Co-constructing a pedagogy of radical belonging: Plática~testimonio as a methodology in teaching for social justice

Pláticas and testimonio are Chicana feminist epistemologies through which knowledge is co-constructed, personal stories are shared, and spaces of healing are created. In this chapter, we discuss how we, two female university teachers of color based in the United States and the Netherlands, used plática~testimonio as a methodology to reflect on and co-construct knowledge on our justice-oriented pedagogical practices over the course of one academic year. We held virtual pláticas and wrote testimonios of our experiences with students, drawing on a radical belonging framework which considers critical care, responsive and collaborative learning, and resistance to systemic oppression as key to the belonging of students (Louie et al., 2022). Our plática~testimonios allowed us to be intentional about the ways we were creating spaces of belonging, particularly for students with other marginalized identities and served as a generative space for genuine sharing of our teaching experiences and co-constructing knowledge on justice-oriented pedagogies.