Trauma and resilience in the lives and education of Hmong American students: forging pedagogies of remembrance with critical refugee discourse

From First to First: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color First-Generation Faculty and Administrator Narratives of Intersectional Marginality and Mattering as Communal Praxis

“…Thus, these stories serve as an archive of both systematized forms of oppression and fractures in these conditions that allow for liberatory potential. This historical record also chronicles the capacity, agency, and self-determination of FGS and BIPOC FGF/A, and as such offers a critical remembering of FGS and FGF/A lives that is both contextual and counterhegemonic [16]. These experiences that are at the exact intersections of racism, classism, and patriarchy hold power as a point of connection among faculty and students, while also being a source of knowledge into possible institutional interventions [9].…”

“…These principles serve as a foundation for communal praxis, which situates stories and narrative as having the potential to be a radical, transformative, and coalitional praxis [13]. This kind of praxis can involve academic socialization that imbues critical race, class, and gender consciousness as well as engages critical remembering, which is contextual and counterhegemonic [16]. As such, stories not only trace marginalization, but work to heal [16,56].…”

“…This kind of praxis can involve academic socialization that imbues critical race, class, and gender consciousness as well as engages critical remembering, which is contextual and counterhegemonic [16]. As such, stories not only trace marginalization, but work to heal [16,56]. When centering intersectionality, moreover, narratives can function to dismantle dichotomized roles of student and institutional agent (e.g., faculty, administrators), and consequently press upon the divisive structures of education informed by logics of racism and classism/neoliberalism.…”

“…The will and capacity to remember such experiences offers a source of strength and insight [11,16]. When asked "Would you say that the financial struggle helped you in the long run?…”

“…In particular, I discuss how communal praxis involves attending to and countering forms of intersectional marginality that reproduce oppressive social and education dynamics experienced by students and institutional agents. This process engages a kind of remembrance that is tied to experiential knowledge of suffering [11] and draws connections to broader structural dynamics [16] to highlight FGS/F/A experiences. Communal praxis also involves affirming that students matter and bringing visibility to-and consequently dislodgingsystems of power such as racism, classism, and patriarchy.…”