Activist Travels: Two Mexican-Origin Teachers’ Transgressions Across Racial Geographies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Advocacy and Activism to Transgress: Centering Ethnic and Linguistic Identities

Abstract

This presentation examines the power of travel and its implications for teacher activism. We bring together two qualitative studies: the first focused on bilingual education and school privatization in Wisconsin, while the second examined teacher activism in #RedforEd Arizona. We describe ways that two Mexican-origin teachers learned and practiced activism partly through their travels across multiple borders. Further, we contextualize their travels and activism by examining racial geographies—racialized geographic representations and spatial practices—across the U.S. Midwest and Southwest. The presentation contributes to scholarship on the activism of teachers of color and the place-based dimensions of teacher activism by examining the potential of travel to prompt teachers to imagine new futures for themselves and their communities.

Authors

• Andrew Hilton Hurie, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Juan F. Carrillo, Arizona State University