Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
5-1-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Curriculum & Instruction
First Advisor
Ana Diaz Beltran
Second Advisor
Laura Jewett
Third Advisor
Pauli Badenhorst
Abstract
This study examines how teachers in the Rio Grande Valley engage in subversive resistance within the context of contemporary legislative constraints regulating discussions of race, identity, and history in K–12 classrooms. Grounded in Chicana Feminist Epistemology (Delgado Bernal, 1998) and informed by Aoki’s distinction between curriculum-as-plan and lived curriculum (Aoki, 2005), this qualitative study employs critical narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and analysis of narrative to explore how educators navigate stateimposed restrictions. Drawing on teacher narratives, the study centers hablando para atrás (hooks, 1989) as a pedagogical stance through which educators sustain critical engagement under conditions of constraint. Findings reveal that resistance is enacted not through overt defiance, but through relational, calibrated practices embedded in everyday instruction. These practices give rise to espacios coyunturales (Thornton-Guzman & Diaz Beltran, 2024)—negotiated spaces where teachers maintain intellectual rigor and historical complexity. The study challenges binary framings of compliance and resistance, demonstrating that resistance is reconstituted within, rather than outside of, policy constraints.
Recommended Citation
Thornton-Guzman, B. L. (2026). Haciendo Caras Y Hablando Para Atrás: Conceptualizing Espacios Coyunturales/Bridged Spaces as Teachers Resistance to Contemporary Reactionary Legislative Initiatives in K-12 Social Studies [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley]. ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/etd/1884
Comments
Copyright 2026 Britney Louise Thornton-Guzman. All Rights Reserved. https://proquest.com/docview/3371250447