A Teacher's First-Person Account of Grassroots Activism for Educational Justice

• In Event: Education for Diverse Democracy Requires Democracy for Diverse Educators: Critical Insights From National Teaching Fellows

Abstract

Educators of color more often work in high-poverty schools that serve communities of color. The extent to which these communities endure social and economic oppression— evidenced for example in contemporary struggles against institutional racism and violence that has unfolded in cities across the country—educators of color play important roles in connecting, translating, and “pedagogizing” the meaning of pertinent struggles inside their classrooms, while engaging public discourse outside classrooms as advocates for and with their students. These efforts, however, render
educators of color vulnerable in their respective schools, which may define academic content narrowly, apart from context and critical interrogation of inequitable institutions.
In light of such issues, this presentation offers first-person insight on grassroots activism for educational justice driven by diverse educators, including innovative uses of education research to engage multiple publics, and the utilization of intersectional frameworks on race, class, gender, and ability to critique “educational orthodoxy,” challenge curricular and institutional practices in schools, interrogate popular reforms adopted by district leaders, as well as lobby against policies that contribute to inequitable structures, re-organizations, and closings of schools in communities of color that marginalize students and parents and disenfranchise teachers of color (Lipman et. al 2007; Lipman et. al., 2014). The presentation, therefore, reviews the ways by which the voices of teachers of color can and have entered public debate about the current state and future of education policy and practice.
Specifically, the presentation will review the role of institutional racism in shaping limited
professional opportunities, experiences, and patterns of attrition among teachers of color.
Manifestations of institutional racism include the enduring legacy of segregation for both students and teachers of color in high poverty schools. A segregated teaching force is compounded,moreover, by the tendency for high poverty schools in communities of color to be closed or taken over more frequently than in low-poverty schools. The pertinence of fractured relationships between leaders, novice educators, and veteran educators of color has also had profound effects on teacher morale across schools. Fractured relationships, moreover, are racialized in that new hires in
restructured schools, or those who deliver accountability frameworks, tend to be young, white novices, and may participate in a culture of derision of veteran teachers. Racialized blame and derision of teachers of color contributes to further discrimination when seeking work in schools with equitable conditions (Moore, 2015; Weber et. al, 2014; Buras, 2015).
The presentation concludes with exhortations to create equitable funding systems, professional development around cultural competence, and better systems for teacher voice and autonomy. The stakes are higher for people who tend to work in high-poverty schools, which happen to have more people of color. Policies that raise the bar for supporting a subset of educators, helps all teachers—not a trickle down, but a gushing up. As it stands, however, one would think the current system is inhospitable to teachers of color—for if you invite someone to your house and you underfeed, berate, and treat them unequally, why would you expect them to stay?

Author

• Jose Vilson, New York City Schools