by Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II
In theorizing lived experiences, I employ Gloria Anzaldúa’s autohistoria-teoría as a decolonizing lens (Anzaldúa, 2015). Anzaldúa’s theory of autohistoria-teoría the theorizing of the self, is an approach to bridging in-between spaces or borderlands (Anzaldúa, 2015). Borderlands are in-between spaces that occur geographically, psychologically, intellectually, emotionally, or culturally (Anzaldúa, 2015; Bourriaud, 2020). Decolonization is an ongoing process beyond a curriculum and classroom experience as it impacts invisible areas of human experiences such as: perception of self and others, critical self-reflections, and questioning the world as inhabited daily (García & Sotomayor, 2025). Culturally relevant pedagogies surpass mere representation but also includes activeness through teaching and learning environments towards self-empowerment and transformation (Paris, 2021). I theorize borderland spaces as bridges for connections through autohistoria-teoría and culturally relevant approaches which work towards decolonizing1 learning environments by creating bridges in learning environments. In this article, I propose finding intersections where autohistoria-teoría, decolonization, borderlands and culturally relevant and sustaining practices converge with Universal Design of Learning (UDL).
Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Education (CR-SE)
In the spring of 2022, Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code came into effect and was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin requiring the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to identify areas to develop standards for educator training in culturally relevant and sustaining education (CR-SE).2 Activating new modalities for learning opportunities that serve to decolonize learning environments, I believe that UDL is an approach to establishing a decolonizing praxis as a tool for resistance while challenging Euro-centric academic canons and ideologies by centering under-served and under-represented learners. UDL invites learners and facilitators to combine their borderlands lived experiences with materials, processes, and techniques to inform their learning experiences and empower themselves to access learning preferences which accommodate their individual needs effecting collective narratives and efforts. Implementing practical approaches, UDL offers fundamental pillars that work to bridge and connect culturally relevant and sustain diverse learning environments.
Intersections: UDL & CR-SE
I highlight in this article three main areas that I find UDL informative in conjunction with CR-SE: a). UDL centers lived experiences, testimonios, as a valid knowledge base that every individual possesses and can learn and grow from. CR-SE's competencies one, two, and six, highlight reflecting on one’s cultural lens, addressing bias behavior, and valuing culture, family and heritage as an asset and a resource; b). UDL values critical self-reflections in various forms as an approach for students to be motivated and inspired based on what is relevant to their lives and learning styles. CR-SE's competencies three and nine, facilitating culturally relevant learning with lived experiences in learning environments and acknowledging microaggressions and long-term impact while actively striving to implement inclusive communities; c). UDL’s diversified modality and accessibility options for learners to engage course materials as they feel comfortable including access to resources which extend beyond the Euro-centric canon to include a range of identities, representations and knowledge sources. CR-SE's Competencies four, five, seven and eight speak to equitable opportunities to learn and promote asset-based perspectives and honors lived experiences and diverse backgrounds while fostering a positive learning environment.
Curating a UDL Model
Curating and facilitating UDL models in a learning environment requires co-learning and co-laboring efforts between the facilitator and the learner. For example, a UDL model requires extensive curating of curriculum and multi-modalities for learners to experience. This could mean that facilitators need to invest in learning opportunities that extend beyond Euro-centric heteronormative traditional canons and speak to culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies while also becoming vulnerable as facilitators in sharing about their own life. It also means learners need to feel safe in their learning environments to become vulnerable in sharing their lived experiences in creating a co-learning environment.
Culturally sustaining pedagogies are asset-based, valuing what is brought into the classroom rather than devaluing experiences because of a perceived lack for both the facilitator and the learner (NYU, 2023). Affirming student backgrounds and lived experiences, cultural ways of being are integrated and sustaining in learning environments and should strive to be reciprocal between the facilitator and the learner as together new pathways are created (CA Dept. of Ed.). Culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies support learners' cultural practices and identities while simultaneously countering oppressive social structures (Marshall, 2023). UDL offers flexibility and a spectrum of diverse approaches to reflect upon students' lived experiences and how learning environments may serve learners. UDL and CR-SE together create new opportunities for imaging co-learning environments between facilitators and learners valuing autohistoria-teoría and bridging in-between borderlands spaces as an act towards decolonization.
1 Decolonize: Free from cultural norms or to unlearn the things that one believed about themselves under colonialism.
2 CR-SE: https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/Teachers-Administrators/Certification%20Preparation%20Programs/Framework%20Guidelines%20and%20Rubrics/Culturally-Relevant%20and%20Sustaining%20Education%20Program%20Framework%20Guidelines.pdf Retrieved on August 14, 2024.
References
Anzaldúa, G., & Keating, A. (2015). Luz en lo oscuro: Rewriting identity, spirituality, reality. Duke University Press.
Bourriaud, N. (2020). Relational aesthetics. Les presses du réel.
Pennsylvania Department of Education. (2022). https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/Teachers-Administrators/Certification%20Preparation%20Programs/Framework%20Guidelines%20and%20Rubrics/Culturally-Relevant%20and%20Sustaining%20Education%20Program%20Framework%20Guidelines.pdf Retrieved on August 14, 2024.
Eagle Shield, A., Munson, M. M., & San Pedro, T. (2021). Dreams, healing, and listening to learn: Educational movements in the everyday. Equity & Excellence in Education, 54(1), 39-49.
Lee, T. S., & McCarty, T. L. (2017). Upholding Indigenous education sovereignty through critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy. Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world, 61-82.
García, C. & Sotomayor, L. (2025). Art Borderlands Theory, Practice and Art Making. Routledge Press.
Marshall, S. (2023). But What Does it Look Like in Maths? A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Mathematics. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 25(1), 1-29.
Paris, D. (2021, July). Culturally sustaining pedagogies and our futures. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 85, No. 4, pp. 364-376). Routledge.
NYU, Steinhardt. (2023). An Asset-based approach to education: What is it and why it matters in NYU Thought Leadership. https://teachereducation.steinhardt.nyu.edu/an-asset-based- approach-to-education-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/ Retrieved on August 14, 2024.
Washington, M. L. (2015). Transforming the Ed. D. for Culturally Relevant Leadership.
Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II is a Frederick Douglass Institute (FDI) Scholar and assistant professor in Art Education at Kutztown University. She was born in New Jersey with a strong connection to her ancestry through her Cuban and Puerto Rican parents. As a first-generation bilingual Spanish and English McNair scholar, she received her PhDs from The Pennsylvania State University in Art Education and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is a writer, artist, curator and scholar centering underrepresented themes in her work. Sotomayor’s studio art process is painting, collage work and installations often with her youngest daughter.
Sotomayor has curated several art exhibitions in the United States and Cuba including, Hilos Rojos, Hide & Seek: A neighborhood art space, Let’s Pretend, and Comadres en la comunidad/comothers in the community. Her writing includes Teaching In/Between: Curating Educational spaces Through Autohistoria-teoría and Conocimiento (2022), BIPOC Alliances: Building Communities and Curricula (2023), and Uncrating Josefina Aguilar: Autohistoria-Teoría and Testimonio in a Sculpture Series of Muñecas (2019).
Comments