District 3: Santa Barbara Unified School District (Santa Barbara, CA)

• In Event: Imagining Principled Possibilities of Ethnic Studies: Disrupting Racial Injustice From Policy to Pedagogy and Practice

Abstract

In 2015, a community campaign demanding Ethnic Studies (ES) to be a graduation requirement in Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) was launched. Ethnic Studies Now!-Santa Barbara (ESN!-SB), a community coalition of activists, educators, community leaders, and students, worked closely with district representatives to bring

this requirement to fruition. This local effort was part and parcel of the larger statewide campaign to make ES a requirement for all school districts. In November 2018, the SBUSD school board approved an ES requirement for graduation. This decision preceded the passage of AB 101, making SBUSD among a handful of “early adopter” districts for ES in California.

Aligned with the origin and purpose of the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), Ethnic Studies courses in the SBUSD aim to equip students with critical skills and knowledge grounded in problem-posing education. Currently, SBUSD offers five courses taught by classroom practitioners from the Ethnic Studies Department. Teacher development is grounded in ongoing learning through collective and individual study. Teachers are supported by the district to engage in intensive content and pedagogical development. The five courses currently offered are English 9 (with an emphasis on ethnic studies), Ethnic and Social Justice Studies (ESJS), History of Africans in America (HAA), Chicana/o/x-Latina/o/x Studies (ChiLat Studies), Mexican American Literature (MAL, Spring 2022).

HAA and ChiLat Studies fulfill both the district’s Ethnic Studies graduation requirement, as well as the “A” (US History) requirement for the UCOP. While each course focuses on particular communities, students in each of these courses will critically examine race as a social construct and racism through the intersections of other key social identities such as ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender, sexuality, ability, language, and class. Students will engage the concepts of indigeneity, de/colonization, white supremacy, oppression, and privilege, and work towards empowering themselves as anti-racist leaders who engage the world in order to transform it.

Authors

• Artnelson Concordia, Santa Barbara Unified School District

• Miranda Jue, Santa Barbara Unified School District