Toward a Pedagogy of Border Thinking: Building on Latin@ Students’ Subaltern Knowledge

Abstract

Abstract: Based on Walter Mignolo’s (2000) notion of border thinking , that is, the subaltern knowledge generated from the exterior borders of the modern/colonial world system, this article extends current conceptual frameworks for the implementation of a decolonizing border pedagogy with Latin@ students in secondary schools. In particular, Cervantes-Soon and Carrillo draw from their own positionalities as border pedagogues, from Mestiz@ theories of intelligences (Carrillo, 2013) and Chicana feminist thought as exemplary articulations of border thinking, and from ethnographic research at a high school in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands to offer three pedagogical practices with the potential to cultivate border thinking and foster student agency toward social transformation.