- Thursday, September 27, 2018
- 3:30 PM–5:00 PM
- Van Noord Nutrition Classroom 235
Speaker: Abraham Ceballos
This event is approved for diversity and inclusion cultural competency.
How do indigenous Mayan women experience their return to school? How can those experiences challenge educators? I explore these questions by learning from a group of adult Mayan women in a village in México over three consecutive summers. Through ethnographic research, I witnessed how they sustained each other through their journey.
Against all odds, they completed their K-12 schooling through adult education programs. In this presentation, I share insights from two students, and the local leader of the adult education program “Plaza Comunitaria”. The educational community they forged opens a window into an ethos of solidaridad and radical commitment to peer education. I use the lens of convivencia to investigate how adult students’ voices can shape our pedagogical practices across multiple educational settings.
Abraham Ceballos is an affiliate professor of Spanish at Calvin College. He teaches Spanish and language pedagogy courses. He earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University where he taught pre-service language teachers, and supervised their field experiences. He is a graduate from Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, and Calvin’s M.Ed. program. His humanities-oriented research asks how pedagogies in marginal spaces can shape our educational practices. In January of 2019, he will co-direct the Yucatán Interim through the Spanish Department.
