, (2) developing a shared community of care.

Practicing a shared understanding of care

The goal of EPC is for the bodies of educators to work in partnership with the bodies of students to co-
construct a practice in which human connection and a communal understanding of care is fostered.
Key to this co-construction of care are interactions in which all bodies, regardless of social identity and
position (i.e. teacher or student), have equal access in shaping and making meaning out of each
interaction. In essence, everybody matters (Butler, 2011) in the meaning making practices of care, so
everybody plays a role in shaping a localized symbolic field (Bourdieu, 1992) of what interactions count
as caring. In other words, students must have access to not only shaping what care looks like in an
educational space, but also co-constructing the rules of recognizing care (Bourdieu, 1992), including
how the teacher is read as intelligibly caring (Butler, 2011). Thus, similar to Noddings (2013), we
define care as an intimate and relational process rather than something done onto a subject (Freire,
2000). It is a contextual practice in which care is created through shared, reciprocal interactions
between the teacher and students. However, we expand upon ethics of care in education to emphasize
that not only do the bodies of teachers and students co-construct caring interactions, but student
bodies themselves must be (re)constructed as agentic beings who can also shape the rules of validation
in determining what counts as care (Bourdieu, 1992; Butler, 2011).
Thus, there is not only a shared practice of care, but also a shared system of recognition of care.
Teachers, then, are not the moral authority of what counts as care. Student agency, or the ability for
students to impact and make meaning of care with others, is essential in EPC. Because of this, the practice
of care in the classroom and other educational settings is not the sole responsibility of teachers, but rather
the participation of students is essential in establishing a caring learning environment. The shaping of
caring practices through shared experiences and interactions in the classroom, for example, enables the
roles of caregiver and care-receiver to work in dialogical ways so that the roles can continuously and
seamlessly shift. In other words, students can become caregivers and teachers can receive care. After all,
teachers also need care from their students in order to further motivate their drive to care and replenish
their energy to keep up the practice (Chang, 2009). This co-construction disrupts dominant, hierarchical
power dynamics between the teacher and the student, so that the democratic participation and wellbeing of
all bodies, regardless of any social identifier, can be fostered.

Developing a shared community of care

In the spirit of Freirean pedagogy (Freire, 2000), an EPC requires teachers to engage in dialogic and
reciprocal learning relationships with their students. As critical pedagogues have articulated, pedagogy
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 7

is praxis (Freire, 2000) – reflective actions toward co-constructing liberating learning experiences with
historically marginalized students. In articulating EPC, we build from this but bring further attention
to the foundational aspect of building relationships and cross-cultural connections. In other words,
this onto-theoretical framework zooms into the everyday shared experiences between the bodies of
teachers and students (and anyone else involved in the educational experience, such as parents or
other community members) in creating caring learning spaces. In this sense, the concept of con-
vivencia (Bernal et al., 2006) explains how different bodies come together to co-construct a shared
community of care. Thus, we incorporate communal forms of care work in which bodies work
together to establish a consensus of what care looks like, how it should operate in daily practice,
and how it must align with everyone’s worldview and way of being – hence the ontological orientation
of our framework. Convivencia challenges the educator to remain fully present and invested with
students. EPC, then, includes building bridges across cultural difference to construct a cross-cultural
community of care.

Cases: fleshing out embodied pedagogies of care (EPC)

We flesh out our onto-theoretical framework through three narratives written by each author. The
narratives provide examples of how each educator embodied care in her practice. Because EPC is not
a scripted model, the narratives are instrumental in showcasing possibilities of what embodied care
can look like across different pedagogical styles and contexts. We also weave in some analysis to show
that there is no “right way” to embody care. The teachers in Reyes' and Banda's narrative are of
Mexican origin. Caldas identifies as a transnational Mestiza.

Embodying care through testimonio

(Reyes): My study was conducted in an alternative school located along the U.S/Mexico border in the
Rio Grande Valley (RGV) where I grew up. I observed classroom interactions between teachers and
Latinx students to understand what caring interactions look like in a school structured around family-
like support. One teacher in particular, Mrs. Santos (pseudonym), who taught the Teen Parenting
Class was usually bustling with energy. The teen mothers in the class responded well to her encour-
agement, and they loved that she believed in them. As one mothering student Esperanza explained
to me:
[Mrs. Santos] thinks we can still do it even though we’re young and having kids. She won’t see it like some other
people like, ‘Oh! She’s pregnant, she ruined her life!’ I really don’t know people like her that believe that we can
still go to college. Some people are like, ‘Ooh this is going to be hard for you’ and stuff, instead of giving you
encouragement. She still sees a future in us. That’s the thing I like.

As a native Chicana/Mexicana woman from the RGV in South Texas, Mrs. Santos attended the same
high school that several of her students did prior to transferring. Like her students, she code-switched
between English and Spanish and she used several regional expressions like “neta” and “échale ganas”
(Mexican slang for “yeah,” and “give it all you got”). Her teaching style was dynamic, dramatic, and
comical with mannerisms and gestures that are familiar to people in the region. She could not stand
still in one spot for longer than a minute; she moved her body throughout the room to perform her
grand lessons and incite dialogue. As 18-year-old Sandra explained to me, “she puts character into her
lessons when she teaches . . . She’ll joke around and then she’ll ask questions, and she’ll sometimes play
dumb like, ‘Oh! Really I didn’t know that!’”
One day, however, Mrs. Santos shifted out of her usual energetic and comical style and embodied
a more serious tone. The topic was teen dating violence which is not actually in the “Successful Teen
Parenting” course curriculum. Three years ago Mrs. Santos decided to integrate dating violence into
the curriculum because of the specific experiences of violence she witnessed in her students’ relation-
ships. In an interview, Mrs. Santos explained:
8 G. REYES ET AL.

I have boyfriends coming to [RGV School], they didn’t even [attend] here, but the teen parent worked here. And
[one guy] was violent in the parking lot, and I said, “no, no, no, no, no! (Index finger up signaling disapproval)
Stop this right away!” And so I said, “You know what? This is more prominent now than it was before.”

After a couple of lessons and discussions about teen dating violence, Mrs. Santos showed a movie based
on the true story of a sixteen-year-old girl caught up in an abusive relationship with a young male star
athlete of her school. The movie incited discussion and analysis from the students, but all of a sudden
Mrs. Santos surprised us when she switched settings on the projector to show a picture of a teenage
Latina in a cheerleading outfit. She asked, “Why am I showing a picture of myself when I was
a teenager?” Nobody said a word. Mrs. Santos told her story: “When I was 14 and 15 years old, I was
in an abusive relationship. I was in love; I would do anything for this guy. He would hit me. I knew what
it was like to cover up bruises. What was I thinking? I was so pretty. I did not deserve this. My friends
would say that I was stupid.”
She explained that one night her boyfriend snapped and hit her so hard that it knocked her
unconscious. Rather than helping her, he left her outside in the rain. Hours later she woke up and
returned home with a “busted mouth.” When her mom saw her, she cried and got down on her knees
to pray for her daughter. The students listened intently. I could tell it was not easy for Mrs. Santos tell
her own personal story or testimonio because she told it in broken segments with no real sequence to
the scattered events. Mrs. Santos was re-living rather than re-telling the moments. During classroom
discussions, she usually conveyed confidence, but this time she was vulnerable. Mrs. Santos told the
students that she got out of the abusive relationship when she was 15 years old. She then exclaimed:
“This can happen to anyone at all levels, it does not discriminate. Guys also go through it, but they do
not report it . . . ” One of the students asked, “Mam, really this happened to you?” Mrs. Santos replied,
“Neta!” After the bell rang and the students walked out, Mrs. Santos turned to me and said, “Look what
I’m teaching them, how to analyze the cycle of violence. In what other class does this happen?”
Later during an interview, Sandra shared that her teacher’s story resonated with her own experi-
ences. She appreciated Mrs. Santos’ vulnerability and she also felt safe to talk to Mrs. Santos about her
own painful experiences with relationship violence. Mrs. Santos not only provided comfort, but she
also gave her information about various community resources for help. I asked Sandra whether there is
anything else Mrs. Santos can do to be more supportive, she simply responded, “I don’t know, because
I just like her the way she is.” She further added, “Just, uh, the way she puts herself out there, I know
I can feel comfortable around her and I can just be myself around her.”
Here is an example of a Chicana/Mexicana teacher from the border telling her own story of abuse
and pain in order to co-construct knowledge with her students about what it means to heal as
a collective. Her students learned about a cross-cultural problem of gender violence through their
own bodily experience in connection with the body and memory of their Brown skinned teacher. In
alignment with Latina/Chicana epistemologies, Mrs. Santos integrated testimonio (Sosa-Provencio,
2016) into her pedagogy to embody intimate and connected care. She was also a mentor for her
students by making it clear that they can come to her for help. Through EPC, the teacher and student
bodies co-constructed a common ground in which healing from social inequality occurred.

Embodying care through fostering community

(Banda): As a part of a larger, multi-case research project, I conducted a case study with an urban, 7th
grade, math teacher: Ms. Corazón (pseudonym). She was nominated by students, administrators, and
other staff members as a “successful” and “caring” teacher. Though Ms. Corazón, a teacher of over
20 years, had only been at her present middle school for approximately half a school year, student
nominations clearly identified her as a “caring” teacher.
Curious about the overwhelming vote, I asked Ms. Corazón about her conceptualizations of
“community,” particularly her students’ communities, and how she felt connected to these. She
spoke of relationships, specifically students’ families and participation with extracurricular groups
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 9

or clubs, centering these in connection to the school. In discussing her own connection to students’
communities she added:
I feel like I’m really invested into this community and a big part of it. . . . I spent a lot of time on the phone. If
I made a phone call it was always at least fifteen minutes per parent. . . . When I would finally meet this parent
face-to-face, we already knew each other’s voice, and we were in each other’s history. So I feel like I came into this
community a year ago and I feel like I’ve really woven myself into it. (Ms. Corazón, personal communication,
March 11, 2016)

Ms. Corazón’s understandings of her students’ community and this sense of connection were strongly
evident in her pedagogical practices within and outside the classroom. Ms. Corazón participated in
many extracurricular events and committed to attend every single girls’ sports game – home and away.
This vow, she explained, was out of her recognition of unequal attention of girls and boys sports. She
recalled her own experiences and wanted to be an advocate for her female students. Recognizing this
embodiment of care, one student told her:
Miss, you’re welcome every game. Yeah you’re loud and yes sometimes you are kind of a scene, but we like to have
you there. . . . I know that every game I go to, miss [Corazón] is gonna be there and there’s no doubt who she’s
cheering for. (Ms. Corazón, personal communication, March 11, 2016)

Though she described herself as the “embarrassing mom” figure at games, she recognized her students’
appreciation of her attendance and the impact this had in the classroom as students engaged with her
more positively and encouraged peers to do the same.
Ms. Corazón also described participation with other school events, such as recitals and dances, and
with family events, such as birthdays. She noted how attending recitals helped expand her knowledge
about and expectations for her students in addition to informing ways to connect students’ interests
and talents into the classroom. This concern for her students’ success and wellbeing beyond the
classroom and her contracted hours of employment demonstrated an embodied care. Moreover, this
care was mutually recognized by her students through their remarks and reactions.
Ms. Corazón built relationships with her students by eating lunch in the cafeteria with students on
a daily basis at the beginning of the year. Although it took three weeks for her to be able to eat with all
three hundred seventh graders, she felt this effort strongly impacted the classroom community in
positive ways. She explained:
[Now] I can just call [students] out because I personally know their names. I have a strong relationship and bond
because I’ve broken bread with them. . . . I just enter those [communities] and it’s kind of like by invitation only.
(Ms. Corazón, personal communication, March 11, 2016)

Ms. Corazón understood interactions with students beyond the classroom in relational ways – as
convivencia – and, as such, seamlessly connected life across spaces, in and out of the classroom.
Ms. Corazón similarly described the classroom like a home in which all (family members) must
succeed together. A mantra she regularly shared with students was: “We’re all in this boat together”
(Ms. Corazón, personal communication, March 11, 2016). Toward this, she shared personal aspects
with her students, such as her love for 80’s music and Prince, and was attentive to her students’
personal lives, incorporating their music (e.g., Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)) and interests (e.g., soccer)
into her pedagogy. Contextualizing this, Ms. Corazón described her belief that all teachers should treat
children with respect and dignity, facilitate teamwork, and be invested in a child’s success, wellbeing,
and humanity. She further expressed a reciprocally-based relationship with her students. She told
them, “I will only be with you for one year, and you will only need me this one year . . .. I’m gonna need
you for the rest of my life. So it does me more good if you’re educated” (Ms. Corazón, personal
communication, March 11, 2016). She recalled how students laughed with her as she told them that
one day she would be a viejita walking into their doctor office, depending on them.
Recounting her experiences within the classroom, Ms. Corazón shared an instance she was
particularly proud of. She shared about how one group of advanced students worked together to
prepare for the eighth-grade level (a year above) state-required math test:
10 G. REYES ET AL.

But this particular class . . . they had such a small timeframe to reach a big goal – to be able to take an eighth-grade
level class and be tested on it in March and have one chance. . . . There were five of them who are struggling really
badly. . . . I was told to kick them out. They were performing so poorly on eighth-grade level material that I was
told they’re not going to pass, we need to get them out of the classroom. And I didn’t. I was the only teacher who
didn’t take kids out of the advanced class. . . . I kept 100% of my kids and at the end, I told them the story. I said,
‘did you know that I was told to get rid of some you because you wouldn’t make it?’ And they were like, ‘really?
Who was it? Who was it?’ And I was like, ‘it doesn’t matter. Who’s still here? We’re all still here. We’re all in this
boat, and we all stayed in the same boat together. And we helped each other to grow, and y’all taught each other.’
I didn’t tell them who it was, but those bottom five kids all passed. . . . And one of my kids performed better than
most of the eighth graders. He got the academic recognition. . . . So the bottom five kids passing . . . that’s
a testament. I didn’t boot anyone off of our boat. (Ms. Corazón, personal communication, July 21, 2016)

Ms. Corazón’s engagement of students in co-constructing a caring, “all together” community served as
another example of embodied care.
Ms. Corazón’s embodied pedagogy of care was not unidirectional or self-defined. Rather she
engaged in reciprocal, mutually-defined caring practices that privileged and valued communities
both her and her students belonged to within and beyond the school. Ms. Corazón and her students
co-constructed a community that valued all and defined success in collective terms. This was
supported through her work to weave herself into her students’ communities through substantive
and authentic communication with parents, an “othermother” (Dixson & Dingus, 2008) positioning,
and sharing physical spaces with her students outside of the classroom. Ms. Corazón sought entry into
student communities without desiring to gain something from the relationship, but rather did so out
of an authentic desire to convivir, to walk alongside parents and students through this moment in life
(i.e. 7th grade).

Embodying care through performance

(Caldas): My data is not about a teacher I witnessed, but about my own pedagogical practices as a teacher
educator. I merged my different roles as an instructor, critical ethnographer, and facilitator of drama-based
pedagogies–or Joker (Boal, 2000). I analyzed my own experience and pedagogy through the conversations
I had with Reyes and Banda. With them, I revisited the memories I had of the research experience, as well as
my data (i.e. videos, pre and post session fieldnotes, positionality statement, and journal pages).
My research was conducted within a context I was well acquainted with, the bilingual teacher
preparation program I worked for. I developed a rapport with this community by speaking and
conducting workshops for a bilingual student-led organization. These experiences provided me with
a unique view of the students’ struggle with language, the disconnection between theory and practice,
and their self-doubt. I also got a sense of their unity and their positive attitude of doing their best, or
what they would call, “écharle ganas.” This knowledge enabled me to understand the needs of this
community and the urgency of a critical, bicultural pedagogy approach (Darder, 2012).
I utilized Theater of the Oppressed (Boal, 2000) as a drama-based pedagogy in the bilingual pre-
service teacher classroom to find solutions to pressing issues that affect bilingual teachers’ advocacy
through performance. This enabled the pre-service teachers to co-construct social-justice oriented
teacher identities. Due to my own trajectory as a bilingual educator, I also chose this pedagogy because
I believe that a stage would help pre-service teachers develop their own stance as future teachers.
A reflection written in 2011 described the reasoning behind my choice of theater as a pedagogical tool:

Being on stage provided me the tools to exteriorize my emotions and feeling. The energy required to embody the
whole self in every rehearsal and production was exhausting but gave me the strength to look myself at the mirror
and taught me to channel my actions and feelings, giving them a name while making sense of what happened
inside my head. Theater gave me the ownership of my emotions and my actions. My voice was born on
a theatrical stage where I was free to play and experiment, to transgress and create; as Fichandler states, “the
notion of play is indissolubly connected to the idea of freedom” (In Kanter, 2007, p. 393, italics added). (Self-
reflection, November 26th, 2011).
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 11

The stories the participants performed illustrated the confrontation between protagonist(s) and
antagonist(s) in the bilingual classroom and became backdrops to examine racism, classism, linguistic
discrimination, and xenophobia. The counterstories as texts provided a sense of immediacy, urgency
and closeness for the participants:
We’re reading all this facts on how to approach these situations but when you actually see it happen, you get to
actually go further beyond your mind and start thinking about how to approach it. You feel it more to heart when
you feel it more in person when someone say I just saw that. You feel it present, someone in your life; when I read
it in the book it’s kind of far away, (Ana Maria, Interview, March 2015)

I mentioned to the students that I collected the stories to perform from local experienced bilingual
teachers. The students’ awareness that the narratives they performed were based on the experiences of
teachers’ who lived in the same neighborhoods they lived in, forged a more intimate connection
between them and the narratives they performed.
My students responded to and participated in the scenarios based on their knowledge, experiences,
intuition, and beliefs. Their exposure to the counterstories became experiential and sensory episodes
as they performed the pieces and embodied the teacher they were playing while also playing the
teacher they strove to become. The initial reactions to the performance were emotional as they
experienced an initial paralysis and outrage caused by the strong emotions some of the participants
experienced when exposed to the stories:
Sharon: I remember when we just got done with the performances and were sitting down, and I still
feel that, not to the same degree, pero como nerviosa (but, like nervous).
Luz: Adrenaline.
Sharon: And you’re kind of like sitting there or going out of the class but still thinking over and over
again of what you said, you know.
Luz: or what you could have said because you’re just so in the, mixed in the emotions (Interview 1,
February 2015).
This stage of outrage and paralysis was crucial since this opened an opportunity for discussion and
creativity as the participants took ownership of the process and collectively decided to become more
strategic in their participation. The use of drama-based pedagogy allowed learning by inciting “dis-
comfort, conflict, [and] deep learning” (Andreotti, 2011, p. 235). Within a safe space of mutual respect,
this taught participants how to embody and work through their discomfort and embodied possibilities
for care. They started to rehearse their teacher selves on stage by imagining what an educator sounds
and looks like when confronting differing ideas in professional settings. They also provided support to
one another by offering feedback and suggestions for the best course of action. The transformation of
the space when the participants took the reins of the process was evident, slow but steady:
There was a time when some went to the front to coach the performers, as if it were a boxing match. Later, some
students just raised their hands and without even giving their argument went and replaced the performers and
provided more arguments to help them support their ideas. (Fieldnotes, October 2014)

The fact that the cohort president gifted me their cohort t-shirt that says “Bilingual Education: only
because magnificent intellectual role model is not an official major,” reassured me that my student
participants had come to embrace the drama-based pedagogical approach.

Analysis from Reyes and Banda

Before Caldas conducted her study, she established rapport and mutual respect with the bilingual pre-
service teacher community to intimately learn about these future educators. This groundwork served
as an accountability system for her to portray the educators on their own terms, rather than imposing
her own ideas or making assumptions. These understandings and relationships, in turn, guided her
pedagogical decisions. Mutual respect also became an ongoing practice for Caldas through her highly
12 G. REYES ET AL.

interactive and performance-based practice in which everyone had to work together to craft produc-
tive responses to conflict. Initial experiences with students as well as the constructed pedagogical
spaces of discomfort fostered personal connections between Caldas and her students. They experi-
enced vulnerable moments in which they collectively negotiated their roles in the scenarios they
performed. Through performance, the students embodied alternative views of the world as they acted
out possibilities for their character. This embodiment stirred emotion, even “outrage and paralysis” for
the students, thereby fostering intimate and personal caring connections with one another. As one
student noted in the interview quoted above, “You feel it more to heart when you feel it more in
person . . . someone in your life . . . ”. Thus, Caldas centered the knowledge and experiences of her
students through their bodies, emotions, and interpersonal relationships. Finally, not only was she
a mentor for her students by challenging them through drama-based pedagogy, but her own students
stepped up as mentors by coaching one another through their exercises. Caldas also facilitated
students’ development as mentors for one another. Mentorship took center stage through ongoing
discussions during class.

Discussion
This meta-study is an example of how Latina/Chicana teacher bodies and practices can generate
theory. Each author has presented examples of teaching practices that are contextual and vary across
teaching styles and levels (i.e. secondary and post-secondary), however two major themes of EPC unite
them. First, EPC is exemplified through the practice of a shared understanding of care. For instance,
Mrs. Santos in Reyes' study went beyond the standard teen parenting program curriculum by
responding to her students’ need to discuss dating violence. In Banda's study, Ms. Corazón embraced
a motherly role to provide mentorship for her students within and outside of the classroom. Caldas
practiced drama-based pedagogy with teacher candidates to foster a space in which they co-
constructed performances of bilingual teachers’ lived experiences. Second, educators developed
a shared community of care. Mrs. Santos’ testimonio fostered a space in which communal healing
took place for everyone. Ms. Corazón nurtured collaboration toward student success rather than
adhering to individualistic norms. Caldas allowed students to participate in the construction of the
course through performance and embodiment of narratives. These examples illustrate a deep level of
personalized, authentic care that requires energy and commitment beyond the confines of the class-
room and standard curriculum.
The Latina/Chicana educators we witnessed also blurred the lines between the personal/public,
student/teacher, mother/mentor, performance/practice, and play/work. An example of this is how Ms.
Corazón served as an othermother for her students. In connection with black feminist epistemologies
(Collins, 1991), Ms. Corazón embraced students as if they were her very own children, thereby
expanding her role as a teacher beyond the walls of the classroom. She located herself within what
she conceptualized as the community of her students and embodied care through familial pedagogical
practices like attending every home and away game of her female students. Ms. Corazón became part
of a larger support network for her students. By blurring the lines between the personal/public and
mother/mentor the Latina/Chicana educators opened up pedagogical spaces of nepantla (Reza-Lopez
et al., 2014) through their interactions with their students. Connecting to Latina/Chicana epistemol-
ogies, by pedagogical spaces of nepantla we mean that the teacher and student interact in ways that
equalizes the power dynamic so that the student connects with the teacher at a personal level. Caldas
physically and intimately integrated her body/self into her pedagogy to push students to learn through
their bodies. She also crafted a dialogic space in which students could learn by interacting not only
with her, but also with one another through play and challenging traditional, hierarchical notions of
teacher/student. Caldas and her students also practiced embodied care as they learned how to offer
ideas and feedback to one another. In these examples, the Latina/Chicana educators were not afraid to
personalize their cariño (care) through vulnerability and intimacy.
 JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION 13

Moreover, traditional notions of teachers doing all the care work in the classroom can be draining
and can default into a savior mentality (Aronson, 2017), resulting in the fixing of students rather than
working in solidarity with them. Instead of depending on a unidirectional flow of care, EPC fosters
reciprocal support systems in which the teacher’s wellbeing, including their emotional wellbeing
(Chang, 2009), is maintained alongside the students. The teachers in our narratives understood that
their own wellbeing is entwined with the wellbeing of their students. Rather than learning about
culturally relevant teaching through a workshop or manual, they learned responsive teaching practices
through their interactions with students and becoming part of their lives. EPC is a process in which the
teacher and students mutually develop new understandings of care informed by each other’s cultural
knowledge.
There have been calls for “knowledge to action” (e.g., the AERA 2017 conference theme) or
examples of “what works” for students of color in regards to pedagogy and care (Ladson-Billings,
2008). We respond to these calls by showing specific examples of how Latina/Chicana teachers meet
the educational needs of some of the most disenfranchised students in Texas. These examples are part
of our meta-study findings that generated an onto-theoretical framework that is useful for any
educator who seeks to deepen authentic care with students. Along this vein, this study complements
and expands upon scholarship about care in the lives of Latinx youth (Garza & Soto Huerta, 2014;
Newcomer, 2018; Sosa-Provencio, 2016). This work also contributes to meta-study (Hoon, 2013)
methodologies by showing how theory can be generated out of multiple empirical studies. We also
expand current Latina/Chicana feminist perspectives on care by showing examples of the intimate and
personal side of caring teaching practices.
That said, we recognize a limitation in our study in that we focus on teacher practices with students
who are mostly Latinx in the southwest region of the U.S. So, what does care look like in different
regions with teachers and students of various backgrounds? To offer direction for future study, first,
EPC is not something innate or a given uniquely found within Latina/Chicana teachers. What we point
out instead is that the teachers in this study worked from a common ontological orientation, or world
view, that they acquired through their lived experiences as Latinas who grew up learning the value of
community and convivencia. However, it takes practice to develop this communal world view into
action. Thus, EPC involves the practice and development of skills in order to build a caring learning
community. That said, a teacher of any background can hone in on EPC as a lens from which to craft
their own caring pedagogies with their particular students through practice and engagement with
them. Second, the teachers in our studies may share a similar cultural background with many of their
students, however, their care didn’t automatically happen by virtue of sharing a similar background.
Instead, it took action and an investment from the teachers to connect with students, learn from them,
and build rapport. And finally, the Latina/Chicana teachers did not share the same cultural back-
ground with all students. While the majority of the students were Latinx, two of the educators, Caldas
and Ms. Corazón, did not share the same national identity or immigration status with all Latinx
students (e.g., Mexican-origin, U.S. citizen teacher and a Salvadorian, U.S. resident student). Both
educators also had multilingual, multiracial, and multicultural classes with some white, black, and
middle-eastern students. Yet, by personalizing their pedagogy and engaging with students through
convivencia, the teachers crafted communities of care with all students, regardless of culture and other
social identifiers. This is not to say that culture does not matter; it is precisely the embracing of
different cultural experiences that is essential in EPC. Thus, EPC can be a cross-cultural practice, as
long the teacher is willing to invest in community and a shared understanding of care with students.
This takes practice and the willingness from teachers to listen and learn from their students and
communities.
While EPC is derived from the pedagogical practices and cultural knowledges of Latina/Chicana
educators, this does not mean that teachers from other cultural backgrounds cannot embody care in
intimate ways with their own students. Rather than compiling “how to” strategies or prescribing
a teaching model, through EPC we identified two core elements (practice of shared understanding of
care and develop a shared community of care) that can help all educators consider how to tailor their
14 G. REYES ET AL.

own pedagogies of authentic care to best work with Latinx students. This article offers examples to
help educators translate complex concepts into real life situations and teaching approaches. Echoing
Ladson-Billings (1995), and other critical pedagogical frameworks, what we present are examples of
“good teaching” that benefit all students.1 Thus, our scholarly contribution aligns with other critical
caring pedagogies that empower and support disenfranchised students.2

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID
Ganiva Reyes http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9905-0582
Racheal M. Banda http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0523-4864
Blanca Caldas http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8730-416X

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