Building the Education We Deserve: Insights From a People’s Education Conference

• In Event: Education for the People: Centering Grassroots, Self-Determination, and Justice in Education Research

Abstract

Objectives
University teacher education programs focusing on social justice are no longer a rarity. How programs enact and materially support social justice commitments however, become a tension point (Chatterjee & Maira, 2014; Ferguson, 2012). This paper advances a critical analysis of what Moten and Harvey (2004) described as “the beyond of teaching,” focusing on a seven-year study of the People’s Education Conference. The conference emerged as a way for critical faculty to collaborate and produce an educational counterspace void of hegemonic notions of schooling. Faculty of Color redistributed institutional resources to actualize previously hollow pontifications of social justice demonstrating how academics can draw from grassroots activist sensibilities that center teacher of Color pedagogies, knowledge, and expertise. Research questions included: 1) How can faculty organizers bridge community and the academy to shape teacher education? 2) How can counterspaces help P-12 educators to reimagine and/or deepen their understanding of schooling? and 2) How do student participants’ understandings of justice transform how they teach once in their own classrooms?

Theoretical Frameworks
With the K-12 teacher population remaining overwhelmingly white, monolingual, and middle class (Mawhinney, 2018), many teachers require additional development to challenge their biases and serve their diverse student population. Moreover, teachers of Color and teachers for social justice often feel alienated from colleagues (Martinez, Valdez & Cariaga, 2016; Navarro et al, 2020) and need a collective space to build community with like-minded educators (Kohli et al., 2015; Valdez et al., 2018) to combat the high turnover rate within the profession (Rinke & Mawhinney, 2017). This study draws on the grassroots origins of the People’s Education Movement to examine the creation of the annual People’s Education Conference as a social justice counterspace. Collectively, these frameworks encourage thinking across disciplines, informing how we might better recognize the potential for grassroots organizing in education research.

Methods and data source
This 7-year case study seeks to analyze organizer and student participant experiences in the creation and attendance of the conference as a counterspace to dehumanizing schooling (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983). The study utilizes case study methods (Yin, 2006) to examine the intimate and complex processes of co-creating this conference that centers the voices and experiences of women and teachers of Color. Data includes organizer testimony and focus group interviews with participants and were coded using a descriptive approach (Saldaña, 2013).

Results and scholarly significance
Conference organizers were mindful in centering the expertise of teachers of color to present conference workshops and were particularly mindful in selecting women and non-binary keynote speakers of color. Conference participants note the impact the centering of these marginalized voices had on their view of schooling and transformation of their pedagogical practice. Participants reported leaving the event rejuvenated from the sense of community and with tangible practices they may implement in their classrooms immediately. This innovative study adds to the growing research base on educational counterpaces. This study also adds to the empirical scholarship on social justice education, highlighting the incisive ways collective and grassroots sensibilities toward research can build the education we all deserve.

Authors

• Carolina Valdez, California State University - Fullerton

• Edward R. Curammeng, California State University - Dominguez Hills