| In the United States, evidence shows how policies that reflect antidemocratic values are taking over the educational system. These policies impose top-down demands that silence the voices of and negatively affect those who are directly impacted by the schooling process: teachers, students, and their families (Chomsky, 2010; Kumashiro, 2012; Torres & Reyes, 2011). Consequently, there is an urgent need to consider the role that radical participatory democracy can play in the transformation of classrooms to spaces in which critical thinking and political action for the common good are placed center stage. The purpose of this study was to explore what would happen when a multicultural education college instructor purposefully and mindfully embraced a pedagogy of expansion that reflected Black and Latina/Chicana feminist thought and had radical participatory democracy at its foundation. The overarching question that guided the study was: How can I, as a teacher, along with students engage in a mindful and radical democratic process that puts social action at the forefront and opens space for everyone to actively participate, dialogue, and share knowledge? The methodology that framed this study was Research as Praxis (RAP)/Participatory Action Research (PAR), which has radical democratic participation at its core while emphasizing action as intrinsically connected to the research process. RAP/PAR is an epistemological and ontological paradigm that views the nature of research as a catalyst for transformation through the engagement of those who are at the bottom. The research process evolved in three stages that are categorized as follow: 1) the early stage: sacando palabras con cucharilla , 2) the middle stage: shaking the participatory structure, and 3) the late stage: taking ownership of the participatory structure. The following insights came up as result of this study: 1) RAP/PAR fosters a pedagogy of expansion and requires trust and flexibility, 2) building community in a RAP/PAR project is dialectical, 3) bringing the whole-self is of essence in a RAP/PAR vivencia, and 4) RAP/PAR in the critical multicultural education classroom has the potential to lower levels of resistance among students and to equalize hierarchical power structures and dynamics. |
