A Humanizing Critical Affinity Group Model for/by Social Justice Educators of Color

• In Event: Critical Professional Development as a Tool for Teacher-of-Color Healing, Retention, and Resistance

Abstract

On a macro level, educators of Color who aim to serve as change agents need ongoing support so that they don’t become “change(d) agents” (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011) due to the structural oppression they face within the profession (Achinstein, Ogawa, Sexton, & Freitas, 2010; Martinez, Valdez & Cariaga, 2015; Kohli, 2016; Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). On a micro level, the structural violence that marginalized teachers experience calls for their need to heal in order to disrupt cycles of internalized oppression that makes its way in and out of the classroom (Ginwright, 2015; Kohli, 2008). While grassroots collectives across the country support and sustain educators in anti-racist organizing work via critical approaches to professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015; Picower, 2007; Ritchie, 2012), there is limited research that captures the nature of learning and relationships cultivated over time through critical racial affinity groups situated within multiracial social justice collectives. This study offers insights about how and why educators of Color created their first affinity group within their grassroots organization and why other educators of Color sought out this group and committed for two academic years.


While this critical affinity group called, H.E.L.L.A., is named after a popular northern Californian slang term, it is also an acronym for the group’s guiding tenets: Healing, Empowerment, Love, Liberation and Action. Incorporating community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) and radical healing (Ginwright, 2015) frameworks allowed for an affinity group model for educators of Color to engage in Critical Professional Development (Gist, Bustos Flores, & Claeys, 2014; Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015).

This ethnographic case study (Yin, 2003) explores how twelve H.E.L.L.A. members, including myself, were influenced by and within our affinity group. The members included nine classroom teachers, three of which were also adjunct teacher educators, two community based educators and an English Language Learner specialist. I audio-recorded meetings that lasted between 2-2 ½ hours monthly and audio-recorded interviews twice with each member for 1-1½ hours over the course of two academic years. In addition to participant observation and interviewing (Jorgensen, 1989; Wilson, 1977), I also relied on testimonios (Pour-Khorshid, 2016). I utilized grounded theory analysis and inductive approaches (Straus & Corbin, 1998) to engage in a systematic process of discovery of important categories and themes from the data guided by the overarching research questions:
What do teachers of color gain from participating in affinity spaces within grassroots collectives? And, what is the nature of the learning that is part of these participants’ experience?

H.E.L.L.A. engaged in a variety of activities, including reflective writing exercises, spontaneous discussions and check-ins, themed discussions based on theoretical frameworks and the development of action plans. Recurring themes in the data pointed to the value of being part of a critical, asset-based learning space exclusively for people of Color; the need to seek refuge from whiteness and white supremacy; and the impact of healing collectively for sustainability within the field.

Author

• Farima Pour-Khorshid, University of California - Santa Cruz