Date of Award

2026-05-22

Degree Name

PhD Education for Social Justice

Dissertation Committee

Reyes L. Quezada, EdD, Chair Zulema Reynoso, PhD, Member Windy Franklin Martinez, PhD, Member Patti Flores-Charter, MA, Content Expert

Keywords

Chicana Feminista DisCrit, Educadora Curandera Praxis, Decolonizing learning disabilities assessment, California Community Colleges, Latina students with disabilities

Abstract

Although California Community Colleges (CCCs) offer learning disability (LD) assessments to determine eligibility for academic accommodations, for Latina students navigating converging forces of race, gender, language, citizenship, and ableism, these assessments often surface unspoken histories of harm. This study advanced Chicana feminista DisCrit (CFDC), extending disability critical race theory through Chicana spirituality and cultural intuition to examine possibilities when an educadora situates assessments in a plática grounded in consideración—respectful, relational, and unhurried care.

Rooted in Chicana feminist pláticas methodology and authored from the positionality of a disabled Latina scholar–practitioner, this qualitative decolonial dissertation explored how Latina students reflected on LD assessments and how institutions can respond in humanizing ways. Eleven Latina CCC Knowledge Holders who previously qualified for LD services participated in virtual, multisession pláticas surfacing testimonios and convivencia. From these narratives, the study evolved the telar (loom), as a culturally grounded analytic framework, drawing on Chicana feminist epistemologies to trace the urdimbre (warp) of identity and trama (weft) of the Knowledge Holders’ corazones (hearts) and voces (voices). Analysis employed iterative transcript-based coding, including heart-based and in vivo coding, to weave findings through the telar structure.

Findings revealed three interwoven patterns. First, the urdimbre exposed judgment, cultural silence, and institutional harm, holding Knowledge Holders in suspended breath, carrying histories the institution was never designed to hold. Second, el choque emerged as standardized assessment collided with embodied knowing, the moment where trama and trauma became intertwined. Third, when the assessment was held in a plática grounded in consideración, educadora curandera praxis enabled restoration through witnessing, holding, and repair.

Together, these findings positioned LD assessments as sites of wounding and pláticas as pathways toward reclamation. This dissertation offered CFDC, the telar, and educadora curandera praxis as original frameworks for scholars, practitioners, and institutions committed to recognizing, receiving, and restoring the full humanity of Latina students in higher education. It asks educators, practitioners, and institutions to answer for what happens when a Latina walks into an assessment room and receives a spirit-breaking score where she needed a witness and consideración. This dissertation is an example of what that moment requires.

Document Type

Dissertation: Open Access

Department

Learning and Teaching

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