Testimonios as a Methodological Third Space: Disrupting Epistemological Racism in Applied Linguistics

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the use of testimonio methodology, born from Chicana/Latina feminist thought and epistemologies as a way of exploring the languaging and knowledge production practices of minoritized communities as a platform to share their/our wisdom/voices in applied linguistics. As such, testimonio is a methodology that allows racialized scholars and accomplices to foreground their/our languaging and knowledges and thus disrupt deficit framings. This paper explores the benefits of using testimonios in applied linguistics as one way of disrupting epistemological racism. Drawing on examples from three different youth who took part in a multiyear culturally sustaining systemic functional linguistics oriented program we show the power of using various types of testimonios to examine/understand the languaging and literacies practices of racialized youth. Implications indicate that the co-creation of knowledge/understanding is what makes testimonios a powerful and insightful methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Testimonios
• pláticas
• LatCrit
• methodology
• applied linguistics
• apartheid of knowledge
• epistemological racism
• culturally sustaining systemic functional linguistics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Latiné is used to replace Latino which some consider as a word that genderizes or creates a male-female binary.