Nepantla in Georgia and Oaxaca

Abstract

In this dissertation, I explore a methodological combination of critical discourse analysis and linguistic ethnography to explore critical multilingual and multiliterate pedagogies in superdiverse classrooms. Drawing Anzaldúa’s concept of nepantla, I explore what nepantla pedagogies looked like in my own classroom as well as what it may do for teachers and students in classroom. I weave this nepantla as theory and pedagogy through the critical discourse analysis of ethnographic data collected in a public, Oaxacan, elementary school. The analysis revealed pedagogical discourses that silenced the indigenous languages in the monolingual Spanish classroom. A final analysis of student’s narrative, which documented the arrest, and deportation of her mother from Georgia, showed how students’ real language and literacy practices are often at odds with the official language and literacy practices promoted by schools and standards. Additionally, the analysis of her story revealed how narratives written from the perspectives of nepantleras have the potential to rewrite truths, possibly changing what society can consider as moral and good.