Cathartic Border Pedagogies: The Decolonization of Citizenship in Borderlands Government Classrooms

ABSTRACTThis thought piece explored the scholarship that expands and disrupts ideas of citizenship. In U.S. civic education classrooms, citizenship is viewed through the lens of a legal model that does not accurately reflect mixed-status classrooms in U.S.-Mexico border schools. We argue for a cathartic pedagogy that normalizes the discussion of alternatives to dominant citizenship identities in K-20 classrooms. Thus, we drew on borderlands-centered pedagogy, and critical pedagogies of counterstory and testimony to put counter-narration in conversation with cultural citizenship. We invite educators to use any combination of these educational principles to empower students in their Borderlands classrooms.KEYWORDS: BorderlandsLatinécatharsiscitizenshipcivic educationcounter-narration Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).