Michelle Salazar Pérez

Chicana and Black feminisms: Testimonios of theory,identity and multiculturalism

In this article, we examine our own testimonios inspired by Chicana and Black feminisms that have not only informed our research and teaching but have also helped us to make sense of our lives. We offer our testimonios related to theory, identity negotiations, and pedagogical concerns with teaching multiculturalism as a way to recognize and acknowledge that as academics, researchers, and teachers, we must continue to learn language from, and create new language for, our theoretical spaces that help us to express and navigate the complexity and multiple locations of struggles and resistance. Collectively, testimonios facilitate crucial lessons for examining the interconnectedness between Chicana and Black feminisms through the lived experiences of those living in or on the margins. They also provide critical self-reflection that is needed to unlearn oppression that exists within each of us.

Situational Analysis as an Avenue for Critical Qualitative Research Mapping Post-Katrina New Orleans

Hypercapitalism in the United States and globally has created neoliberal conditions that have reinterpreted notions of the public good as an entrepreneurial endeavor. In this current context, critical qualitative methods such as situational analysis combined with theoretical perspectives like Black feminist thought can provide activist methodological tools to expose and reenvision privatized constructions of the common good. In this article, we describe possibilities for using critical situational analysis to examine a broad range of complex conditions and provide examples of situational mapping from a study focusing on disaster capitalism and the privatization of the public education system in post-Katrina New Orleans. We then offer possibilities for using situational analysis to create new imaginaries for critical qualitative inquiry.

A Call for Onto-Epistemological Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care: Centering Global South Conceptualizations of Childhood/s:

In this chapter, we call for onto-epistemological diversity in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Specifically, we discuss the need to center the brilliance of children and communities of color, which we argue, can be facilitated by foregrounding global south perspectives, such as Black and Chicana feminisms. Mainstream perspectives in ECEC, however, have been dominantly constructed from global north perspectives, producing a normalized White, male, middle-class, heterosexual version of childhood, where minoritized children are viewed as deficit. Although there have been important challenges to the discourse of a normalized, deficit child, we argue much of this work has remained grounded in global north positionings, which separate theory from the lived realities of children of color. As such, we introduce Black and Chicana feminisms as global south visions to transform approaches to research and pedagogy in ECEC and, in turn, disrupt inequities.

Black Feminist Activism: Theory as Generating Collective Resistance

Black feminist scholars have theorized ways in which power permeates our everyday lived experiences. The authors of this article, a university faculty member and a grassroots community activist, share their collective Black feminist activist efforts to find spaces of resistance and empowerment within oppressive conditions in the city of New Orleans.

Emboldened Patriarchy in Higher Education Feminist Readings of Capitalism, Violence, and Power

The authors of this article provide multiple stories of capitalist violence within and outside of higher education as facilitated by patriarchy and evidenced by the recent stories of abuse and power embedded within college football at Pennsylvania State University. Acknowledging that the constructs patriarchy and feminist(s) have been heavily contested, the authors argue for resurrection of examinations of patriarchy, and specifically capitalist patriarchy, in contemporary analyses of power.

Chicana/Latina Feminist Critical Qualitative Inquiry: Meditations on Global Solidarity, Spirituality, and the Land

In this article we take a journey into using Chicana/Latina feminisms as one way to unearth new possibilities for critical qualitative inquiry (CQI). We start by offering a brief overview of Gloria Anzaldúas influence on Chicana/Latina feminism, focusing on how she has inspired researching and writing from within rather than about as a decolonial turn (Keating, 2015). We then venture into new imaginaries to pose questions that would lead us to ponder about global feminista solidarity, the spirit, and the land. Our hope is that these contemplations lead us on a path of conocimiento where we can put the broken pieces of our/selves back together again.

Black feminist photovoice: Fostering critical awareness of diverse families and communities in early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACT In an undergraduate families and communities course situated at a university in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico, early childhood majors have used Black feminist thought combined with photovoice to generate projects that explore family and community experiences with power and oppression. As a professor, teaching assistant, and student enrolled in the course, we share our conceptualization of Black feminist photovoice, student trends and issues engaging with photovoice throughout the semester, and provide an example culminating project that focuses on colonization. By describing students’ engagement with Black feminist photovoice, we illustrate how transformative spaces can be forged in early childhood teacher education, where students critically examine the struggles and empowerment of marginalized communities, and generate possibilities to serve as agents of social justice and change.

Repositioning childhood lived experiences within adult contexts: A Black feminist analysis of childhood/s regulation in early childhood care and education:

Children have been governed within early childhood care and education in ways that would be heavily scrutinized if the same situations occurred within adult contexts. As such, in this article, we utilize Black feminist perspectives to interrogate and (re)examine childhood regulatory spaces. We provide readers with storied narratives that demonstrate how younger human beings are violated, controlled, and disciplined. To emphasize these points, we describe these same childhood experiences as if they were happening to adults. Examples of situations interrogated include everyday childhood routines, the use of assessment to determine ability grouping, and implementation of classroom management systems. Theorizing the narratives with a Black feminist lens inspires the rethinking of everyday (sometimes unrealized) regulation of younger human beings in early childhood care and education.

Challenging the Neoliberal Climate in Academia from Mentoring Perspectives: Critical Reflections from Our Future Selves

We find an absence of many methods of support for critical qualitative scholars in the changing academic climate, especially under contemporary neoliberal conditions that include the privileging of academic capitalism. Currently, we find that we have plenty of advice for our former early career selves, which led us to imagine what it might be like if our future selves could talk to our present selves and provide needed mentoring. We anticipate that our future selves would give us comfort and strategic advice, and challenge our ideas about our place and role in the academy. In this critical dialogic narrative, we reflect on what the “future” tenured Michelle would tell the “current” untenured Michelle and what the “future” full professor Penny might tell the “current” associate professor Penny to increase motivation and risk taking, and further challenge the neoliberal practices within the academy.

Black Feminist Thought in Early Childhood Studies: (Re)Centering Marginalized Feminist Perspectives

Early childhood as a field, historically, has been informed by the perspectives of white men from the global north (Burman 1994). This has resulted in the universalization of development discourses, producing rigid constructions of childhood/s, and Othering those who do not fit into dominant identity constructs. The reconceptualist movement has been instrumental in uncovering regulatory discourses and opening spaces to reimagine and rethink childhood/s (Bloch et al. 2014). Still absent, however, in early childhood studies are the perspectives of women of color. As such, this chapter calls for a more prominent presence of theories from the margins like Black feminist thought (Collins 2008). Specific examples are shared that illustrate how Black feminist thought can provoke the telling of lived experiences, unveil social and systemic power hierarchies in both methodological approaches and in teacher education, and inspire activism. The chapter concludes with a discussion on why Black feminist thought is essential to the field.