Reclaiming Social Justice Teaching, Curriculum, and Teacher Education: The Centrality of Grassroots Community Organizing

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, scholar-activists and members of the Association of Raza Educators (A.R.E.), a community-based organization, will present their action-research findings on social justice teaching, teacher professional development, and political education. Drawing from their experience as educators and community organizers who have been integral to the development of grassroots campaigns and projects, their presentations will raise fundamental questions about the intersection of social justice teaching and community activism and the leading role community organizing and activism play in reclaiming education by and for historically dominated peoples. The session will culminate in a dialogue, mediated by two well-known scholars and community activists, on the im/possibility of social justice pedagogy and research.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice

Chair

• Bree Picower, Montclair State University

Papers

• Humanizing Education Through the Creation and Implementation of a College Preparatory “Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies” Course - Cati V. de los Rios, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Elementary Educators as Agents of Change via Culturally Relevant Critical Pedagogy to Build Community for Student Success - Carolina Valdez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Teachers as Public Intellectuals: An Analysis of Teacher Inquiry Groups and Decolonizing Pedagogy - Antonio Nieves Martinez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Decolonizing Teacher Education: The Role of Teacher-Led Political Education in the Formation of Teachers as Community Organizers - Miguel Zavala, California State University - Fullerton

Discussant

• Patrick Camangian, University of San Francisco