Beyond Critical Communication Pedagogy: Pláticas with Latinx Youth

This dissertation explores the possibility of Critical Communication Pedagogy outside of traditional classrooms through a critical and performance ethnographic approach from 15-months of data collection. Specifically, the author embraces the Chicana/Latina feminist methodology pláticas to co-create space with Latinx high school students who have experienced the foster care system. Through sixteen pláticas, the major themes explored include interrogating power, embracing embodied knowledge to question civility, and examining culture and identity. Additionally, the author embraces critical auto/ethnography to grapple with the tensions that arise for her, as a communication scholar, embracing a radical approach to laboring with youth beyond the classroom.