Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Curriculum & Instruction

First Advisor

James Jupp

Second Advisor

Karin Lewis

Third Advisor

Ana Carolina Díaz Beltrán

Abstract

A qualitative study of first-year writing students at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) sought to understand the extent to which the practice of writing testimonios transformed how students constructed their sense of identity for social justice. Guided by the research question: How does the practice of writing testimonios in a writing course at an HSI shape faculty and student identity for social justice? This qualitative study analyzed the lived experiences of three former Latine female undergraduates and the researcher in a co - participatory testimonio methodology study. Grounded in the conceptual frameworks of decolonization (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018; Paraskeva, 2013) and testimonio (Beverley, 2022; Delgado Bernal et al., 2012), the study gathered testimonios from four sources: student written testimonios, individual testimonio interviews, a researcher self-testimonio interview, and a testimonio focus group. Thematic analysis yielded eight interconnected themes: (1) In-Between Identity and Social Belonging; (2) Language, Voice, and Legitimacy; (3)Family as Home, Contradiction, and Change Through Immigrating; (4) Immigrating as Sacrifice, Pressure, and the Burden of Turning Out Good or Being Better; (5) School, Self-Writing, and the Possibility of Being Seen; (6) School as Assimilation, Exclusion, Misrecognition, and Racism; (7) Recognition, Advocacy, and Being Seen in Educational Spaces; and (8) Here Versus There: Comparative Meaning-Making Across Place, Pace, Safety, Politics, and Class. The findings reveal that identity was experienced not as fixed or settled but as ongoing, layered, and relational — shaped by language, family, immigration, schooling, and comparative meaning-making across cultural spaces. This study introduces transcultural recovery, defined as the process of reclaiming, restoring, and healing cultural identities that have been subtracted, silenced, diminished, or disrupted by colonial educational systems and broader structures of cultural dominance. The findings suggest that writing testimonios in a First Year Writing course at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) creates the conditions for transcultural recovery by giving participants language for what they have lived and connecting the personal to the historical and collective. Implications for First Year Writing pedagogy, curriculum design at HSIs, and future research on testimonio across disciplines are discussed.

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Copyright © 2026 Amy Montoya. All Rights Reserved. https://proquest.com/docview/3371452792

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