Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies: Decolonial Pedagogies, Literacies, and Methodologies(17 Education and Struggle)

Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies: Decolonial Pedagogies, Literacies, and Methodologies presents an investigation of decolonization in the context of education and what this means for ethnic studies projects. It accomplishes this exploration by looking at the history of Raza communities, defined broadly as the Indigenous and mestizo working class peoples from Latin America, with a focus on the complex yet unifying Chicanx-Mexican experience in the Southwest United States. This book bridges the fields of history, pedagogy, and decolonization through a creative and interweaving methodology that includes critical historiography, dialogue, autoethnography, and qualitative inquiry. Collectively, this work opens new ground, challenging scholars and educators to rethink critical education rooted in traditional and Western frameworks. Arguing for decolonial and Indigenous approaches, the author invites educators and cultural workers to reflect on learning and community in their praxis. Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies will be of interest to students of ethnic studies and Latin American and Mexican history. It is also relevant to teachers, teacher educators, and scholars who are intent on creating spaces of hope and possibility rooted in Freirean, decolonial, and Indigenous frameworks.

About the Author :
Miguel Zavala received his Ph.D. from UCLA. He is an associate professor at the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. His scholarship explores the intersection of Freirean, decolonizing, and Indigenous-Mexican pedagogies.

Review :
"Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies is a timely text that challenges Xicanx educators, organizers, and scholar activists to contextualize the historical conditions impacting Raza communities and to critically reflect upon the discourses and frames utilized when mobilizing around ethnic studies so as to not perpetuate colonizing practices. Miguel Zavala asks the readers to do so by co-existing with him in a praxis of reflection, dialogue, and healing that consciously situates our work and individual selves as part of a decolonizing collective movement." --Margarita Berta-Ávila, Professor in the College of Education at Sacramento State University "Miguel Zavala's work on the struggle and movement for Raza studies and ethnic studies could not be timelier or more critical in this era of the rise of fascism and its fear-based reaction to the demographic shift that has taken place in public schools, particularly in the U.S. Southwest. His insight into Indigenous epistemologies, critical pedagogies, and the critical analysis of political-economy's impact on Chicanx peoples as viable possibilities for decolonizing and liberatory educational models--far from what we have seen in the traditional binary 'either/or' education proposals for the racialized and economically exploited--provides a nuanced yet solid foundation from which educational scholars and practitioners can operationalize and transform the institutional structures to make them responsive to the holistic needs of Raza youth." --Sean Arce, Educational Consultant at the Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing