First-Generation Mentoring from our Ancestors: An Unbounded Critical Pedagogy
- Araceli Lopez-Valdivia (Iowa State University)
- Ricardo Martinez (Iowa State University)
Abstract
A critical pedagogy (Giroux, 2011) focuses on humanizing relationships that seeks to liberate the oppressed. Wherein, a democratic critical pedagogy (Shor, 2014) places an emphasis on shared knowledge construction in balancing the power dynamics with between teacher and learner. A democratic critical pedagogy applied towards a mentoring program creates a space for empowerment for both the mentor and mentee. In this case a first-generation undergraduate student (mentee) and first-generation graduate student (mentor) will share how they co-created a mentoring space of empowerment that embodies a path to what Anzaldua calls spiritual activism (2009), a space welcoming an interconnectedness against non-binary classifications towards individual and social transformation.