8th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

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5-7 October 2018
Honolulu, Hawai‘i, U.S.A.
 

DETAILED FULL SCHEDULE (with Abstracts)

(Updated 10/5/18)
 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5

9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Registration
 

9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Pre-conference Workshops

1.1  Curriculum Workshop: Indigenous Resurgence and Aloha ‘Āina Curricula

As we work to promote Indigenous resurgence in our native homelands, cultures and communities, how do we effectively educate and inspire future generations of socially, politically and environmentally conscious aloha ‘āina leaders and allies? This workshop provides an opportunity to explore this critically important question with aloha ʻāina educators and curriculum developers working in a diverse range of Hawaiian educational settings, including DOE public schools, a Hawaiian-focused charter school, an ʻāina-based afterschool program in Hāmākua, and an ʻohana-focused cultural restoration program in Ulupō Nui, Kailua. These kumu share their everyday successes and challenges in developing and enacting aloha ʻāina curricula that subvert colonial structures, promote community resurgence and self-determination, and renew and regenerate kanaka-ʻāina relationships that ensure healthy futures for our people, places, and practices. Facilitated by Julie Kaomea, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Maya L. Kawailanaokeawaiki Saffery & Kaleomanuiwa Wong, Hikaʻalani; Haley Kailiehu & Noeau Peralto, Hui Mālama i ke Ala ʻŪlili; Danielle Espiritu, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; and Trevor Atkins, Hālau Kū Māna Public Charter School.

1.2  Writing Workshop: Writing for Our Lives

Why do we want to write? What are we writing for, or what are we writing against? What is it that we hope to change or combat, affirm or illuminate by entering a public conversation on this topic or in this area? Who are we connected to or in solidarity with? This workshop is organized around scholars, academics, and students who want to reach, connect with, or create a public beyond the academy, or beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is designed for people who identify with—or hope to link to—organizers and activists working in social justice projects and movements. Facilitated by William Ayers, University of Illinois Chicago (retired).

1.3  Mentoring Workshop: Resistance, Resilience, and Longevity within Academia

This workshop is for emerging scholar-practitioners concerned with sustaining personal integrity, authenticity, and well-being while actively engaging in resistant strategies within oppressive educational systems. We discuss perspectives on being agents of change through our presence and contributions to the academy despite structural barriers anchored in white supremacy. Strategies include how to make the most of conferences, how to engage in authentic collaboration, and how to maximize scholarly outcomes (publications, presentations) with intentional service to and with communities. Facilitated by Christopher Knaus, University of Washington at Tacoma; Kanoe Naone, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Conejo Valley; Steven Oliver, Salem State University; and Rachelle Rogers-Ard, Oakland Unified School District (CA).
 

12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Lunch (on your own)
 

2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Breakout Sessions 2

2.1.  Health, Wellness, and Healing of the Whole Student

Post-Oppositional Approach to Dealing with Justice Fatigue
Given the need for critique and opposition to injustices, social justice advocates in education often experience justice fatigue as they exhaust their capacity and inner resources to address the daily onslaught of various, multipronged, entangled effects of social structures of oppression. Consequently, there is a killing of one’s spirit, a draining of one’s resources, and a sense of battle fatigue that sets in. In this talk, I present a post-oppositional approach to dealing with justice issues in education that does not cause drainage of our resources or keep us trapped in oppressor/oppressed binaried relationships, and that allows us to imagine a freedom away from the fatigue. Kakali Bhattacharya, Kansas State University

Identity, Denied: Mental Illness and the Figured Worlds of Home and School
When self-identified, recovering alcoholic women are asked to reflect back upon their K-12 schooling experiences, one of the many themes that surfaces is their invisibility/hyper-visibility at home and school. The narratives used in this presentation suggest a strong relationship between alcoholic denial manifesting within the figured worlds of home and school. This presentation highlights the sites of school and home as intersecting worlds that foster denial: denial of voice; denial of sexuality; denial of self. How might we, as educators, activists, advocates, and allies, bear witness to these narratives and work together to create counter-spaces of denial? Mikela Bjork, University of Redlands

The Importance of Teaching Social-Emotional Intelligence to Children in Order to Maximize Safety in Interpersonal and Dating Relationships
This presentation explains and reviews the importance of social-emotional intelligence for children and how it relates to increasing their safety in interpersonal and romantic relationships. I highlight three ways for parents and educators to teach their children about the topic of safety in dating. By developing a child’s social-emotional intelligence, the goal is to decrease their risk of becoming a victim of dating violence, domestic violence, and/or partner abuse. Eleanor Fong, Heaven and Sea Family

Born Out of Aloha
Lili‘uokalani Trust was established to fulfill the Queen’s mission to care for and ensure the wellbeing of the most vulnerable Native Hawaiian children. Aside from Lili‘uokalani’s role as a devoted monarch, she was also a faithful scholar and an extraordinary musician and composer. We believe in the resiliency of our Hawaiian children. We advocate for their wellbeing and build them pathways to thriving lives.  Our programs sit at the intersection of social emotional healing, high caliber youth development opportunities, and deep cultural knowledge and identity. Our team of social workers, athletes, cultural practitioners, artists, and youth leadership mentors drive our slate of programs and services. Susie Lundy, Lili‘uokalani Trust

2.2.  Diversifying and Strengthening the Pipelines Into Higher Education and Pathways Into Teaching

Breaking Down the Wall: An Investigation into Preservice Teachers' Beliefs on a Racially Charged Incident
Educators have a responsibility to prepare white preservice teacher candidates to advocate for racial justice within the educational systems that they enter. Teachers’ actions are shaped largely by their beliefs and experience. Therefore, we sought to uncover preservice teacher candidates’ (PSTs’) beliefs about racial issues. Using vignette methodology, we investigated the written responses of elementary and special education PSTs to a racially charged incident. The responses indicated that beliefs about “free speech” and a stance in favor of relinquishing authority to others have the potential to perpetuate racism. This study has numerous implications for the macro/micro curriculum of teacher education. Karen Colum, Minnesota State University at Mankato

Diversification of the Teacher Workforce in Oregon
The Oregon Educator Equity Advisory Group is a 20-member group charged to research for, coordinate, and oversee legislative reports that outline Oregon’s ongoing status and progress toward diversifying the educator workforce; spotlight, recommend, and drive needed practices and policies; ensure that the voices of culturally and linguistically citizens in Oregon are engaged in examining root causes, current assets, and needed changes; review progress and results from funded state investments intended to recruit, prepare, retain, and advance Oregon’s educator workforce; and recommend future investments for the state. Teresa Ferrer, Oregon Education Association

Early College High Schools as Social Justice and Equity Oriented School Spaces
Early College High Schools (ECHSs) are specifically designed to collapse the distance between high school and college degree attainment. These unique public school models partner with postsecondary institutions to award significant transferrable college credits—tuition free—along with a high school diploma within a four- to five-year timeframe. ECHSs target students who have been historically underserved by the comprehensive high school model and are underrepresented in postsecondary environments. Because there exists scant, but a growing body of, literature on ECHSs, our objective is to provide a review of the literature concerning these schools both in terms of policy and as a model. Leslie Ann Locke and Elizabeth Getachew, University of Iowa

3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Breakout Sessions 3

3.1.  Student, Teacher, and Community Experiences Across International Contexts

Underrepresentation and Racialization of Refugee Students in Education in Croatia
In this paper, I examine how refugee children, particularly asylum-seeking children, have been racialized and face discrimination on personal and structural levels in schools in Croatia. Current educational policies, discourses, and practices underrepresent and suppress refugee and asylum-seeking students and shape their educational experience. Working within postmodernist, post-structural, critical, and feminist theoretical frameworks, I submit that stronger recognition and utilization of the experiences of students with refugee and exile histories can set the ground for the transformation of the educational system. Emina Buzinkic, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities

Shifting the Perspective on Community-Based Management of Education: From Systems Theory to Social Capital and Community Empowerment in El Salvador
The Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) program in El Salvador achieved fame in the late 1990s and 2000s because it formally transferred, among other things, the ability to hire and fire teachers to a committee of parents at the community level. This paper presents a critical and close-up analysis of the EDUCO program in practice, and reflects on what it means for community-based management (CBM) initiatives. In low-income communities, we cannot assume that CBM will be meaningful or that it will contribute meaningfully to community development, and, as such, we should instead focus on broader notions of community development and empowerment. D. Brent Edwards, Jr., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Raising Critical Awareness in a Japanese College Classroom: Teaching U.S. History from the Perspectives of Historically Oppressed Groups
In Japan the images surrounding U.S. culture are generally saturated with the Wild West and Hollywood glam. Behind these images are the hidden and forgotten experiences of those who were historically marginalized that more accurately represent U.S. history and culture. In an attempt to fill this gap for educators and to hone the critical perspective that they urgently need to analyze and evaluate the complex phenomena of racial injustice, the first-year students majoring in early childhood who are enrolled in the “Introduction to American Culture” course at a Japanese college read and respond to children’s books that address the perspectives of historically oppressed groups in U.S. society. Kako Koshino, Tokyo University of Social Welfare, Japan

It's Policy, But What Do They Really Think?: Preservice Teachers' Professional Identities in a Social Justice Program in New Zealand
This paper explores two Masters of Teaching programs developed to address four priority learner groups in New Zealand: Māori and Pasifika learners, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and those with special education needs. Teachers’ commitment to a critical understanding of justice, human rights, and democracy are essential to continued improvement and learning in education, particularly in diverse communities. This research critically examines preservice teachers’ professional knowledge, practice, and sense of self within wider social, political, and cultural contexts. Sue Sutherland, Auckland University of Technology, and Jennifer Tatebe, University of Auckland, New Zealand

3.2.  CREA+E (Coalition on Racial Equity in the Arts + Education): Subterranean Movement Building for Art Educational Equity

The Archeology of Subterranean Movement Building: Equity and Justice in Education
To advance educational equity and justice, navigating below the terrain is sometimes necessary so that efforts are not compromised by a surrounding culture of hostility, or the surface rationality of organizational life. The panel proposes and advocates for subterranean movement building as a prerequisite for macrolevel educational equity work. This first presentation critically examines the overarching colonial, White supremacist structures that make subterranean work necessary; identifies past and current institutionalized practices that have erased the voices, scholarship, and pedagogies of people of color; and introduces CREA+E. Vanessa López, Maryland Institute College of Art

Ants and Railroads: The Mining of Metaphors as Groundwork for Movement Building
Frames, ideologies, and shared imaginings play an important role in movement building. This presentation explores rooting metaphors for CREA+E, an underground network of scholars working for racial justice in education and the arts. CREA+E finds its inspiration in two metaphors: the underground railroad, which mobilized actual physical bodies to transverse and transgress a treacherous White supremacist terrain; and the ant, a little noticed subterranean creature whose individual strength and swarm capacities exceed what might be assumed if judging only by its tiny size. This presentation mines these metaphors and explores what they have to offer resistance movements in the 21st century. Amelia (Amy) Kraehe, University of Arizona

Afro- and Indigenous Futurity: Theoretically Grounding CREA+E
Subterranean movement building is conceptually grounded in the idea that Black/Indigenous/refugee/immigrant’s futurity is beyond the Western epistemology of time and space. Instead of the linear logic of progression, CREA+E takes up the idea of “future as imaginary,” and is attentive to past and present social/political struggles against White western colonial domination. Afro-futurism, Indigenous futurism, and many ancient and non-Western approaches to future and futurity believe that “facing the future” means to walk backward into it. This presentation shares our decolonial desire to constantly revisit and critique the past and present colonial ways of thinking, and to shape and reshape the future. Michelle Bae-Dimitriadis, Pennsylvania State University

Underground Infrastructure: CREA+E as a Model
This presentation expands on the actionable ways that CREA+E has worked as a counter-institutional subterranean collective to advance racial equity and justice in the art education field. CREA+E is in its infancy, yet has proven to be revolutionary in its adoption of non-colonizing practices that push back against conventional ways of building resistance movements for educational equity. The presenter describes CREA+E’s unique characteristics and practices that have resulted in the development of an underground infrastructure that more efficiently supports above ground efforts towards arts educational equity. Joni Boyd Acuff, The Ohio State University

3.3.  Troubling Frames about Education and Social Justice

Teaching for Democratic Denizenship: From Naive Notions of Citizenship to an Empowered Other Class
The clarifying distance of a year spent researching education as a U.S. apparatus of state in Morocco challenged me to rethink common-sense understandings of citizenship. This paper argues that we naively use “citizen” and “citizenship” as inaccurate proxies for “denizen” and “denizenship”; that silencing the condition of denizenship depowers aggrieved and exploited youths; and that by accounting for denizens as a class, we can move towards a movement-based and civically engaged denizenship that is better positioned for gaining full civic rights and citizenship. Jennice McCafferty-Wright, Missouri State University

Counter-Racism Science Pedagogy: Interrogating Race, Racism, and the History of Science in Science Classroom Learning
Science is historically situated and a cultural activity. One common area of concern for science teachers when engaging in historically and socially situated science learning is the commonly stated idea that race is a social construction that has no biological basis. What is our responsibility as science educators to understand and engage in anti-racism activity in our science classrooms? The presentation explores strategies and resources to disrupt racial inequities and to support science learning in three areas: the deconstruction of the notion that there is a biological basis for race, the intersectional history of science and racism, and opportunities for engaging in anti-racism pedagogy in classrooms. Deb Morrison, University of Washington

Transgenerational Traumas and Pedagogies: Towards an Epistemology of the Maternal Trace
How can we think about transgenerational trauma as intimately informing our own pedagogies and engagement in community-building, teaching, and movement organizing? Employing a methodology of excavation, we move toward an epistemology of the maternal trace, taking up questions about how we learn from our own mothers while holding close what it means to mother ourselves and co-mother communities of care within institutional deprivation, in worlds wounded by capitalist and colonial violence. How can we think about these inheritances as valuable and inseparable from our yearning for equitable justice in educational spaces? Anna Rios-Rojas, Colgate University, and Kristi Carey, University of British Columbia, Canada
 

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Opening Plenary Session

Naming the Moment: National and Local Contexts for Movement Building

Maenette K.P. Ah Nee - Benham, Chancellor, University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu

Sumi Cho, Professor, DePaul School of Law

Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Associate Professor, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Suzanne SooHoo, Professor and Jack and Paula Hassinger Chair in Education, Chapman University

Moderator: Ann M. Aviles, University of Delaware
 

6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Welcome Reception

Meet other conference participants and reflect together on the first day’s events at the Welcome Reception. This gathering will be in a reserved area near the Splash Bar, where we can unwind in the outdoor lanai and enjoy the live musical entertainment. Appetizers will be served; drinks will be available for purchase at the bar.
 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6

8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Guided Meditation Session, with Kevin Kumashiro
 

8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Registration
 

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Breakout Sessions 4

4.1.  Teacher Activism In and Beyond the Classroom

Planting the Seed: Teaching for Social Justice in TK-2 Classrooms
In order to teach for social justice, primary-grade teachers must be especially resourceful in finding literature with social justice content because many of the books and resources available are geared toward upper grades. Finding ways to integrate social justice content into the primary grades is a complex and challenging endeavor. This paper presents the case studies of four seasoned primary-grade teachers, and their hopes, struggles, and strategies for teaching for social justice. How do TK-2 teachers conceptualize teaching for social justice? What does social justice teaching look like in their classrooms? What resources do they lean on? What challenges do they face? Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, University of San Francisco

Activist Teachers of Color and the Problem of Isolation: The Role of Affinity Groups in Networks of Activism and Resistance
Teachers of Color often enter the profession in order to serve as educational change agents. While there has been research on teacher activist networks, there is little understanding of how Teachers of Color are influenced by and take part in these networks. We looked at the stories of 25 activist Teachers of Color across the United States to learn how the activist networks and organizations in which the teachers were involved supported and sustained their work. This paper focuses on the issue of teacher isolation and the ways in which the teachers' networks sought to foster support among Teachers of Color, particularly through the use of affinity groups. Lynnette Mawhinney, University of Illinois at Chicago

Challenges Advancing Equity and Justice in Today's Education World: Addressing the Needs of Our Diverse Student Population
Equity and justice in education is limited when it comes to addressing the educational inequities among our diverse student population. There are constantly various diversity initiatives being born in the education world; however, what is lacking is evidence that properly addresses the issues of justice within our schools. How do we understand our teachers' experiences when it comes to implementing, negotiating, and assessing equity and justice within our education system? How do they navigate various paradoxes and presumptions in order to efficiently educate all children for a democratic society? Aminata Diop, City College of New York CUNY

Divining Affordances: How do Teachers Find and Capitalize on Opportunities to Disrupt Oppressive Schooling?
This paper investigates why some teachers in a large urban school district are able to disrupt oppressive systems in their schools that limit students’ access to mathematics education, while other, similarly motivated teachers are not. Teachers’ efficacy in removing institutional barriers depends not solely on their motivation and effort, but also on an alignment between their professional vision, agency, and affordances in the system. We present three cases where teachers effectively challenge oppressive systems, and one where teachers do not. Supporting teachers toward discernment of affordances and a more systemic view of inequities may be crucial for underserved students. Samantha A. Marshall, Vanderbilt University

Educational Courage: Humanizing the Profession in the Face of High-Stakes Standardized Testing
Public school educators today, perhaps more than ever, must be prepared to advocate for the nobility of our profession. Teachers must be prepared to develop community in our classrooms, and facilitate that concept, but must also be educated in the importance of organizing within our profession and raising our voices for working conditions and salaries that are commensurate with our responsibilities, as well as for honoring humanitarian values in our pedagogy. Our hope for survival on our planet depends on incorporating a value system that embraces us all. Donald A. Perl, University of Northern Colorado

4.2.  A CHI(cago) State of Mind: Revisiting Community Education and Organizing Methodologies for a Contemporary Era

A Learning Laboratory for Liberation: Black Power and the Communiversity of Chicago 1969-1976
The emergence of Black Power radicalism after 1966 forever changed the socio-political landscape of American society. This paper investigates an often-omitted historical legacy and site of the Black Power movement that embodied educational self-determinism: the Communiversity of Chicago. By providing counter-hegemonic information and educational services, the Communiversity was a training ground that highlighted three critical elements of the Black Freedom Movement: ideological rigor, educational praxis, and the development and maintenance of student-community relationships. Richard D. Benson, II, Spelman College

"To Serve the People": Transformational Praxis of the Young Lords
This paper provides a glimpse inside the intellectual work of the Chicago Young Lords (ChYLO) and provides critical insight on how they actively produced and translated knowledge to empower their community. What is the role of community-based political education for the purposes of youth organizing and education? What forms of counter-hegemonic curriculum and pedagogical tools did ChYLO utilize to achieve the aims and objectives of community mobilization? How does ChYLO’s community-political education inform curriculum development, specifically for Latinx and other marginalized groups? Erica R. Davila, Lewis University

Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate): Resistance and Revolution in the Streets of Chicago
This paper emphasizes the contributions of activism and political education occurring from 1966-1975 that drove the political awareness and action of Black and Brown youth in Chicago. Mobilization efforts include the alternative educational vehicles expressed in the Communiversity of the Southside and the Chicago Young Lords Organization (ChYLO) of the Northside. These alternative formations developed to address deficiencies identified in educational institutions and to aid urban youth in combating the post-industrial, socio-political, and economic challenges of Chicago communities. Ann M. Aviles, University of Delaware

4.3.  Higher Education Access, Integration, and Consciousness Raising

Challenges of Developing a Certificate in Democratic Principles and Social Justice
This presentation discusses the history (drawing on the Honouliuli Research team) and the development of the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Democratic Principles and Social Justice at the University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu. I analyze the challenges of maintaining a cross-campus, interdisciplinary opportunity for students with a variety of faculty. Susan Matoba Adler, University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu

Advancing the Social Justice Movement for Religious Minorities: Examining the Research, Theory, and Discourse on Religious Oppression in Education
This presentation describes recent movements in U.S. higher education aimed at promoting appreciation for religious diversity, and draws on in-depth qualitative research exploring student experiences with one particular pedagogical model used across the country to teach about religious oppression. This presentation also considers how these lessons can be transferred and applied to the unique context and population of Hawai‘i, and how to translate the larger discourse about religious oppression to promote social justice for those who practice Native Hawaiian religion/spirituality. Sachi Teresa Edwards, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Multilingual Student Support at Institutions of Higher Education: The Translate Iowa Project and Ongoing Initiatives in Student Affairs
The presenters are co-founders of the Translate Iowa Project (T.I.P.), an undergraduate student organization at the University of Iowa. In this presentation, we describe a few of our major achievements, including the translation of the Family Calendar for Orientation Services, in-print and online publication of student works, a multilingual radio show, and community services. We introduce ongoing efforts in our current roles in residence life, student government, and first-year student support. We hope to illustrate the importance of institutional support in easing linguistic barriers for students and families who speak English as a second language. Keegan Gormally, University of Kansas, and Zhiyun Ma, University of Washington

Buildings and Belonging: Exploring How Campus Spaces Enhance Student Belonging
Belonging is key to student success. Drawing upon findings from the “Architecture of Belonging” research project—a multiyear study of the development of belonging in university residence halls—this presentation focuses on how higher education spaces can enhance belonging and inclusion. Particular attention is given to how various design elements interact with students’ diverse identities and experiences. Michelle Samura, Chapman University
 

10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Breakout Sessions 5

5.1.  Immigrant, Refugee, and English-Learner Students In and Outside of K-12 Schools

The Roots of Our People: Examining the Narratives and Literacy Practices of Immigrant and First-Generation Latino/a Adolescents in Community Organizations
Through a partnership with Juntos NC (www.juntosnc.org), this research addresses the need to support the Latino community by exploring the ways in which Juntos students write and produce narratives that individually and collectively weave their stories together. The students share their past, present, and future experiences as immigrant and first-generation students. This presentation examines how their writing and publishing a book, The Roots of Our People: From One World to Another--Juntos, offers insights into the North Carolina Latino/a community's strengths that can be shared with multiple stakeholders in education. Crystal Chen Lee, North Carolina State University

Resilience and Resistance: Newcomer Immigrant and Refugee Youth and Contemporary Social Movements in the United States
How do immigrant and refugee youth respond to discriminatory practices in school, language bias, anti-immigrant sentiment? What aspects of school are highly relevant to their resilience in and outside of school? Data are drawn from a two-year ethnography that focused on how immigrant and refugee high school students from the Democratic Republic of the Congo negotiate language and identity in school. Findings showcase the inherent agency, cultural resources, resilience, and capacity for self-healing in forcefully displaced populations while problematizing what democratic participation means in light of social movements galvanized before and after the Trump election. Liv T. Davila, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Arts Integration as an Instructional Approach for Emerging Multilingual Learners
This study uses a qualitative, case study approach to explore arts integration in an English Language Development (ELD) classroom of middle school newcomers in the Pacific Northwest. We examine the weaving of arts-based instruction into English language instruction, with an explicit focus on the practice of translangauging, or fluid use of diverse linguistic resources, to promote increased student social connectivity inside and outside the ELD classroom as well as lowered self-reports of anxiety around oral and embodied participation. Lorna Porter, University of Oregon

Making a Case for Online Learning for Refugees in Protracted Situations
UNESCO believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched by quality. However, such is not always available, particularly for refugees. In addition to providing people with skills for future work, education can positively impact mental health and help students to make constructive contributions to their community. The refugee crisis has opened up new channels for education to find its place among the given supports, including with distance education. Currently, several online programs have been implemented and studied. Suzanne Reinhardt, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Transnational Literacies of Secondary Newcomer and Refugee Students
This qualitative case study explores the literacy practices of a transnational teacher and transnational students in a secondary English classroom, paying specific attention to the unique needs of newcomer and refugee students and the impact of narrow curricular structures on their literacy practices and beliefs about schooling in America. Pervasive discourses of academic achievement, standardization, and assimilation limited the extent to which the teacher and students were able to engage in asset-based teaching and learning. Ultimately students’ own literacies and practices shifted to align with the goals of the school. Brooke Ward Taira, Independent Scholar

5.2.  Retaking Waikīkī: Advancing Equity, Social and Ecojustice through STEM Education

Chair and Respondent:  Pauline W. U. Chinn, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Creating a Waikīkī Ahupua‘a Learning Community
We sought to create a learning community among the teachers and schools that share the Waikīkī ahupua‘a in order to empower students to track the health of their place through outdoor, experiential, “in the stream” collection of biodiversity and water-quality data; the training of educators and students on the assessment and monitoring of watershed health; the depositing and sharing of data through an online portal accessible to the public including K-12 classrooms and researchers; and the investigation of how data can be used for watershed conservation, management, and action. Citizen Science engages schools, teachers, and students to collect scientific data that is pertinent and relevant to problems affecting the local community. Yvonne Chan and Megan Kawatachi, 'Iolani School; and Cory Yap, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Mele Murals
Place-based education (PBE) immerses students in local heritage, host cultures, language, and landscapes, and engages students in exploring opportunities and experiences by using cultural values as a foundation for the study of subjects across the curriculum. PBE emphasizes learning through service projects for the local school and/or community. This presentation explores two place-based projects: the Halau Paheona and Mele Murals of the Estria Foundation (http://www.estria.org/halau-paheona); and the Honouliuli Education Center at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i (https://www.jcch.com/honouliuli-education-center). Kaleolani Hanohano and Lori E. Chun, Kaimuki High School

Aloha ‘Āina: Mauka to Makai
The STREAMS curriculum aims to build student awareness and understanding through a kanaka ‘ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) sustainable lens. In seeking to cultivate and nurture student understanding of the inter-related connections mauka to makai (mountain to sea), a reflective process was used starting with the question: How can I rebuild my students’ identity and senses of aloha ‘āina (love for the land) and kuleana (responsibility) for mālama ‘āina (caring for and stewarding the land)? Science from an ‘āina-based lens supports NGSS three-dimensional learning, and shows how culture, place, and social-emotional intelligence can grow concurrently. Alison M.K. Yasuoka, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

"How Do We Care for Our Ahupua'a?"
SEEQS: the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability attempts to provide a safe place for young minds and hearts to inquire about the possibilities of what Hawai‘i’s future could look like if we look to our past to design solutions for our future. Five teachers from different disciplines guide 60 students around an essential question of sustainability that they will study for a year. This year our group tackled the question, “How do we care for our ahupua‘a?”, focusing on our connection to the section of Mānoa-Pālolo stream on our campus. All projects culminated in hosting a day of community service at our home campus stream, working together towards the common goal of aloha ‘āina. Andrea Jonna Charuk and Janelle Chong, SEEQS Public Charter School

SMART Ala Wai Project
The increase in the number of people on or visiting O‘ahu over the course of the last few years has been astounding. We must look at the infrastructure and our present conditions to understand how we can grow to fit such a demand that seems to have no end. With the SMART Ala Wai Project, students will be participating in this future by researching the man-made canal that diverts water collected from rain and surrounding streams (both natural and man-made) to the ocean every day. They will learn the problems that have faced and will face the most densely populated portion of their island, and will also work with scientists at the University of Hawai‘i to look at data. David Cagle, Voyager Public Charter School

5.3.  Building Community, Acting Collectively

Freeing the University from Corporate Ownership and Influence
What would a university built on principles of solidarity, equity, and shared governance look like? This paper draws on histories of academic collectives, worker‐owned cooperatives, the solidarity economy, and the urban commons to suggest institutional transformation in higher education. How might we envision an alternative to privatization and business models? Can we imagine universities organized for access, not ownership? Can we imagine a worker‐owned and worker-governed institution? Can we imagine the university as a commons designed by and for the people? Carol Batker, University of San Francisco

Ujima: Re-envisioning Freedom in Schools
This presentation provides an overview of a skills-based curriculum, The Community Building Guide for Racial Equity in Educational Institutions, grounded in principles of social justice education using a dialogic model for public engagement that has moved thousands to collectively attempt to dismantle racism in their spheres of influence with significant success. Drawing on the power of community action that marked all social movements, this presentation introduces a tool that helps educators re-envision freedom in schools by actualizing their collective power as agents of institutional change. Rochelle Peterson-Ansari, Perceptions Unlimited

Art, Collective, Freedom
This presentation explores relationships between art, collectives, and social justice by considering the collective as a broad model for diverse and inclusive practices. How do collectives seek to imagine and promote communities? How do collectives embody community identities, express grievances, and demand redress in ways that other institutions cannot? What are the benefits and drawbacks of the collective as a mechanism for battling for visibility? What is the impact of the collective-as-model on curriculum and educational practices? Raél Jero Salley, Maryland Institute College of Art

5.4.  Troubling Teacher Education

Is Teaching for Justice and Equity that Simple? Using Ecological Epistemology to Explain How One's Situatedness and Identity Informs How One Teaches Toward Justice and Equity
Teachers should examine their situatedness, their identity, what they know and do not know about justice and equity and why and how this (mis)understanding exists, in order to build and implement units, lessons, and projects of study geared toward a just, equitable, and democratic society. This presentation articulates the importance of using ecological epistemology and how this is being done in a teacher preparation program to provide teacher candidates the chance to examine their own identity and how this informs what they will do as teachers. Michael D. Bartone, Central Connecticut State University

Teacher Empathy for Humane and Just Classrooms
As part of a larger collaborative self-study research endeavor, we explore questions around the potential impact of teacher empathy on our own practices as early childhood teacher educators (at universities in Massachusetts, Hawai‘i, and Maryland) and on the practices of our teacher candidates. In this presentation, we explore our constructs of empathy to promote social justice in our work with pre-service teachers. We aim to use on our constructs of teacher empathy as a foundation to build our students’ experiences and abilities with perspective taking to form more authentic relationships with racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse children and families. Leah Muccio, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

"I Don't Do Urban": Re-designing Elementary Teacher Education to Center Equity
How do we center equity across traditional teacher education courses? This presentation shares the triumphs and tribulations of two faculty members as they proposed, created, and collaborated with a local school district to re-design the first-semester block of an elementary teacher education program, moving social justice education from the margins to the center. We discuss how we navigated structural barriers to re-imagine and align introductory literacy and educational perspectives courses, as well as field experience around culturally sustaining pedagogies and restorative education approaches. Erin Quast and Shamaine Bertrand, Illinois State University

Learning to Teach Paradoxically with Simulated Encounters
For the last six years our secondary teacher preparation program has used live-actor, video-recorded, group-debriefed, simulated encounters to prepare preservice teachers to teach in ways that support more equitable outcomes for historically underserved and minoritized student populations. This presentation explores how we, as teacher educators, can design and use these simulated encounters to teach paradoxically, drawing on data that show the importance of developing scenarios that take up teacher positionality and that have no simple resolution, in order to prepare future teachers for the uncertainty that comes with anti-oppressive education. Elizabeth A. Self, Vanderbilt University

Making Our Stance on Social Justice Education Explicit: Using the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards to Redesign the UHM ITE Secondary Teacher Preparation Program
Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards have been used to redesign the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Institute for Teacher Education (ITE) Secondary Program. This presentation gives a general overview of the brand new Kahalewaiho‘ona‘auao program, explains how the Standards frame the program’s culminating portfolio, and describes the impacts of the Standards on our teacher candidate’s growth within the first year of the program. We summarize how the Standards have impacted us as a faculty, including how we have a collective voice for communicating what we mean by social justice education to others. Amber Strong Makaiau, Charmaine Mangram, Charlotte Frambaugh-Kritzer, Chad Miller, and Kirsten Kamaile Noelani Mawyer, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
 

11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch (on your own)
 

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Brownbag Exploration Session: Forming a Hawai‘i Teachers for Social Justice

K-12 educators from across the state of Hawai‘i are invited to this informal discussion on what it means to be social justice educators for Hawai‘i and that explores, imagines, and possibly strategizes the formation of a Hawai‘i Teachers for Social Justice network that would be inspired by and in solidarity with similar teacher activist groups across the country. Feel free to bring your lunch. Facilitated by Brynn Alcain, Kea‘au Elementary School; and Margary Martin, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Brownbag Information Session: Publishing Your Conference Presentation

Have you seen the special issue of the Journal of Educational Foundations, published just this month, that features articles that began as presentations at last year's 7th International Conference on Education and Social Justice? We are already working on our next special issue (with the International Journal of Critical Pedagogy), and we invite all presenters from this year's 8th International Conference to submit a proposal. Come to an Information Session with the incoming guest co-editors to learn more. Feel free to bring your lunch. Facilitated by Vidya Shah and Erica Davila.
 

1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Breakout Sessions 6

6.1.  Re-framing Our Understanding of Students at the Margins

Bilingualism, Disability, and Stigma: When a Social Justice Movement becomes a Silencing Tool
Using data from an ethnographic study, this presentation discusses how fighting against racist ideologies that framed emergent bilinguals as deficient has contributed to the idea of a superhuman bilingual. Who the ideal bilingual education candidate has become is also discussed with a particular focus on the ways in which bilinguals who do not reflect superhuman and supernormal capacities have been pushed out of bilingual learning spaces and have been, ultimately, silenced. This presentation recommends ways to create discourse and policies that are both supportive of bilingual education and the lived-experiences of all emergent bilingual learners and their families. María Cioè-Peña, Montclair State University

Collaborative Advocacy for Multilingual Learners
This presentation describes strategies to advocate for students who are multilingual. Partnerships across institutions such as the Hawaiʻi Department of Education, University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa College of Education, and the Hawaiʻi Board of Education can promote positive change. For example, the panelists advocated to promote passage of prolanguage legislation, and have collaborated on program development, professional development, and community outreach. The foundation for this work is a reimagining of how we approach working with linguistically and culturally diverse learners from a deficit-based to an asset-based perspective. Patricia Espiritu Halagao, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; and Emily Lam, Hawai‘i Department of Education

Safe School Climates for All: Perceptions of Teacher Support among LGB, Transgender, and Questioning Students
This presentation examines data from a state-wide survey administered to middle and high school students in California. Student responses to questions addressing school climate and teacher support will be examined for students who do and do not self-identify as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Variables cited in the literature as being linked to school climate for LGBTQ youth, such as truancy, suicidality, and substance abuse will also be examined. The presentation also provides data on interventions and supports to help schools create and foster safe and supportive school climates for students. Kelly Kennedy and Amy-Jane Griffiths, Chapman University

6.2.  Designing Culture- and Place-Based Science Curricula to Support Kanaka ʻŌiwi Students

Creating Student Community Stewards, I
This panel of science educators believes it is our kuleana (responsibility) to design and implement culture and place-based science curricula (Gruenewald, 2003) that provide learning opportunities for kanaka ‘ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) students and their classmates that target kā mālama ‘āina (environmental stewardship) and ka wai ola (indigenous rights to self-determination and quality education). This first presentation discusses the collaborative work of a Wai‘anae Intermediate 8th grade science teacher and an instructional science curriculum coach and how they created a community service-learning project notable for its Next Generation Science Standards alignment and culture and place-based commitments. Kehaka Spencer, Wai‘anae Intermediate

Creating Student Community Stewards, II
This presentation shares the mo‘olelo (story) of crafting a community service-learning project in Wai‘anae Intermediate as part of the 8th grade science curriculum which engaged students in meaningful science and culture and place-based pedagogy. I also share resources for phenology lessons that were implemented as part of this project, and discusses how the collaborators developed partnerships with large organizations to support their curriculum. Brigitte Russo, Wai‘anae Intermediate

Developing Aloha ‘Āina
This presentation focuses on a place-based science and Hawaiian-culture based education program, which aims to help middle students cultivate a positive kanaka ‘ōiwi self-identity through the learning of ‘ike ku‘una (traditional knowledge), ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, mo‘olelo (story), mālama ʻāina, and the pursuance of scientific investigation in order to nurture aloha ʻāina (love of the land/political consciousness). Nurturing aloha ‘āina poses an urgent task not only because of the importance of impressing upon ʻōpio (youth) the ecological wisdom of their kūpuna (ancestors) but also because the health of the ʻāina and the vitality of Hawaiian culture are inextricably woven together. Kainoa Kaulukukui-Narikawa, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

A Classroom with No Walls?: An Integrated STEM/STEAM Approach to Culture/Place-Based Learning
Focusing on the Kalihi & Kapālama ahupua‘a (a land division from the mountains to the ocean) in urban Honolulu, this presentation explores various resources within the ahupua‘a that take students out of the classroom, allow them to connect with their community, and actively engage and develop understandings of place-based culture and history. I discuss the value of experiential learning and community service for STEM/STEAM students. I also consider the role of experiential learning in students’ development and practice of soft skills (character building, collaboration, listening) amongst each other and in nature, in the context of science education and with an eye towards future success in the world outside classroom walls. Diane Tom-Ogata, W. R. Farrington High School

Respondent:  Kirsten Kamaile Noelani Mawyer, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

6.3.  One Meeting at a Time: College Administrators' Engagement in Justice by Disrupting Everyday Neoliberalism

Ascending Past Market Value: Reframing Student Success Measures in Neoliberal Times
The First Ascent Scholars (FAS) program is a scholarship program for students with significant financial need to attend the University of Utah while pursuing a business degree. With a focus on community and social-capital building instead of competition, the program challenges the neoliberal ideals of business education. FAS also challenges the framing of diversity as market value, and instead emphasizes the cultural value of diversity. This presentation explores ways professionals can challenge the neoliberal discourse of student success by providing new success frameworks. Victoria Cabal, University of Utah

Building a Community of Us: Critical Pedagogy as a Tool for Identity Development of First-Generation Students During Neoliberal Times
The neoliberalization of higher education continues to subjugate and racialize first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students, and this relationship is drastically changing how they understand their education. This presentation argues that, although such students develop their identities in neoliberal times, they are also making strategic choices to navigate systems of inequality in K-16 education. By understanding the complexities of coalition building, scholarship programs like the Legacy Scholars create spaces where critical pedagogy allows students to build strong community values that are in direct resistance to the individualization and toxicity of neoliberal education. Daniel K. Cairo, Westminster College

Priceless, Not Worthless: Humanities as Community Medicine for the Human Condition
In the humanities, we empower our students to be critical thinkers, lifelong inquirers, and agents of rethinking what is presented as the only option. We hold ourselves accountable for identifying solutions to global challenges and see humankind as not only connected with, but also accountable to nature and society. This presentation explores the essential role that the humanities play in defending community and citizenship against neoliberalism, and explores why the liberal arts pose a great threat to neoliberal ideology. Taunya Dressler, University of Utah

Moments of Healing and Redirection: Helping Reduce the Trauma of Neoliberalism through Academic Advising
What happens when we mistake the purpose of education and emotional and individual happiness for what proves optimal for capitalist production? This presentation examines the ways in which neoliberalism impacts the overall mental and emotional well-being of undergraduate college students, and the role advisors can play in helping to reduce and abate various forms of trauma brought about by the perfectionism that is demanded by neoliberal pathologies in higher education. James Kendall, Westminster College

Loneliness and Other Bad Feelings: College Students, the Psychological Consequences of Neoliberalism, and Group Therapy
In the last ten years, college counseling centers across North America have seen a steep increase in demand for their services. A growing body of research points to how the policies and practices of neoliberalism contribute to mental health problems, including isolation and perfectionism. Mental health professionals who lack formal awareness of neoliberal ideology and practices risk reinforcing its major tenets, while also using psychotherapy to coerce patients to conform to its norms. This presentation suggests approaches to training counselors and to counseling college students that provide alternatives to the “common sense” of neoliberalism. Joshua Newbury, University of Utah

Campus Administrator vs. Student Advocate: The Neoliberal Crisis of a Campus Administrator's Decisions from a Student-Centered Approach
Campus administrators struggle constantly in making decisions that support institutional structures of capitalism while also addressing the needs of students. How do we reconcile the personal dissonance that occurs when administrators are faced with decisions that are contradictory in action? This presentation recommends various approaches to navigating the decision-making process for administrators to disrupt the institutional structures that reinforce neoliberal ideologies, ultimately impacting the ways we support student success. Karnell McConnell-Black, Westminster College

Respondent: Amy Bergerson, University of Utah

6.4.  Building Partnerships with Schools, Families, and Diverse Communities to Improve Education

Beyond the Dream: Social Justice Strategies and Curriculum for Youth Development Programs
This paper discusses the development of a social justice curriculum that investigated the lives of “dreamers” from a multicultural perspective. Expanding on recent legislation about DREAMers, the curriculum examines youth perceptions on achieving dreams within different communities of color. For example, do students identify common dreams between African American and LatinX or Pacific Islanders? The aim of this curriculum is to increase multicultural awareness by exploring the similarities and differences in dreams across historical time periods and across cultures. Sheryl Davis, San Francisco Human Rights Commission

The High Cost of Inequity
Black to the Future (BttF) is a collaborative of organizations that work in coordination to combat issues of disparity facing African Americans in San Francisco. Our preliminary findings suggest that this culturally responsive and community-centric service umbrella addresses many of the concerns with great efficiency. When weighed against high costs of incarceration, mental and physical health insurance costs, and costs associated with homelessness in San Francisco, we hope to establish that the BttF model is a valuable investment in the interest of supporting African American urban communities. Malik Henfield, University of San Francisco

Art and Activism
This presentation highlights curriculum strategies for incorporating diverse, youth-friendly music, emotional support, and collaborative learning with art. The arts have been identified as tools to improve social skills, develop social awareness, and increase both engagement and productivity. Cultural identity and pride can also serve to enhance a young person’s perception of their potential for academic success. This presentation describes activities to enhance youth cultural identity and pride through art and student feedback, and also describes youths’ perceptions of participating in the activities and their perceived benefits. Dannielle Glover, San Francisco Human Rights Commission
 

2:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Breakout Sessions 7

7.1.  Expanding Models for K-12 Curriculum

Bilingual Co-Teaching Model for Art Gallery Lessons in a Pre-Service Bilingual Teacher Preparation Program: Empowering Bilingual Teachers and Learners
This paper documents a collaborative Spanish bilingual co-teaching model developed by a museum of art and a university in central Texas that pairs undergraduate Bilingual and Bicultural Education students who are studying to become teachers with graduate students in art education and art history who are employed by the art museum as gallery teaching fellows. Together, they co-facilitate bilingual gallery lessons in the art museum for elementary students from dual-language classrooms. This co-teaching model facilitates a meaningful space to introduce Spanish in community contexts that are not traditionally welcoming of minority languages. Lucia Cardenas Curiel, Michigan State University; Haydee M. Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin; and Desiree Pallais, University of Texas at Austin

The Poetry of Place: Disrupting Prevailing Metaphors of Schooling through Place-Based Learning
Metaphors are a pervasive part of how we speak of and conceptualize education, schools, and students, including the role of schools, the nature of achievement, and who belongs at school, which are then mirrored in pedagogical practices, curriculum, and resource distribution. The prevailing metaphors of education as factory, cure, competitive race, mortuary of knowledge, or capitalist marketplace are particularly relevant to how schools serve and engage students who are struggling and marginalized. This presentation discusses how place-based learning can serve as a disruptor of these prevailing metaphors and support students in reimagining their own metaphors. Genevieve Manset, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Establishing Science Courses as Contexts for Social Justice
In establishing science courses as contexts for social justice, the aim is to expand students’ ability to make sense of everyday phenomenon, events, issues, and incidences. This presentation describes classroom examples that can be used to scaffold and support students to think critically about both physical and social phenomena. Instead of treating science content topics in isolation, I situate the content in broader socio-political contexts. Opportunities to question what counts as evidence, who gets to decide, who benefits/who loses, and who is included/who is excluded help students to take a critical orientation toward knowledge in science and society. Scott Sander, Miami University of Ohio

7.2.  Voices and Choices: Asian Americans and Southeast Asians Disrupting or Colluding with Whiteness in the Education Pipeline

Navigating Homogenous Education Systems as an Asian American Educator
Educators are leaving the field of teaching for a variety of reasons, including a lack of support from leadership, hostile work environments, and minimal opportunities for advancement. Teachers of color face additional barriers due to intersectional racism, and are leaving the field at a rate 24% higher than White teachers. The White-Black racial binary further silences Asian American, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander teacher identities. This presentation clarifies barriers that these teachers face as they navigate education systems committed to whiteness, and discusses connections to the presenter’s personal experiences in higher education. Candis Eckert, University of Washington at Tacoma

Experiences of Asian American Community College Presidents
Of the 1,067 known community college presidents in the United States, only 27 are of Asian American descent. This underrepresentation of Asian American presidents reflects further exclusion from institutional and policy decisions. This presentation identifies institutional barriers and microaggressions that Asian American community college presidents and chancellors face as leaders within whiteness-centered campuses, and discusses connections to the presenter’s personal experiences in higher education. Johnny Hu, University of Washington at Tacoma

Ethnic Inequality in Public Education in Hawai‘i
Ethnic inequality is deeply entrenched in Hawai‘i’s K-12 public schools and the University of Hawai‘i (UH) system, and has differential impact on students of differing ethnicity. Furthermore, ethnic inequality in the schools significantly affects the access, representation, and graduation of students in the UH system or higher education in general. The two largest groups in the public schools—Native Hawaiians and Filipino Americans—are the two most underrepresented groups at UH Mānoa. The primary factor that maintains ethnic inequality in public education is the long-term underfunding of the DOE and UH systems by the state legislature. Jonathan Y. Okamura, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Creating Academic Spaces for Southeast Asian College Students to Promote Equitable Educational Opportunities
Family, societal, and school pressures can cause dissonance in Southeast Asian students’ pursuit and achievement of their educational goals. Higher education institutions have the potential to decenter whiteness, yet in practice they replicate inequities. Furthermore, without disaggregating the Asian American racial category, the unique voices and experiences of Southeast Asians are often dismissed. This presentation discusses the development of a Southeast Asian Identities course to foster Southeast Asian students’ cultural connections and promote social change, and draws connections to the presenter’s personal experiences in higher education. Chanira Reang Sperry, University of Washington at Tacoma

Respondent: Applying a Critical Race Theory of Higher Education
This summative presentation engages audience members in an applied discussion using critical race theory as situated within a higher education context to reflect on the presentations. After briefly sharing a model of critical race theory that frames the experiences of the panelists as the normalizing violence of whiteness as education, participants are guided in collective responses to daily choices to disrupt and/or collude with whiteness as operational strategies to navigate and/or transform higher education. Christopher Knaus, University of Washington at Tacoma

7.3.  Research Methods, Construction of Knowledge, and Impact of Scholarship

Navigating the Shores: Indigenous Epistemologies and the Teaching of Research
Schools and universities understand and produce knowledge in very particular ways, and in doing so, call into being subjectivities with particular ideological inflections. These spaces offer answers to questions about what is worth knowing and doing, and rarely make room for, and often devalue and erase, local ways of knowing. This presentation examines how students (many of them practicing teachers) in the capstone course of a Master’s program in teaching and learning, respond when asked questions about knowledge production, identity, and learning in their research and practice. Brian Charest, University of Redlands

Scholarship as Poetic Design: Making a Better World through Scholarly Work
Scholarly work can be intentionally directed to creating a better world rather than understanding the one we currently inhabit. Through the concepts of poiesis and design, scholarship becomes an emergent social and cultural process of imagining what a better world would look like. When purposefully guided by such values as justice, beauty, and abundance, scholarship focuses on designing and generating a world that is more just, abundant, and beautiful. Michael Hayes, University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu

Translanguaging and Critical Participatory Action Research as Tools to Disrupt Oppressive Ideologies of Minoritized Communities
Children from minoritized communities have complex and dynamic linguistics repertoires that the state refuses to acknowledge. This presentation focuses on two projects that have empowered youth from culturally and linguistically minoritized communities in New York to disrupt oppressive ideologies by taking up a critical translanguaging stance and engaging in youth participatory action research. It provides examples of how unique spaces for such movement can be built into the hegemonic structures of school systems. Khanh Le and Gladys Aponte, The Graduate Center CUNY

Culturally Responsive Methodologies in Practice
White, Eurocentric, Western frameworks have dominated research methods in academia. Researchers are countering this methodological tradition by creating new culturally appropriate methods for scholarship. In order to challenge traditional research methods that develop and sustain colonial relations between the (oftentimes Western) researcher and communities of color, this presentation discusses the major components of culturally responsive methodologies and how we use them to guide our research. J. Paolo Magcalas, Loara High School; and Suzanne SooHoo, Chapman University

Using the Master's Tools: Towards a Visionary Pragmatism
This is a paper about tensions and duality, navigating competing identities and interests in a system that is both resistant to change and self-perpetuating. Informed by our experiences as researchers in a large-scale, multi-university research project on action civics and youth voice, we find ourselves simultaneously encouraging and pushing against critical and pragmatic approaches, committing to a visionary pragmatism while questioning if pragmatism is merely a way of justifying our compromises, thereby living within a type of double consciousness—trying to use the master’s tools to tear down the master’s house. Shelley Zion, Rowan University
 

4:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Breakout Sessions 8

8.1.  INVITED PANEL: Lenses from "Leading for Social Justice" for Transforming Schools of Education

Chair and Respondent:  Rene Antrop-Gonzalez, Metropolitan State University (MN)

Second Respondent:  Kevin Kumashiro

Luz Casquejo Johnston, Saint Mary's College of California

Dana Hagerman, Edgewood College

David Rutledge, New Mexico State University

Vidya Shah, York University

8.2.  Youth Activism, Organizing, Leading

Transforming Youth Organizing: A Decolonizing Social Movement Framework for Intergenerational Solidarity
The compounding experiences of colonial miseducation of youth of color, neoliberal policies and logics in urban communities, colonial logics that render the role of spirituality in social movements as invisible, and adultism in legal and social institutions constrain the transformative possibilities of youth agency in social movements. This presentation explores how educators working in youth movements can build a decolonizing paradigm and practice for transformative organizing in solidarity with youth, as well as a transformative youth organizing approach that incorporates radical healing, transformative justice, and abolitionist frameworks. Emily Bautista, YouthBuild Charter School of California

Contributing to Social Capital and Social Justice through Positive Youth Development
Youth that have social capital are better able to navigate and negotiate through the myriad of barriers and challenges that lead to social injustice. Youth programs can connect youth to their community in meaningful and purposeful ways, thus creating environments where youth feel a sense of efficacy and are equipped with resources to combat social injustice. This presentation discusses a community capitals framework with a focus on social capital, and experiential activities and evaluation tools to measure the impacts of community and social capital as a conduit to social justice. Nia Imani Fields, University of Maryland

Exploring Low- and High-Risk Youth as Leaders Promoting Healthy Communities
This presentation explores the experiences and learning among youth leaders working to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among young people. Youth leaders have different backgrounds and experiences, including different histories with substance use, and therefore, prevention projects may have different outcomes on their sense of self, learning, and personal well-being. LisaMarie Miramontes, Independent Scholar

Learning Agency: Youth Activism as an Antidote to Neoliberal Powerlessness
This paper explores what it means for young people to be active stakeholders who influence education policy in a neoliberal policy field that constructs youth as either the consumers of an educational product or the commodities of educational reform. The analysis explores how youth activists' out-of-school learning in their youth organizing group positioned them as insider-outsiders in relation to the School District of Philadelphia and offered them a unique vantage point to analyze their own experiences and influence decisions in their schools and the district as a whole. This youth organizing group offered young people the tools to claim their own agency as critical learners and active citizens. Sonia M. Rosen, Villanova University

8.3.  Collectively Developing and Critically Analyzing Law and Policy

Planting the Seeds of Justice with Early Introductions to Law
Over the last century, careers in law that were once only available to a few became increasingly pursued by the many. Law schools are reconsidering their curricula to be more inclusive, practical, and collaborative. In this presentation, we present an enrichment-focused 6th-8th grade simulation-based curriculum designed to develop interest among diverse groups of students in legal practices and in envisioning their trajectories as agentic actors in the legal process. A chief objective of this curriculum is to provide early opportunities for legal training and practice as a means for youth to explore and understand social justice issues that can be addressed within the legal process. Alexandra Goodell and Jennifer Perevodchikov, University of Washington

To Internationalize International Mindedness: An Evaluation of the IBDP in Different Sociocultural Contexts
This paper assesses the effectiveness of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in fostering international mindedness (IM) in students in the United States, Switzerland, and South Korea. The results show that South Korea is the only context in which the evaluation shows a statistically significant difference in the level of IM between grades (an increase in IM, but dissatisfaction with the mission of promoting IM when seen as promoting a Western mindset). Educators may be promoting ideologies packaged as international mindedness, particularly those that in many ways seem to discredit viewpoints from non-Western countries. Hwa Pyung Yoo, Villanova University

Prefiguring Alternative Worlds: Decolonizing the Movement for Ethnic Studies in California
This paper delineates principles rooted in Indigenous, Xicanx, and Latin American grassroots projects for decolonizing the Ethnic Studies movement in California. In what ways might these strategic positionings reinscribe the values, ideologies, and practices that they are trying to work against? While centering colonialism and decolonization, I reflect upon a series of questions or tensions that have led me to center community, spirituality, and healing. This investigation expands upon the notion of prefiguration, of envisioning and enacting the ends in our means, as a way for developing and envisioning a rehumanizing Ethnic Studies at all levels, including teaching, organizing, and policy-making. Miguel Zavala, Chapman University
 

5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Networking Reception

Inspired by the dozens of presentations throughout the day, and to continue conversations with new colleagues, let’s come together again to conclude the evening with the Networking Reception. This gathering will be in a designated area near the Splash Bar, where we can unwind in the outdoor lanai. Appetizers will be served; drinks will be available for purchase at the bar.
 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7

8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Guided Meditation Session, with Kevin Kumashiro
 

8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Registration
 

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Roundtable Sessions

9.1.  On Languages: Transforming Learning and Learners

Developing Teacher Advocates for Multilingual Learners
Approximately one-in-four residents in Hawai‘i speak a language other than English. Two years ago, an educator preparation program was launched at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to prepare elementary educators to work with multilingual learners. A central goal of the program is to develop participants’ awareness of inequities and provide opportunities for them to become activists for improved services. This presentation describes the curriculum and reflects on successes and challenges. E. Brook Chapman de Sousa, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Incorporating Critical Pedagogy in Heritage Language Education
Heritage language learners as well as their teachers are constantly exposed to the hegemony of English and whiteness in the United States, and struggle with and internalize racism against their own racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities. To meet the goals of heritage-language and culture learning, this presentation argues that our curriculum and instruction must incorporate critical pedagogy, which develops a critical lens that enables learners to challenge such norms and marginalization. Koeun Park and Hyesun Kim, University of Utah

Respondent:  David Rutledge, New Mexico State University

9.2.  On Beyond Classrooms: Enrichment and Community-Based Learning

Using a Community Study Project to Identify Assets, Equity Gaps, and Advocate for Social Justice through a Community-Based Education Course
This presentation analyzes a community-based education course in which university students conduct photovoice community walks guided by community members and create ArcGIS maps to geospatially locate and critically examine assets and equity gaps. Students document the cultural wealth of the elementary youth and their families to design and deliver culturally relevant educational programming and activities and to advocate for systemic and institutional change. Post-course analysis of the university students’ changing attitudes, beliefs, and cultural knowledge is discussed. Quaylan Allen, Chapman University

Rise Above Educational Consortium: A Transdisciplinary and Transindustry Movement to Advance Equity and Justice
Rise Above seeks to co-create diverse social learning environments with programs that bridge the divide between academics and life. Our ultimate mission is to provide students and their families with access to enrichment activities that match students’ interests while meeting students’ needs. Through the implementation of multiple data-driven models, Rise Above aims to provide traditionally underserved and disparate student groups with diverse, research-based, high-quality supplemental services and supports. Kevin Quail, II, Rise Above; and Roxanne Moore, Washington State University

Respondent:  Malik Henfield, University of San Francisco

9.3  On Curriculum: Studying Enslavement and Ethnic Studies in K-12 Schools

911 Identity Crisis: An Advocacy Argument on Behalf of Policy that Enforces Person-First and Identity-First Language in Social Studies Curriculum
Schools are one of the first places where a child begins to shape and form their identity. This paper advocates for using person-first and identity-first language in history curriculum and raises concerns about the terms “slave” and “slavery.” Person-first and identity-first language is defined and discussed to develop the rationale for providing cultural competence, drawing on disability studies and on studies of Black bodies. By continuing to teaching from a “slave” and “slavery” perspective vs. enslaved and enslavement, the system continues the overall perpetuation of the docile body. Angeline Dean, Rowan University

Teacher Inquiry into Developmentally Appropriate Elementary Ethnic Studies
Many school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area have begun requiring ethnic studies courses. This study on framing social studies curriculum as ethnic studies and exploring its integration with other subject matter provides elementary school teachers with more models for how to teach social studies in meaningful ways. We share examples of teacher action research projects incorporating developmentally appropriate ethnic studies in a range of elementary classrooms that highlight the field’s complexities. Wanda Watson and Natalee Kēhaulani Bauer, Mills College

Respondent:  Miguel Zavala, Chapman University

9.4.  On Discourse: Imperialism and Neoliberalism

Neoliberal Biomedical Narratives and the Medicalization of Emotional Distress
An aspect of neoliberalism is its individualization of societal problems, as in the biomedical narrative that ignores the social factors that lead to mental disorders, offering only short-term individual solutions to societal ills. The reality is we are social creatures who rely on our connections and relationships around us, hence, the solution must be oriented in disconnecting from the power relations of neoliberalism and restoring the power of community and community-oriented lifestyles. Cole Cooper, Westminster College

A Collective Memory Project: Effects of U.S. Imperialism on Environmental Activism in Central America through the Lens of Gender and Indigeneity
Environmental activism in Central America has its roots in fighting against U.S. imperialism and colonialism, indigenous women activists face distinct forms of violence being at the forefront of the movement. This presentation examines the relationship between U.S. imperialism and Central America; how this has affected environmental activism in Central American countries; a case study on Berta Caceres, a female, indigenous environmental activist; and an analysis on how gender constructions and indigeneity affect environmental activism in Central America. Marley Dominguez, Westminster College

Respondent:  Pauline W. U. Chinn, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

9.5.  On Higher Education: Experiences of Undergraduates

Undocu-Outliers: An Autoethnography about an Undocumented Student Journey in Higher Education by an Undocumented Student
This presentation describes my autoethnography as an undocumented student in higher education, and shares a discussion with my correspondent using the fishbowl method. The presentation raises awareness about undocumented students in higher education and contributes to a movement for equity and justice through collaboration for undocumented scholars. Yazmin Aguilar, University of Washington at Seattle

The Role of Culturally Sustaining Learning in Mentoring Native Hawaiian Undergraduates
This presentation focuses on the ways that faculty mentoring influences learning and identity development of Native Hawaiian students who collaborate with mentors in research activities or other formats of scholarly work. The presentation is part of a larger project entitled, “Academic and Professional Identity Development of Native Hawaiian Undergraduates Engaged in Mentored Research Activities.” Klavdija Zorec, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Respondent:  Vidya Shah, York University

9.6.  On Sex and Gender: Challenges and Resources

Family Communication and Sex Education as a Pathway to Social Justice
Parents are the most important influence on teen sexuality, and teens who have good conversations with their parents about sex are more likely to delay sex, have fewer partners, and use birth control when they do have sex. Linking Families and Teens, (LiFT) a new family connection program offered through Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, acknowledges and incorporates the unique strengths and challenges that exist for youth living in rural and island communities. Local O‘ahu and Maui LiFT facilitators discuss their initial assessment. Grace Caligtan and Lara Farina, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands

Educational Dilemmas Concerning District Policies for Transgender Students
In responding to the needs of gender-expansive students (i.e., young people who do not conform to societal ideals of masculinity or femininity), administrators and other district leaders are deciding what policies need to be changed and how district policies are put into effect. This study examines how school policymakers frame their decision to change policy, barriers they have encountered in a changing legal landscape, and how they may be implementing these policies into school district practices in Illinois. We explore if and how administrators frame policy changes related to protecting and affirming gender-expansive students using different dilemma constructs. Mollie McQuillan, Northwestern University

Respondent:  Susan Matoba Adler, University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu

9.7.  On Scholars: Queer Scholars and Scholars of Color

Queer Futurism and the Kitchen Table: A Dialogical Process as Curriculum Unit
Our curriculum unit looks to the possibilities of a future that disrupts the complexities of power relations that inscribe a social and political being. We ask how heterotopia, Afrofuturism, Asianfuturism, and Queerfuturism make figurative and literal spaces for marginalized individuals to be themselves. In this unit, we practice a collective kitchen table dialogue as method to explore what it looks like and means to embody submerged queer perspectives through the differing lens of various intersectional identities, and how these intersectional identities inform imagined futurities of spaces where non-normative bodies are centered and isms are non-existent in schooling. Diana Chandara, Qui Alexander, Nuhu Sims, and AK O'Loughlin, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities

En Solidaridad!: Mathematics Education Scholars of Color Cultivating Notions of Brilliance
To better understand the contributions of theories and research on race and racism in mathematics education, we conducted a qualitative metasynthesis literature review on the scholarship of critical mathematics education scholars of color between January 2000 and September 2017. Preliminary findings revealed these researchers strategically disrupted the deficit perspectives held about students of color by problematizing test score data, interrogating how race and racism shape and limit opportunities to learn mathematics, and investigating other constructs that produce unequal outcomes in mathematics achievement. Monica L. Ridgeway, Vanderbilt University

Respondent:  Carl Grant, University of Wisconsin at Madison

9.8.  On School Transformation: Assessing and Envisioning Change

Utilizing the Integral Perspective of Peace Leadership for School Systems Change
This presentation argues that the programs most commonly utilized for school systems change lack the explicit organizational structures for integrating culturally responsive practice, leadership development, and collaborative community building processes that are essential to sustainable implementation and building a movement toward a culture of peace. The Integral Perspective of Peace Leadership shifts focus from direct student skill development toward a more integrated and systems-oriented approach aimed at strengthening culture and capacity within communities of educational leaders. Whitney McIntyre Miller and AnnMary Abdou, Chapman University

How Do You Measure That?: Educational Leaders Implementing Change through a Cultural Proficiency Framework
Educational leaders in schools typically measure school culture changes of norms, values, and belief systems through low inference behavioral indicators and observed behaviors within contexts such as professional development sessions, teacher classroom visits, individual teacher-principal meetings, and informal conversations. This presentation explores the spaces where educational leaders measure change and how these leaders create culturally proficient measurable outcomes. I am also interested in how to measure and interpret silence within those spaces, stemming from my work as a principal in a social-justice themed high school which attempted to thwart LGBT slurs on campus. Brooke Soles, California State University at San Marcos

Respondent:  Christopher Knaus, University of Washington at Tacoma

9.9.  On Teacher Education: Chaos, Complexity, Contradiction

Living Out the Both/And: Interpreting Personal Stories through Critical Re-Readings
As teacher educators, we find ourselves wrestling with the contradictions inherent within the promises of education. This presentation describes experiences of critically engaging with preservice teachers in creative processes of reading and re-reading lived stories of self, as we work together to interrogate our layered, intersecting, and contradictory identities. Preservice teachers may come to see how they are both shaped and shaping current discourses around identity and education, and that they have agency to change these discourses. We describe preliminary findings from a secondary education teacher preparation methods course. Abby Boehm-Turner, Elise Toedt, and Meghan Phadke, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities

Becoming Uncomfortable with the Uncertainties of a Justice to Come: Undoing the Chaos within Social Justice Teacher Education
This paper draws on concepts from chaos theory, such as the butterfly effect, to wrestle with (and perhaps become more comfortable with embracing) the uncertainty that envelops a social justice teacher education that is always, already nonlinear and unpredictable. We see the nonlinearity and unpredictability of social justice teacher education, not as nihilistic, but instead, as paradoxical, partial, uncertain (and, yes, discomforting). If we see justice in teacher education as always becoming, then we can live more un/comfortably in the uncertainty and unpredictability of our work with and alongside our preservice teachers. Hilary E. Hughes, Rachel Ranaschaert, and Kaitlin Wegrzyn, University of Georgia

Respondent:  William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago (retired)

9.10.  On Teacher Education: Innovations and Alternatives

EarlyEdU Alliance: Building Equity of Access to Affordable, Relevant, and Effective Higher Education and Professional Development for the Early Childhood Workforce
Early childhood education has an enormous impact on children’s ability to achieve their full potential, especially for children from high-risk backgrounds or with developmental disabilities. But many prospective and experienced teachers face challenges accessing affordable bachelor’s degree programs that provide them with the professional skills they need. The EarlyEdU Alliance aims to transform early childhood teacher preparation by offering, for free, a set of competency-based courses to higher education, government, and non-profit stakeholders to use in their local contexts to strengthen the nation’s early care and education workforce. Gail Joseph and Randi Shapiro, University of Washington

An ‘Ohana Approach: Re-Imagining Education in Hawai‘i
This presentation describes examples of emergent culturally responsive pedagogy that foster teacher voice, resistance, and resilience, and that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Presenters share a reimagined model of four pillars of culturally responsive pedagogy (identity, servant leadership, academic excellence, and 21st-century skill development) and curriculum materials that were collaboratively created for relevancy to the learning community and aligned to academic standards and Hawaiian Na Hopena Ao cultural values. Teresa J. Rishel, Ball State University, and Deborah Zuercher, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Respondent:  Suzanne SooHoo, Chapman University

9.11.  On Teachers and Schools Reimagined: Challenges that Emerge

School Transformation and Bridging the Opportunity Gap through the Arts
There has been a decline since the 1980s in arts education in the United States, and it has disproportionately impacted children of color. King Elementary School (Seaside, CA) was categorized as a “low-performing school,” scoring in the bottom 5% of student achievement in the state with the highest elementary suspension rates in its district. The school’s partnership with Turnaround Arts: California helped to transform itself culturally and publicly into MLK School of the Arts, resulting in dramatic decreases in suspension rates, remarkable increases in school culture, and the establishment of a Community Arts Wing. The arts are a key tool for school transformation and bridging the opportunity gap. Sam Humphrey, Martin Luther King, Jr. School of the Arts

The Emotional Toll of Teaching: Issues of Burnout in the Teachers’ Strike Era
Recently teachers in Oklahoma and other places nationally and internationally have organized work stoppages to protest dismal pay and education funding. From an interview study with four middle-school educators of diverse gender, class, and race backgrounds and experiences in urban northeastern Oklahoma, and from my own experiences as a middle-school educator, two themes arose: the emotional weight of teaching in an urban setting, and its effects on them personally and on their career. This study points to the emotional, mental, and physical dimensions of teachers’ lives that contribute to this most recent wave of teachers’ strikes. Megan Ruby, Oklahoma State University

Respondent:  Timothy Slekar, Edgewood College

9.12.  On Women: Teaching Against Violence

The MALIKAH Healing Justice Project: Know Self, Know Community, Know Power
This presentation examines MALIKAH's Healing Justice Project's curriculum, facilitation guide, and evaluation model. The open-source curriculum is designed for self-identifying women, particularly Muslim women and women of color, to build community and mobilize action on social-justice issues by sharing narratives of how womanhood is experienced in society, engaging in self-exploration and testimony as a means for healing and self-empowerment, and harnessing community power to identify with and contribute to justice-informed social movement work in their local contexts. Jaylan Abd Elrahman, MALIKAH

Which Factors Shape If and How Social Science Teachers Address Gender, Sexuality, Power, and Sexual Violence in Norwegian Upper-Secondary Classrooms?
An ongoing survey of social-science teachers throughout Norway explores how factors such as gender, age, religious background, education, teaching experience, personal values, and ways of interpreting the national curriculum influence how they address topics related to gender, sexuality, power, and sexual violence in classrooms in upper-secondary schools. Which factors shape if and how social science teacher address gender-based sexual violence in the classroom? The preliminary findings of the survey suggest a need to transform teacher-education programs, national curriculums, school cultures, textbooks, and pedagogical practices. Beate Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, University of Agder, Norway

Respondent:  Carol Batker, University of San Francisco
 

10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Keynote Lecture:  Troubling Voices: Freedom of Speech and Songs for Freedom
Kevin Kumashiro
 

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Luncheon
Sponsored by the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association

Grab a Japanese-style “bento” boxed lunch and feel free to eat lunch in any of the meeting rooms, the lounge areas, your hotel room, or even the beach across the street. If you indicated a dietary restriction on your registration form, a special meal will be prepared for you accordingly.
 

12:00 p.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Ukulele Interlude, by Bryson Kumashiro
 

12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Closing Plenary Session

Scholars Speaking Collectively for Movement Building: An Interactive Symposium

CARE-ED: California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education. Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, University of San Francisco; and Miguel Zavala, Chapman University.

CReATE: Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education. Kevin Kumashiro and Friends.

EDJE: Education Deans for Justice and Equity. Rene Antrop-Gonzalez, Metropolitan State University (MN); and Timothy Slekar, Edgewood College.

HSESJ: Hawai‘i Scholars for Education and Social Justice. Lois Yamauchi and Jonathan Y. Okamura, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
 

2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Post-conference Meeting: 
Hawai‘i Scholars for Education and Social Justice

Education scholars throughout Hawai‘i are invited to join an ongoing conversion to explore the possibilities for speaking collectively, strategically, and publicly on local and state education reforms as we leverage our scholarship, rattle political consciousness, and reframe public debates. How do we build on, learn from, and work in solidarity with grassroots organizing locally as well as on similar networks of scholars nationally? Facilitated by Kevin Kumashiro; and Lois Yamauchi, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

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