This event is a unique collaboration between the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice and UCR's Ethnic Studies Speaker Series.

About GSOE’s “Ethnic Studies Speaker Series”:

Ethnic Studies is the critical, interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the history, experiences, and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Asian American, Pacific Islander and other communities of Color within and beyond the United States. The Ethnic Studies Pathway at UC Riverside's Teacher Education Program (TEP) exposes students enrolled in the English and Social Studies credential/Master's to the principles of Ethnic Studies, exploring applications to K-12 school pedagogy and curriculum. One goal, among many, is to create a pipeline of educators who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to serve as Ethnic Studies teachers across the region, state, and country. To enhance the scholarly and activist nature of the work, UCR's TEP “Ethnic Studies Speaker Series” engages the Graduate School of Education and the broader community with the voices and work of critical scholars, practitioners, and community activists that enhance understanding of Ethnic Studies.

The implementation of Ethnic Studies at the K-12 level brings possibilities and challenges in a context of schooling that so often centers and normalize whiteness. In recentering our curriculum and praxis on narratives, experiences, and perspectives of often marginalized identities and communities, we can build spaces of solidarity with and among our BIPOC students and colleagues. This session will highlight examples of curriculum from Ethnic Studies teachers and reflections on how ethnic studies allows us to center our sustainability and development as we engage in the deeply personal labor of love of teaching.