Chapter 4: Coraje Y Amor

Correspondence concerning this chapter can be addressed to Rebeca Burciaga, Department of Educational Leadership, Connie L. Lurie College of Education & Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, College of Social Sciences, San José State University, San José, California, 95192-0072. Contact: rebeca.burciaga@sjsu.edu

With respect to preparing educational leaders and educators to work with communities of Color, there is an apartheid of knowledge (Delgado Bernal & Villalpando, 2002)—a systemic marginalization and devaluation of the epistemological knowledge of people of Color (López, 2003). Chicana Feminist Epistemology scholarship has especially highlighted the chasm between the field of Education and the field of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies. The book Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology (Villenas et al., 2006) provided multiple perspectives, grounded in Chicana/Latina knowledge, on teaching, learning, and ways of knowing in the field of education that were grounded in Chicana/Latina knowledge. It was in this compendium that we submitted what would become our first academic publication; Our Pedagogy of Sisterhood: A Testimonio (Burciaga & Tavares, 2006) where we describe sisterhood as a pedagogical strategy to sustain our academic and professional pursuits. Our hermandad began much earlier with our meeting as Ed.M. students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1998. We were different, yet similar. Our experiences spanned East/West Coast upbringings as first and second-generation college students. As a Chicana and a Dominicana, our bond was strengthened through trusting and exploring our cultural intuition (Delgado Bernal, 1998)— an acknowledgement of our insight informed by cultura. It is in reclaiming our complexities—our Latinidades—that we learned to resist traditional paradigms of hermandad. This personal and professional sisterhood has continued through our careers in schools and universities spanning decades. Rebeca Burciaga’s Masters was in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy with a concentration in Higher Education and she continued to earn a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with a concentration in Race and Ethnic Studies. Ana Tavares’ Masters was in School Leadership where she earned a K-12 administrative credential. Ana is currently a doctoral student and recently was appointed an Elementary Superintendent after leading a public dual language school in a Latina/o/x community for the last nine years. Rebeca is a professor of Educational Leadership with a joint appointment in Chicana and Chicano Studies at San José State University. Our commitment to educational equity for our Latina/o/x communities fuels our personal and professional relationship in practice, teaching, and research within the field of Educational Leadership.