Black and Latina South Floridian special education scholars resist against the dying of the light

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

This panel is comprised of doctoral candidates who are all part of Project Include, an OSEP-funded cohort in a minority majority university. We are all Black or Latina women and/or raising Black or Latina women, we are mothers, and special educators resisting the systemic oppression in Florida. We were first introduced as a cohort March 2, 2020, signed our contracts, and eleven days later our society shut down due to a global pandemic. Our classes began virtually in May of 2020. The state we live in began passing legislation that directly impacted and further marginalized us. The reality is that the last few years have shaped our experiences, our goals, and our research. I think it is safe to say that from March 2, 2020 to now we have all undergone individual and collective transformations, which has impacted what is important to us and what we want to do with this journey we embarked on over three years ago. A theme you will notice, other than the obvious connection of being special educators of color within the same cohort, is that we are trying to center our voices within academia. It is a space that was not created for us but which we must navigate through.We are learning to resist its limitations and the various forms of oppression encapsulated within it. We are learning to protest in a variety of ways.
Through our roles as educators, our panel explores various interconnected areas, the main one connection being that these all take place in South Florida. The first explores the experiences of Latina educators facing micro- and macroaggressions and who persist through it as they advocate for themselves and their multiply marginalized students. The second is about how Latina special educators resist the structures of higher education that try to minimize or silence their cultural wealth. Our third study explores the perceptions and experiences of students with EBD in South Florida, who are predominantly students of color. Our fourth group, comprised of Black female scholars, protests the intersectional invisibility of Black girls in urban Schools through Hip Hop pedagogy. We feel it important to also mention that these are all works in progress related to our dissertations; there are no conclusions yet although we will be closer to them by March.

Sub Unit

• Committee: UREAG (Under-represented Racial, Ethnic, and Ability Groups)

Organizer

• Alejandra Amaris Fernandez Morgado, Florida International University

Chair

• Martha Meyer, FIU

Individual Presentations

• Florida Latinx gifted educators protest marginalization of themselves and their Latinx students - Alejandra Amaris Fernandez Morgado, Florida International University

• Florida Latina special educators using testimonio to protest their marginalization - Alejandra Amaris Fernandez Morgado, Florida International University; Iggy Monsalve; Ana Paula Fabian Freire, Florida International University; Arianna Barroso-Ramos, FIU; Martha Lorena Hernández Flores; Norma Urquiza; Maria Silva, Florida International University

• Joy and success as resistance: Perceptions of students with EBD in South Florida - Helen Flores, Florida International University

• Florida Black female scholars protest the intersectional invisibility of Black girls in urban schools through hip hop pedagogy  - Aniva Lumpkins, Florida International University; Chauntea Cummings