Category Archives: Institute for Emancipatory Education

Lurie College Reimagines the Future of Education at the Inaugural Learner Design Summit

SJSU Lurie College of Education REP4 Learner Design Summit Group Photo

How do you design inclusive models for teaching and learning? It’s simple: Ask the students.

Last week, the Lurie College held its first Learner Design Summit to launch SJSU’s regional Rapid Education Prototyping (REP4) Alliance.

The REP4 Alliance is a powerful network of regional and national education, industry and technology leaders, led by the six founding higher education partners, including the Lurie College. This alliance brings together diverse learners to develop new ideas for higher education programming using liberatory design principles.

At the summit, a total of 25 local students, including rising 11th and 12th graders, recent high school graduates, community college students and SJSU undergraduates collaborated and designed creative proposals, or “prototypes,” to address existing challenges in the higher education system.

“A prototype is a pitch that students prepare to showcase the needs and solutions that create institutional change,” said Rebeca Burciaga, professor of educational leadership and Chicana and Chicano Studies as well as the faculty executive director of SJSU’s Institute of Emancipatory Education (IEE).

“SJSU student mentors are leading what we call ‘dream teams’ to dream up these ideas. We hope to find ways to incorporate their solutions and perhaps work with campus leaders to make those immediate changes.”

San José State President Mary Papazian kicked off the weeklong event with a message for the Spartan community.

“We believe that initiatives such as emancipatory education and REP4 support the development of equitable and inclusive educational systems that nurture the creativity and brilliance of all learners so that our diverse, democratic society can truly thrive,” she said.

“Collectively, the themes of this work are well-aligned with SJSU’s interests in advancing and transforming our educational systems, which many of us believe are in urgent need of radical change.”

Read the full story on by Julia Halprin Jackson on the SJSU Newsroom blog.

Watch our Summer 2021 SJSU x REP4 Learner Design Summit

The newly-established Rapid Education Prototyping (REP4) Alliance is a powerful network of regional and national education, industry, and technology leaders, led by the six founding higher education partners, including the SJSU Lurie College of Education. This alliance will create opportunities to bring together diverse learners to codesign new ideas for education using liberatory design principles.

In Summer 2021, we launched this network with a free Learner Design Summit, which is a leadership development opportunity designed to bring together rising 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students, recent high school graduates, community college students, and SJSU undergraduate students to collaborate and design creative proposals to address existing challenges in the higher education system.

Watch the video above to learn more about the proposals from our student design leaders, who met one another for the first time, came up with and refined their proposals, and presented them to the SJSU President and senior administration within 4 days.

  • 0:00 – Welcome from SJSU Lurie College of Education Dean Heather Lattimer
  • 3:07 – Intro from Department of Educational Leadership faculty Veneice Guillory-Lacy
  • 5:20 – “CC: The Dream (Creating and Continuing the Dream)” by College 2.0
  • 11:28 – “Creating Connections” by Creative Connections
  • 18:33 – “How Integrating Community and Technology Can Help Students” by Three Trees
  • 24:25 – “Elevation Promise” by Equity Ambassadors
  • 37:26 – Response by Dean Heather Lattimer
  • 38:38 – Remarks by SJSU President Mary Papazian
  • 43:43 – Closing remarks by Dean Heather Lattimer

K-12 Teaching Academy | Building Culture and Community One Story at a Time

Presenters

  • Abby Almerido | Coordinator, Workforce Development and Organizational Culture | Santa Clara County Office of Education | Twitter: @abbyinprogress

Description

Culture eats strategies for breakfast! Hold an SEL-compass toward stronger working relationships and collaboration by weaving in opportunities for your learners to learn and share about who they are. Leave with a toolkit of activities to try Monday and a deeper understanding of the power of seeing and being seen by others.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Bring it Back to the Classroom: What did we learn from a year of COVID?

Presenters

  • Emma Pass | Middle School Language Arts Teacher, PSD Global | Consultant, Empowered Edu | Twitter: @emmabpass

Description

As teachers prepare to return back to the classroom, we will return, not as the teachers who began remote learning last year, but as teachers fully changed. We have adopted new tools and technologies, rethought assessment and instructional strategies, and had a glimpse into student home lives and gained insight in the importance of social and emotional learning. In this session we will reflect on a year of teaching and learning through the COVID pandemic, and determine what to take back with us to the classroom to be better educators than before.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Freedom Dreaming: Ethnic Studies Teaching in the Secondary Grades

Presenters

  • Julia Duggs | Ethnic Studies teaching candidate | SJSU Lurie College of Education
  • Victoria Durán, PhD | Social Science teacher | Overfelt High School
  • Marcos Pizarro, PhD | Associate Dean | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @sjsulurie
  • Luis Poza, PhD | Assistant Professor, Teacher Education | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @luisepoza

Description

This presentation brings together SJSU faculty and practicing Ethnic Studies teachers to deepen participants’ understandings of the purposes and core principles of Ethnic Studies teaching alongside examples from classroom practice. Webinar participants will have the opportunity to learn about the documented benefits of Ethnic Studies for students (regardless of racial and ethnic background) as well as specific culturally responsive curriculum activities that afford student agency, community engagement, and meaningful social analysis as part of students’ academic and personal development. Such activities include Youth Participatory Action Research, student counterstories and testimonios, and an in-depth look at a multi-faceted unit of instruction implemented in the 2020-21 academic year that fostered healing, home and community connections, and students’ “freedom dreaming” — collective envisioning of a more just society.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Queering the Classroom to Foster a Safe and Inclusive Environment

Presenters

  • Robert Marx, PhD | Assistant Professor | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @RbrtMrx
  • Frank J. Peña | Outreach and Speakers Bureau Coordinator | The LGBTQ Youth Space

Description

For some trans and genderqueer students, returning to in-person school may bring anxiety, fear, and expectations of victimization. For others, though, school may be the sole safe haven from an unsupportive home environment. This webinar, therefore, will provide the knowledge and skills needed to establish or enhance affirming and supportive classroom and extracurricular spaces, with a specific focus on practical steps to foster gender equity and inclusion. The presenters bring their experience teaching high school English, serving as a GSA advisor, providing direct community support to teachers and LGBTQ+ youth in the Bay Area, and conducting research with trans and genderqueer adolescents about their families, schools, and communities.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Bringing Our Humanity to the TK-5 Classroom Through an Ethnic Studies Stance

Presenters

  • Leah Aguilera | 2nd grade teacher | Oakland USD
  • Katy Felsinger | TK teacher | San Leandro USD
  • Hannah Swernoff | 5th grade teacher | Piedmont USD
  • Wanda Watson, EdD | Associate Professor | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @wawatty

Description

This session explores how TK-5th grade teachers launch the school year with three main interrelated goals at the forefront: Building a classroom community that humanizes students and values their intersectional racialized identities, particularly those from Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian backgrounds; Learning about students’ strengths, interests, experiences, and barriers to learning; Integrating students’ funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth into Ethnic Studies and Anti-racist curricular and pedagogical practices to facilitate liberatory student learning.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | The Next Normal: Reimagining Next Year’s Classroom

Presenter

  • Eric Cross | 7th Grade Science Teacher | Albert Einstein Academies | Twitter: @sdteaching

Description

In The Next Normal we will reflect on lessons learned from the prepandemic era of teaching and provide practical strategies to restore an equitable classroom community while supporting teacher wellness.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-acdaemy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Considering Community and Trauma

Presenter

  • Lara Ervin-Kassab, EdD | Assistant Professor | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @drlarakassab

Description

As we return to both face to face and blended classrooms, we need to explore how we are (re)building learning communities, relationships, and safety in our classrooms. This presentation will be an interactive exploration of digital and analog approaches and tools for building relationships with and between students. We will explore the need to critically analyze our own practices and schooling norms so that school becomes a place of healing, rather than perpetuating and compounding the traumas all of us have experienced over the past year and a half.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Better Together: Partnering with Families and the Community for Student Success

Presenter

  • Chassidy Olainu-Alade | Coordinator of Community and Civic Engagement | Fort Bend Independent School District | Twitter: @ChasAlade

Description

Parent engagement has always been a top ranking tenant of successful K-12 education systems. Effective parent engagement practices benefit students as school-to-home connections promote positive reinforcement of knowledge and skills, allow for extension of learning, and develop mutual support around discipline and expectations. Additionally, the broader community provides schools and teachers with the resources, expertise, and volunteerism to achieve their goals. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, common methods of parent and community engagement included a variety of face-to-face events, in-person opportunities, and one-way communications. Since the pandemic, the ways in which teachers engage parents, families, and the community has shifted to practices that are more inclusive, flexible, and creative in nature. This session will allow participants to walk away with a deep understanding of the role that parent, family, and community engagement plays on the classroom environment and school culture. Participants will understand methods of engaging parents in a post-pandemic school setting and be provided with some best practices for developing two-way communications and collaborations with parents, all the while navigating new modes of 21st century learning, anti-racist curriculum implementation, and meeting the needs of diverse learners.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Centering Humanity Through Identity-Informed Collaborative Notebook Activities

Presenter

  • Betina Hsieh, PhD | Associate Professor of Teacher Education | California State University Long Beach | Twitter: @ProfHsieh

Description

How can we stay connected with our own humanity and that of our students after a year of distance learning? In this interactive presentation, educators will gain a sense of how humanizing pedagogies can be at the core of disciplinary learning and how we can invite students to share their identities, cultures, and experiences using digital tools and multiple modalities to support inclusive, community-grounded instruction in classrooms.

K-12 Teaching Academy | Reimagining K-16 (Science) Teaching and Learning During a Time of Crisis

Presenter

  • Tammie Visintainer, PhD | Assistant Professor Science/Teacher Education | SJSU Lurie College of Education | Twitter: @tavisint

Description

The intersecting COVID-19 and racial injustice crises have re-exposed the interwoven social, racial, political, and economic dimensions of educational opportunity and the injustices laid bare are many. This workshop will empower educators across disciplines from kindergarten to college as designers and leaders, who have the opportunity to transform inequitably designed education systems by radically reimagining and building learning environments from a foundation of human dignity and respect.

This workshop focuses on the design of equitable, inclusive, and justice-centered learning environments through the creation of design principles. Design principles serve as tenets for pedagogy and practice and as guidelines for the design of future learning experiences. To support this, I will draw from my experience as a science teacher educator and learning scientist exploring race, identity, and learning in science education; a professional pathway built from Black brilliance, generous mentorship, and the wisdom of scholars of color. As such, the workshop will engage in reimagining efforts that center the transformative and sustaining practices of Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other scholars of color who inspire the education community to approach teaching and learning from new ethical and pedagogical imaginations.

Workshop attendees will be introduced to design principles and guided through the construction process through an example from my secondary science methods course where teacher candidate’s construct Design Principles for Teaching (Science) for Equity and Inclusion. While science is the focal example, educators from any discipline are encouraged and welcome as this practice is widely applicable. Educators will leave the workshop with an expanded understanding of how to design learning environments that affirm and sustain the identities of minoritized students in/outside of science. This workshop offers hope and possibility for learning communities during the present crises and a reimagining of what they can become moving forward.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Talk as Transformation: Building Equity, Agency and Joy in the Elementary Classroom

Presenter

Description

Talk has the potential to transform classroom culture, literacy learning, and children’s identity – both individually and collectively. Building a culture of talk creates joyful, engaging space for students to think and construct together. This session will create a vision of classrooms alive with talk, and offer strategies for launching talk, and developing the kind of thoughtful, authentic facilitation that honors student’s intellect, teaches into meaning making as a process, honors unique understandings, and helps each student realize the power of their own voice.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | The Discussion-based Classroom

Presenter

Description

Teachers can assign and students can submit, but the real learning comes from the discussions we have in a classroom. It’s in those talks that the mix of content and life skills come alive and not only show students’ true understanding but pushes them to consider other perspectives. Classroom discussions are the perfect foundation for the society we hope to see in our future and we’ll all need to practice how to speak to one another after a year of distance and change.

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

K-12 Teaching Academy | Week(s) of Welcome: Intentional, Inclusive Relationships Start Here

Presenters

  • Rafael Rodriguez | Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Specialist | Santa Clara County Office of Education | Twitter: @SCCOE
  • Jessica Simpson | Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Specialist | Santa Clara County Office of Education | Twitter: @SCCOE

Description

We are at a unique point along the pathway towards rebuilding educational culture. The past year has repeatedly demonstrated that individual educators are pivotal in both the physical and the social-behavioral health and wellbeing of our students and families – what if we could intentionally design activities and strategies that each educator could adapt in order to create more inclusive environments for all students? Participants will have the opportunity to learn how (and why) to incorporate social-behavioral instruction and practice into the initial weeks of school. Participants will also explore how to incorporate identity building, precorrection (both social-behaviorally and academically) and relationship skills with the Positive Greetings at the Door intervention (Cooke, et. al).

Access additional resources and all of our K-12 Teaching Academy webinars at http://sjsu.edu/education/community/k12-academy

SJSU Joins National Alliance to Redesign the Future of Higher Education

REP4 Campus Presidents

San José State University has joined five other colleges and universities, hundreds of high schools, and community partners to launch REP4 (Rapid Education Prototyping) – a national initiative to change the future of education. Unique to the alliance, students will take the lead conducting “Rapid Education Prototyping” to address the urgent challenges of access to education and fully deliver on higher education’s promise of social and economic mobility.

…

“As we look to the future of higher education, it is critical that we center the voices and priorities of students who are from communities that have historically been marginalized,” said Connie L. Lurie College of Education Dean Heather Lattimer. “If we re-design to value and build on the experiences and strengths that they bring, we will create universities that better serve all students and communities.”

…

Each of the six founding partners will hold its own regional summit for REP4, with Grand Valley State University hosting the national convening  August 4 – 5, 2021.

Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Development Ellen Middaugh at the Connie L. Lurie College of Education, an expert in youth civic engagement, will help design and implement SJSU’s REP4 summit. “Transformative change requires imagination,” said Middaugh. “This is something adolescents and young adults are great at — creative thinking and imagining a better future. Our Child and Adolescent Master’s students recognize this and will serve as youth-centered facilitators to create a space for our high school, community college, and SJSU undergraduates to dream big and grapple with what it would take to bring their ideas to life.”

Read the full story from Robin McElhatton on the SJSU Newsroom blog.

Watch Episode 6 of Emancipatory Education Now

Emancipatory Education Now is a student-led initiative at the SJSU Lurie College of Education that examines what emancipatory education – the critical evaluation of the systems and structures of oppression that maintain the status quo in our educational institutions – looks like in today’s society and advocates for the expansion of emancipatory education research, policies, and practices.

Our co-hosts for the Spring 2021 semester are:

  • Abby Almerido – Graduate student, Educational Leadership
  • Aminah Sheikh – Undergraduate student, Communicative Disorders & Sciences
  • Ana Isabel Hahs – Graduate and credential student, Teacher Education
  • Vaishnavi Sunkari – Undergraduate student, Child & Adolescent Development, Public Health
  • Victor Calvillo Chavez – Graduate student, Counselor Education

In this episode, Abby leads a dialogue around stereotype threat. The co-hosts shared their insights framed by questions such as:

  • What resonated with you about this TEDTalk? Did anything surprise you or challenge your previous ways of thinking?
  • We started today’s sharing some of our layers of our identity. As you consumed Adichie’s talk on Single Stories, what single stories were coming up for you about yourself?
  • In the TEDTalk, Adichie references an Igbo word: nkali (9:37) – “to be greater than another.” She goes on to say that single stories exist because there are those who have the power to write the definitive stories of a person or group of people. Our media have the power of telling the story of people. What single stories do you see in the media?
  • Why is it important to understand the single stories of ourselves and others? Why is it important for those in education to identify when single stories exist?
  • We also read an article on some ways to address stereotype threat in the classroom. What are your thoughts on those suggestions? Is it enough? What else could be done?

after watching “The danger of a single story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and reading “How Teachers Can Reduce Stereotype Threat in the Classroom.”

This episode’s call to action: How are you purposefully providing opportunities for those you influence and who influence you to give you a more complete story of who they are? Let’s all build bridges across differences one story at a time.

All of the recordings for this series are available at sjsu.edu/education/emancipatory-education-now.  Join us for our final episode on Friday, May 14, at 5:15pm at the Lurie College Learning Showcase.  More information coming soon at sjsu.edu/education/showcase.

Join us for Episode 6 of Emancipatory Education Now

Emancipatory Education Now is a student-led initiative at the SJSU Lurie College of Education that examines what emancipatory education – the critical evaluation of the systems and structures of oppression that maintain the status quo in our educational institutions – looks like in today’s society and advocates for the expansion of emancipatory education research, policies, and practices.

Our co-hosts for the Spring 2021 semester are:

  • Abby Almerido – Graduate student, Educational Leadership
  • Aminah Sheikh – Undergraduate student, Communicative Disorders & Sciences
  • Ana Isabel Hahs – Graduate and credential student, Teacher Education
  • Vaishnavi Sunkari – Undergraduate student, Child & Adolescent Development, Public Health
  • Victor Calvillo Chavez – Graduate student, Counselor Education

In this episode, Ana leads a dialogue around antiracist education. The co-hosts shared their insights framed by questions such as:

  • What was your initial reaction to the articles and the video? Did anything surprise you?
  • How would you define antiracist education?
  • What do you think are antiracist strategies for teachers? Do you agree with the ones presented in the video?
  • The first article discusses the need to go beyond ethnic studies courses and include anti-racist education in all subjects. How do you think schools and districts can accomplish this?
  • The second article discusses Trump-era policies that sought to prevent schools from teaching critical race theory and federally funded agencies from offering diversity training. While this is no longer an issue under the Biden administration, should we be concerned about such things happening in the future? What do you think is the likelihood of a future administration trying to enact such policies, and is there anything we can do about it in the meantime?
  • Can you identify any challenges to implementing strategies for antiracist education? How can we overcome these?
  • Why is antiracist education important to you? Why do you think it’s important that schools commit to antiracist education?

after reading the articles “California schools, universities condemn anti-Asian attacks, offer support to students” by Carolyn Jones and Ashley Smith and “Diversity Work, Interrupted” by Colleen Flaherty and watching the video “6 Ways to be an Antiracist Educator” by Edutopia.

This episode’s call to action: Watch the video “Six Ways to be an Antiracist Educator” and try to implement at least one of those strategies in your classroom. Additionally, since many of these ideas are applicable beyond the classroom, think about what it would look like for you to implement such practices in your daily life. What can you do to combat racism in your community?

Additional Antiracism and Racial Justice resources are available on the Lurie College website at sjsu.edu/education/community/antiracism.  All of the recordings for this series are available at http://sjsu.edu/education/emancipatory-education-now

Institute for Emancipatory Education Launch and Executive Director Search

SJSU Lurie College of Education Institute for Emancipatory Education Cover Image

After multiple years of discussions, activities, and iterations, what was formerly known as the Future of Learning Initiative and the Emancipatory Education Initiative has now formally received approval by SJSU to become the Institute for Emancipatory Education (IEE)!

The next step in launching our IEE is to commence a search for a founding Executive Director.  The position has been posted on the SJSU Jobs website and the priority review of applications will begin after Tuesday, April 27.  Please share this opportunity with anyone who you believe has the interest, experience, and passion to advance the goals of our IEE.

SJSU President Papazian Shines a Spotlight on Lurie College Emancipatory Education Initiative

This story, “Emancipatory learning approach helping students ‘reap the full benefit of an empowering education,'” was originally published on SJSU President Papazian’s blog.

Recently I had the opportunity to offer welcome remarks at the kickoff event for our Lurie College of Education’s new Emancipatory Education Speaker Series, which focuses on a “post-COVID-19 education system.” What an important and timely initiative!

After listening to the first speaker, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, I quickly realized how well-aligned this series is with San José State values, our academic goals and our Transformation 2030 strategic plan. Emancipatory education, in fact, is an approach that begins to put into practice some of the general education changes that we at SJSU have been discussing these past few years.

Read more…

Watch Our Emancipatory Education Speaker Series

What should education look like post-COVID? How do we get there?

Many are looking forward to a time when we can go back to “normal” in education; however, that “normal” wasn’t working for too many of our children, youth, families and communities. The SJSU Lurie College of Education Emancipatory Education Speaker Series features nationally recognized speakers and emerging voices who are sharing their visions for a post-COVID education system.

This speaker series event featured Dr. E.J.R. David – professor of psychology at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Watch this video to listen to Dr. David discuss “Emancipatory Education: Healing the Damages of a Sick World”

  • 0:00​​ Welcome to our speaker series
  • 4:17​​ Introduction of Dr. E.J.R. David
  • 6:34​​ Remarks from Dr. E.J.R. David
  • 42:28​​ Q&A with Dr. E.J.R. David

Visit sjsu.edu/education/community/iee/speaker-series to watch all of the recordings from our speaker series.

Watch Episode 4 of Emancipatory Education Now

Emancipatory Education Now is a student-led initiative at the SJSU Lurie College of Education that examines what emancipatory education – the critical evaluation of the systems and structures of oppression that maintain the status quo in our educational institutions – looks like in today’s society and advocates for the expansion of emancipatory education research, policies, and practices.

Our co-hosts for the Spring 2021 semester are:

  • Abby Almerido – Graduate student, Educational Leadership
  • Aminah Sheikh – Undergraduate student, Communicative Disorders & Sciences
  • Ana Isabel Hahs – Graduate and credential student, Teacher Education
  • Vaishnavi Sunkari – Undergraduate student, Child & Adolescent Development, Public Health
  • Victor Calvillo Chavez – Graduate student, Counselor Education

In this episode, Vaishnavi leads a dialogue around inequality and access in education. The co-hosts shared their insights framed by questions such as:

  • What are some examples of initiatives at the classroom, school/university, state, or federal level that have been effective at creating a more equitable education for low income students? What are some examples of ineffective initiatives or missed opportunities?
  • How do you think race plays a factor in schooling in low income communities? The videos provided some examples. Did anything stand out to you?
  • In the Crash Course video, we saw that higher income parents are more likely to spend time with their children reading books and strengthening their cognitive skills. These higher income children enter school with more knowledge compared to a child from a lower income household. How can we support these young children early on to ensure that they are successful throughout their school journey?
  • FAFSA is a great way for students to get grants and money. However, do you think FAFSA is a simple process for low income families? Why or why not?
  • After reading the article on the factors that count against low income students in the college admissions process, what were your thoughts/initial reactions? Do you think that students that attend schools with extremely low budgets will always have no hope towards attending good colleges since they don’t have impressive extracurriculars or classes?

after reading the article “5 Ways Elite-College Admissions Shut Out Poor Kids” by Anya Kamenetz and watching the videos “Higher Education for Low-Income Students,” and “Schools & Social Inequality: Crash Course Sociology #41.”

This episode’s call to action: After our discussion, think about how San Jose State University aids low income students to continue attending classes. Find one resource that SJSU provides to support these students. Do you think this resource is helpful? Is there a resource that you would recommend to SJSU instead?

Join us live for our episode 5 on Friday, April 9, at 5:30pm on the Lurie College YouTube channel.  All of the recordings for this series are available at sjsu.edu/education/emancipatory-education-now

Watch and Attend Our Emancipatory Education Speaker Series

What should education look like post-COVID? How do we get there?

Many are looking forward to a time when we can go back to “normal” in education; however, that “normal” wasn’t working for too many of our children, youth, families and communities. The SJSU Lurie College of Education Emancipatory Education Speaker Series features nationally recognized speakers and emerging voices who are sharing their visions for a post-COVID education system.

Watch the recording from our speaker series event on Friday, March 12, which included a Latinas Leading Schools panel discussion with Dr. Fabiola Bagula, Dr. Rebeca Burcaiga, Dr. Melissa Martinez, Dr. Sylvia Mendez-Morse, and Ana Tavares.

Visit sjsu.edu/education/community/iee/speaker-series to register for our final speaker series event:

  • Friday, March 19, 3:30-5pm PST | Dr. E.J.R. David, Dr. Saili Kulkarni, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, and Leroy Moore

Watch Episode 3 of Emancipatory Education Now

Emancipatory Education Now is a student-led initiative at the SJSU Lurie College of Education that examines what emancipatory education – the critical evaluation of the systems and structures of oppression that maintain the status quo in our educational institutions – looks like in today’s society and advocates for the expansion of emancipatory education research, policies, and practices.

Our co-hosts for the Spring 2021 semester are:

  • Abby Almerido – Graduate student, Educational Leadership
  • Aminah Sheikh – Undergraduate student, Communicative Disorders & Sciences
  • Ana Isabel Hahs – Graduate and credential student, Teacher Education
  • Vaishnavi Sunkari – Undergraduate student, Child & Adolescent Development, Public Health
  • Victor Calvillo Chavez – Graduate student, Counselor Education

In this episode, Aminah leads a dialogue around high-stakes standardized testing. The co-hosts shared their insights framed by questions such as:

  • What are your initial reactions to this reading? Do you have any examples or questions that came to mind after the reading?
  • How do you think standardized testing practices racial inequality and who do you think it affects the most?
  • How can we support students who are affected by the inequalities of standardized testing, when these practices are still in place?
  • What are possible standardized testing alternatives you would implement/want to see implemented in schools that would achieve racial equality and be accurate measures of a students knowledge? Or is this something we even need to measure?

after reading the article “Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes, Standardized Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism” by Wayne Au prior to the episode.

This episode’s call to action: Raise our awareness of how biases in standardized testing affect our students in order to provide support for students who are affected by these biases and find ways to help them succeed.

Join us live for our episode 4 on Friday, March 19, at 5:30pm on the Lurie College YouTube channel.  All of the recordings for this series are available at sjsu.edu/education/emancipatory-education-now

Watch and Attend Our Emancipatory Education Speaker Series

What should education look like post-COVID? How do we get there?

Many are looking forward to a time when we can go back to “normal” in education; however, that “normal” wasn’t working for too many of our children, youth, families and communities. The SJSU Lurie College of Education Emancipatory Education Speaker Series features nationally recognized speakers and emerging voices who are sharing their visions for a post-COVID education system.

Watch the recording from our speaker series event on Friday, March 5:

  • Sec. John King – President and CEO of The Education Trust – Reversing the practices of providing the least educational support to those who need it most
    • 8:42​​ – Introduction of Sec. John King by Dr. Jennifer Husbands
    • 10:50​​ – Remarks from Sec. John King
    • 28:44​​ – Q&A with Sec. John King
  • Dr. Leslie Gonzales – associate professor in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Learning unit at Michigan State University – “Towards Epistemic Justice: Unlearning, Relearning, and Refusal in the Academy”
    • 50:40​​ – Introduction of Dr. Leslie Gonzales by Dr. María Ledesma
    • 52:01​​ – Remarks from Dr. Leslie Gonzales
    • 1:19:00​ – Q&A with Dr. Leslie Gonzales

Visit sjsu.edu/education/community/iee/speaker-series to register for our upcoming speaker series events:

  • Friday, March 12, 3:30-5pm PST | Dr. Fabiola Bagula, Dr. Rebeca Burcaiga, Dr. Melissa Martinez, Dr. Sylvia Mendez-Morse, Ana Tavares, and Dr. Tara Yosso
  • Friday, March 19, 3:30-5pm PST | Dr. E.J.R. David, Dr. Saili Kulkarni, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, and Leroy Moore