Farima Pour-Khorshid, Ph.D.

Latinx first-generation college graduates often experience a myriad of structural, emotional, financial and academic barriers while navigating higher education as undergraduate and graduate students and later, if they become faculty members. While many studies have documented these struggles within the field, the political, methodological and pedagogical praxis of testimonio has been used to reflect on and document these struggles in ways that give the authors agency in retelling and reclaiming their experiences of marginalization and resistance. In this paper, the authors build on the metaphor of a labyrinth to describe how higher education can often feel similar to a maze-like path to navigate, yet, the spiritual and reflective practice of labyrinth- walking involves three stages of soul development which can also be experienced through testimonio: releasing, receiving and returning to oneself

Background/Context: Although the uprisings in the summer of 2020 amplified existing abolitionist organizing, including abolitionist struggles for justice within K–12 schools, it is unclear if the field of teacher education has been informed by these movements. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Given this gap, as well as the ongoing urgency to dismantle the interconnected structures of White supremacy, settler colonialism, anti-Blackness, racial capitalism, and cis-heteropatriarchy within the field of teacher education, this article calls on teacher education programs and teacher educators to grow abolition within the field. Research Design: We situate abolition broadly and demonstrate the connections between abolition and struggles for justice in K–12 education. We draw on stories and lessons from our own work as educators and organizers to situate what must be dismantled, changed, and built to grow abolition within the field of teacher education. Conclusions/Recom...

Abstract Educators of color can often (in)advertently perpetuate gendered oppression against each other to cope with racism and its associated stressors. This occurs in part due to the violence we have endured as (a) minoritized people in a society where our oppression is endemic, (b) scholars of color navigating exclusionary institutions and education spaces, and (c) educators who experience vicarious and complex trauma from pain imposed onto the young people with whom we work, seldom resulting in opportunities to address gender dynamics that uphold power imbalances among men, women, and gender-nonconforming people of color. In this conceptual paper we offer an intersectional framework of a “praxis of critical race love” to highlight cisgendered, heteropatriarchal toxic masculinity often reified in education contexts, and use narratives to demonstrate how we apply a healing-centered praxis within our service, teaching, and research to challenge such harm. Ultimately, we share tangible, community-engaged examples demonstrating how educators can co-create counterspaces that elevate women and gender-minoritized people in the firestorm of white supremacy.

espanolEn toda la costa nicaraguense caribena, la lengua criolla ha existido junto al ingles, el espanol y otras lenguas nativas en la region desde el siglo XVII. Como todas las herramientas, las lenguas son empleadas para publicos y personales propositos que son definidos por sus hablantes. Su utilidad o circulacion varian con los cambios en el interior del gobierno o la sociedad. Este articulo, basado en un estudio cualitativo de dos anos, explora las actitudes linguisticas de la comunidad a lo largo de la Costa Caribe Nicaraguense Criolla (CCNC). El estudio analiza las opiniones de los nativos criollos acerca de las lenguas en su ecologia linguistica. Mas especificamente, esta investigacion intenta comprender las creencias sobre el uso del lenguaje en una region plurilingue de America Central para determinar sus ambitos de influencia. Los entrevistados mostraron que el lenguaje criollo era mas apropiado para propositos informales y menos para mas formales y aplicaciones academica...

This author utilizes collective testimonio (Sanchez, 2009) as a process for homemade theory making or what Anzaldua and Keating (2000) called conocimientos . This collective testimonio brings together the stories and experiences of three educators of color within a California grassroots social justice critical study group created exclusively for people of color. In a profession dominated by more than 80% White teachers (Goldring, Gray, & Bitterman, 2013), these teachers of color share stories of resiliency and the community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) they possess and have utilized to thrive within an oppressive education system. Applying Critical Race Theory’s tenet of counternarrative, their individual and collective testimonio speak back to the dominant discourses about people of color as being deficient and lacking dominant cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) and instead, highlights how internalized and institutionalized forms of racism serve as obstacles as well as motivation t...

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying a predominantly White U.S. teacher workforce, a significant teacher diversity gap persists in almost every state of the country (Boser, 2014). Teachers of Color who enter the profession with commitments to social justice, in particular, face an array of racist structural and interpersonal challenges often leading to their burnout and in some cases push out from the field (Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). In response to neoliberal, color evasive, and apolitical approaches to teacher support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) to center healing from the damaging impacts of oppression (Ginwright, 2015; Pour-Khorshid, 2016). This three-year ethnographic case study (Yin, 2003) of a California racial affinity group of 12 critical educators of Color (CEoC) committed to healing, empowerment, love, liberation and action (H.E.L.L.A.) offers insights about alternative approaches to teacher support rooted in critical- healing praxes (Cariaga, 2018).
Relying on ethnographic approaches such as participant observation (Wilson, 1977), semi-structured interviews (Patton, 2002), and testimonios (Pour-Khorshid, 2016) as focal methods, I utilized grounded theory (Straus & Corbin, 1998) to examine: (a) the nature of learning and interactions that unfold over time, and (b) the
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personal and professional impact that members experienced through their participation. The findings from this research illuminate how the group explicitly centered 12 members’ experiences, needs, and collective knowledge to (a) engage in fugitive learning as an act of political and pedagogical resistance to White Supremacy; and in so doing, (b) cultivated a sacred space for soul care and collective healing. I conclude by discussing how and why critical racial affinity group spaces for CEoC offer a more holistic approach to support their personal, political, relational, and pedagogical growth and well-being.

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying the U.S. teacher force, tea- chers of color who are committed to social justice are often unsup- ported and even pushed out via structural, interpersonal, and pedagogical obstacles within the profession. In response to neolib- eral, colorblind, and apolitical approaches to teacher development and support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development and grassroots activism to center healing from the impacts of oppression in its myriad forms . The ethnographic case study in this article examines how, over the course of three years, a grassroots racial affinity group became an important space for learning and healing for its members. I explain how the group explicitly centered twelve members’ voices, needs, and collective knowledge, and in so doing: (a) collectively cultivated a critical, humanizing, and healing space for their sustainability; and (b) navigated various positions within socially toxic education institutions and organizations. I conclude by discuss- ing how and why critical racial affinity spaces for educators of color are necessary in order to support their personal, political, relational, and pedagogical growth, which has implications on their retention and leadership within the field.

In the spirit of learning from this mobilization and the political moments that wrapped around and infused this women’s march and particularly from the pedagogical power of its rich visuality, a range of people we admire, from a breadth of geographical contexts, were invited to select any image from the day and offer a comment.

This author utilizes collective testimonio (Sánchez, 2009) as a process for homemade theory making or what Anzaldúa and Keating (2000) called conocimientos. This collective testimonio brings together the stories and experiences of three educators of color within a California grassroots social justice critical study group created exclusively for people of color. In a profession dominated by more than 80% White teachers (Goldring, Gray, & Bitterman, 2013), these teachers of color share stories of resiliency and the community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) they possess and have utilized to thrive within an oppressive education system. Applying Critical Race Theory’s tenet of counternarrative, their individual and collective testimonio speak back to the dominant discourses about people of color as being deficient and lacking dominant cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) and instead, highlights how internalized and institutionalized forms of racism serve as obstacles as well as motivation to fight against oppression. The role of collective testimonio among educators of color can serve as a tool for critical teacher professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martínez, & Ortiz, 2015) centered in political education, healing, empowerment, love and transformative resistance.

This book chapter appears in, "Planting the Seeds of Equity: Ethnic Studies and Social Justice in the K–2 Classroom", edited by Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath. I write about my positionality as a Bay Area educator-organizer-scholar committed to education for liberation. After teaching at the elementary level for over a decade, I share ways in which to reimagine teaching and learning through the lens of ethnic studies, recommending rich resources such as self-created lyrics for common melodies and books to teach about self-love and loss, colonization, and cultivating solidarity in the kindergarten classroom. I also describe projects I enacted in my own classroom like helping young children build a family altar to honor and recognize the strength and assets of their ancestors and community.