Carrilla and convivencia as relational pedagogical tools: a Chicana feminist approach to understanding critical cultural practices of the home in the classroom

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This work examines how Chicanx teachers utilize familial cultural practices of convivencia and carrilla to cultivate authentic relationships leading to student investment, engagement, and success. Here, convivencia, the act of coexisting together through shared vulnerability and experiences, is a relational pedagogical tool allowing relationships to flourish that encourage carrilla based on shared love and trust. In Mexican society, carrilla is a socially acceptable, care-based teasing founded on cultural understandings of relationship dynamics and communally created safe spaces. Together, convivencia and carrilla reinforce the centrality of cultural practices Chicanx teachers utilize to reframe classrooms as transformative spaces. Through these tools, instructors practice authentic relationality while incorporating alternative learning modalities benefiting students who may struggle in Western-dominant classrooms but with potential to become critical learners. We emphasize how intangible practices of convivencia and carrilla create culturally informed and affirming learning spaces for students.