Political, emotional, powerful: The transformative influence of the Pin[at]y Educational Partnerships (PEP)

The colonial legacy of education has been used as a critical medium in the creation and sustainment of empire in the Philippines. The colonial influences of Spain and America instituted benevolent narratives of Christianity, democracy, and education to control the minds, bodies, and souls of many Filipinos. (Constantino 2002; MacDonald & Monkman, 2005: Spring 2005; Woodson 1933). Although education has been a tool of domination, education can serve as a critical counter narrative for both personal and social liberation (Freire 2002; Yosso 2005). The legacies of Spanish and American colonialism permeate through generations of Filipinas/os and the question of identity remains an oppressive stranglehold that Filipina/o American youth face. This research examined the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP): a social justice education leadership pipeline that foster critical Filipina/o American urban educators. I explore the reclamation and refiguration of memory, identity, and action through an appropriation of curriculum, pedagogy, and emplotment that is rooted within the critical historical legacies of Filipinas/os and Filipina/o Americans. The significance of this research reveals the personal narratives of Filipina/o American teachers and students of PEP and how this program has molded their experiences to become educators and leaders in our communities. This project sheds light on community base organizations, schools, colleges, and university partnerships in integrating Filipina/o American studies in K-College curriculum. The design used in this study was derived from the critical hermeneutic and research protocol from Herda (1999). Based on Ricoeur's (1984, 1992) mimesis, narrative identity, and Habermas (1984, 1987) communicative action this research unveiled the following: (1) the formation of agency and responsibility to become socially and politically engaged through a critical appropriation of Filipina/o and Filipina/o American experiences; (2) mediating time and narrative in shaping a critical Filipina/o American identity of community, mentorship, and leadership; (3) and communicative action towards solidarity and reproduction of a critical Filipina/o American lifeworld. Ultimately, this study contributes to the ever changing and dynamic identity of Filipina/o Americans to re-remember and value the indigenous past, as well as the freedom to critically appropriate a new narrative of Filipina/o American studies and identity