El Arrebato/The Struggle: Opening the Path Toward Empowerment, Enlightenment, and Conocimiento
In the October 2018 Teaching and Learning for Student Success Monthly Webinar, scholar mentor Dr. Laura Rendón offers strategies for social justice educators and advocates to survive and grow through arrebatos, or struggles, that we face in our personal and professional lives. Using Gloria Anzaldúa's model of the seven steps toward conocimiento, or understanding and self-knowledge, Rendón shows how our awareness of our struggle and our ability to learn from it helps us to more fully embrace and love ourselves for who we are in spite of loss, discrimination, stress, and other physical and emotional challenges. This mental and spiritual care is fundamental to our ability to continue to serve our students, our communities, and our families. While we may not find balance between the work of social justice leadership, education, and activism and the work of our lives on the other, we can at least find peace within ourselves that helps us better face the challenges that come with the work of advocating for equity and for marginalized communities.
