Portraits of Mujeres Desjuiciadas: Womanist pedagogies of the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary

Abstract

In this article, Ruth Trinidad Galvan describes her ethnographic study with rural women and their communities in Central Mexico, as well as her affiliation with a grassroots popular education organization. The organizing mechanism of the small savings groups and the women's work and participation in them inspired a reconceptualization of ''pedagogy'' situated in the multiple subject positions and conditions of campesinas. The reconceptualization of ''pedagogy,'' thus stems from a womanist perspective as it is based on the socio-cultural and economic conditions affecting campesinas, and situated in a complex web of interpersonal relationships of the everyday. Trinidad Galvan, then, describes the organic pedagogical forms of spirituality, well-being and convivencia as interrelated modes of teaching and learning, knowledge creation and identity production. Her work with campesinas and exploration of womanist pedagogies further expand US knowledge of immigrant peoples' values and experiences, as well as the ways they live, learn and teach each other in the everyday.