Early Care and Education Testimonios at the Borderlands

• Main Author: Torres Siders, Jennifer
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2019
• Subjects: Chicana feminist epistemology; child care providers; early care and education; Latinas; mass media representation of Latinas; testimonio; Early childhood education; Educational sociology; Chicana/o Studies; Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Administration and Supervision; Educational Leadership; Educational Methods; Educational Sociology; Latina/o Studies
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3577; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4575&context=uop_etds

Latinas represent a large proportion of the United States early care and education workforce, and thus have the potential to wield significant influence over the growth and development of millions of American children. However, the voices of Latina early childhood professionals often are missing in both research and mass media. Instead, social, political, and academic frames cast Latinas as foreign regardless of nationality, uneducated notwithstanding expertise, and passive despite action and influence. This testimonio analysis draws on Chicana feminist epistemology to re-center the perspectives of Latina child care providers and reveal more authentic insights on how they understand and perform their roles within the broader social contexts that define and delimit Latina identity in the United States. The collective account that emerges from their testimonios is one of straddling multiple borders: between influence and invisibility, between the personal and the professional, and between community and isolation.