District/College: Eugene 4J
Job Assignment/Position: 6-12 Social Studies Specialist (TOSA)
Local Association: EEA
Years of Educator Experience: 15
What are three ways you have actively elevated equity?
- Designing and implementing statewide and regional ethnic studies communities of practice (OEA 2021, OEA + Western Regional Educator Network 2022)
- Centering student voice and advocating the importance of their perspectives in instructional materials decisions (presented research from these efforts at the American Education Research Association 2022 annual conference in San Diego)
- Leveraging OEA’s potential to impact policy and practice in Oregon through the OEA Representative Assembly new business item process to advance student- and educator- generated place-based climate change education legislation (tinyurl.com/oeced) focused on serving BIPOC communities and the environmental disparities they often face (check out the Eugene Weekly’s coverage!)
What is your equity stance?
Representation matters. In quality, and in quantity. So many students (and educators) go through school without seeing identities, values, problems, and aspirations like theirs being represented. Unless there’s a broad base of resources to draw diverse, intersectional experiences and narratives from, the learning happening in schools is narrow, erasing, and inaccurate. Positionally, my current role is to imagine new canons and fresh methods of application with which to engage students to engage in the civic issues of their time. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a passion of mine. In the classroom, this looks like discussions about what matters most to students, anonymous polling and word clouds to find trends, generating research questions, engaging in literature reviews and interviews, and presenting to authentic audiences of influencers, policymakers, and legislators. In these efforts, students are represented through the clarified articulation of their positionality and how they see themselves advocating for it in the short- and long- term. My goal is for students to see how they can shape history, and how important it is that they do so.
What is your favorite social justice quote?
In Lak’ech
Tú eres mi otro yo.
You are my other me.
Si te hago daño a ti,
If I do harm to you,
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
I do harm to myself.
Si te amo y respeto,
If I love and respect you,
Me amo y respeto yo.
I love and respect myself.
-Luis Valdez
Can you share one equity focused resource or student read that you recommend?
Culture and Power in the Classroom by Antonia Darder – the theoretical framework for my dissertation!
