Mexican & gringa education researchers: surviving oppressive governments, stories from a Mexican University

Abstract

As researchers who had the opportunity to spend a year together in critical education scholarship at a public university in Mexico, we share our perspectives on how to engage oppressive governments in post-truth times. The researchers are Mexican and Gringa who recognize the contradictions, points of hope, and shared concerns toward dystopia through lenses of decolonizing work among young people in Mexico and the U.S. The authors draw into focus through critical reflexivity three moments of their shared time during the 2017-2018 academic year—two panel presentations and a moment of crisis, when the city where they lived had a municipal dump that was on fire for several days. They look toward the election of a left-wing president in Mexico who represents a very different breed of populism as a point of tension and hope, while recognizing circumstances may not improve. Finally, they regard the project of education as critical to their hope and continued work.