ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0483-9585

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

5-1-2028

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Africana, Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies

Program

Spanish - Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o Studies

First Advisor

Johana Londoño

Second Advisor

Pedro Cabán

Third Advisor

Kelly Wissman

Keywords

Testimonio-Praxis, Critical Pedagogy, Latino/a Knowledge, Heritage Language Education, Community-Based Learning, Borderlands Epistemology

Subject Categories

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Community College Leadership | Curriculum and Instruction | Latina/o Studies | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature

Abstract

This dissertation introduces the Testimonio-Praxis Framework, a five-phase critical pedagogy model that repositions Latino/a community knowledge as the epistemological foundation of curriculum design rather than supplementary content. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with six Latino/a students and three Spanish professors at Pierce College, a pseudonymous private liberal arts college in the northeastern United States, this study asks what Latino/a students themselves identify as transformative in their Spanish language education - and what structural conditions prevent that transformation from occurring at scale.

The framework emerges from the convergence of two theoretical traditions: Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, which provides the structural critique of how educational institutions maintain hierarchies of knowledge, and Gloria Anzaldúa's borderlands epistemology, which provides the methodological justification for centering lived experience as legitimate academic inquiry. Together, they ground a five-phase implementation model - Escuchar (deep listening), Conectar (building bridges), Cuestionar (transformative inquiry), Actuar (community-based praxis), and Reflexionar (collaborative reflection) - designed to be portable across disciplines and institutional contexts.

Findings reveal that students were not asking for cultural enrichment. They were asking for testimonios at the center of their learning, for curricula that connected academic work to their communities, and for pedagogical relationships built on genuine recognition rather than deficit assumptions. Faculty working in isolation were already attempting to provide this. The framework systematizes and names what students requested and innovative educators attempted, offering a replicable structure grounded in community epistemology rather than institutional convenience.

The dissertation argues that centering Latino/a knowledge requires not inclusion but epistemic justice - a fundamental repositioning of whose knowledge counts as authoritative and how institutions are held accountable to the communities they claim to serve. Implications extend beyond Spanish language education to any discipline engaged in the work of structural transformation.

Comments

The author has requested a two-year embargo on the publication of this dissertation in order to support ongoing peer-reviewed journal submissions drawn from its original scholarly contributions and to allow for the responsible development of a professional educator training program grounded in the Testimonio-Praxis Framework. The embargo request has been submitted and the committee chair has been notified and is in the process of endorsing it.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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Available for download on Monday, May 01, 2028

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