Social Justice & Equity

From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes: Latina/o/x Students and their Quest for Educational Excellence was written to continue elevating the notion that education is a pathway forward for individual, family, community, and societal transformation. Anchored around two primary metaphors — the mirror and the mochila (backpack) — this book aims to engage educators, leaders, students, families, community members, and policymakers to consider how the mirror and the mochila can be used as tools to transform educational practice, pedagogy, and policy for Latina/o/x/e students across the K-12, community college, and university systems. Dr. Rodriguez begins From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes with his own educational journey, discussing the challenges and opportunities that shaped his pathway through education and on to higher education. He discusses the intellectual foundations of reflejos as a result of research conducted in a predominantly Latina/o/x student high school in California. The remainder of From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes focuses on strategies to build Reflejos Brillantes, beginning with affirmation-based pedagogies resulting in reflejos valiosos (worthy reflections). Then, in Chapter Four, Dr. Rodriguez explains the intellectual foundations of the academic mochila, which helps test the institutional espejo (mirror) and introduces how we can arrive at refjejos llenos (full reflections). Dr. Rodriguez believes all forms of education should strive to serve as an espejo to the students they serve. While Latinas/os/xs continue to grow as a demographic, there are deep-seated inequalities that must be understood within a historical context, and recognition must be paid to how far we actually need to go in order to advance our community in education and society. Education, even with its various challenges, has the potential to move our communities toward equity and justice. This progress will not happen by accident, and we must intentionally create the conditions that move us toward a more hopeful future. We must fight for the espejos that make sense for us. From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes explores what this looks like. In order to build institutional espejos that reflect Latina/o/x student brilliance back to them, educators, researchers, and policy makers must be willing to recognize the gifts, skills, knowledge, and experiences that students already bring in their mochilas. This recognition of existing brilliance allows us to build on and contribute to it, but the first step in education is to recognize that the mochila exists, using education as a vehicle. The mochila is conceptualized from two key sources — the experiences of Latina/o/x high schools students and situated within the additive conceptual frameworks in education created by mostly Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x scholars in the field of education. Throughout From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes, Dr. Rodriguez speaks directly to all Latina/o/x students about seven essential steps to achieve reflejos victoriosos (victorious reflections), and finally, Dr. Rodriguez closes the book with a call to action by proposing a 12-point framework that can be used to advance Latina/o/x education in the U.S., or what he frames as reflejos futuros (future reflections). This framework aims to advance the conversation locally and nationally to advance education for and with the Latina/o/community, and to build Reflejos Brillantes into the collective future. From Academic Mochilas to Reflejos Brillantes aims to celebrate and facilitate Latina/o/x student success.

Decoloniality and African Education is a vibrant and vital collection of essays that addresses the challenges, possibilities, and responsibilities for the future of de- and anti-colonial African education as it is taught in universities in the U.S. and Canada, particularly in Colleges of Education. It looks at the ways in which African education is taught in these countries, and how the curriculum for the topic is influenced by colonialization, thus restricting or removing altogether the essence of Africanness from the content of classes.The themes of this book go beyond the mere rhetoric of decolonialization by creating specific approaches to dismantling colonial educational systems in North American universities as well as in Africa itself, creating a new environment for African education duly informed by local cultural resource knowing, known from grounded everyday practices of authentic African educators. In other words, it is a revision of educational practices informed by what educators know and are doing for the lessons in envisioning schooling and education in North America and Africa. African educators are urged to think through solutions specific to the problems and challenges in schools today, and to meet the call of our times to provide education to young learners that not only empowers them, but also provides them with background knowledge, cultural grounding, and specific lessons that will enable them to craft their own futures. So how do we “do” decolonial education from the standpoint of African educators and learners everyday schooling practice and knowledge? Decoloniality and African Education argues that a careful embrace of African Indigenous and cultural knowings determine the successful response to this question. It engages both the “decolonial” and the “anti-colonial,” with a reading that the “decolonial” (as many have pointed out, see Parry, 1994) is a process and a path toward an end, which is the goal of the “anti-colonial” (see Dei, 2022).Decoloniality and African Education is essential reading for students and scholars committed to the improvement of educational outcomes for African American students. It’s a book that empowers educators and raises awareness about African-based teaching environments. It can be used in a variety of courses, including African Studies, African Development, Anti-Colonial Thought and Indigenous Knowledge, and the Pedagogical Implications of Decolonization.

We STILL be lovin’ Black children.Not sometimes.Not conditionally.Not when it is convenient.We loved them in the past.We love them now.We will love them in the future. In this expanded second edition, We Still Be Lovin’ Black Children: African Diaspora Literacy, A Divine Ancestral Charge, leading scholars, educators, and community leaders deepen the call to center African Diaspora Literacy as a foundation for healing, identity, and collective thriving. Across classrooms, homes, and communities in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean, contributors offer practical strategies, critical questions, cultural frameworks, and affirming activities that protect Black children’s spirits while nurturing their brilliance. At a time when Black histories are distorted, erased, or politicized, this book insists on truth-telling rooted in love. Grounded in African Indigenous Knowledge, Adinkra principles, intergenerational wisdom, and Pro-Black educational practices, authors demonstrate how literacy about the African diaspora is essential.This edition includes new chapters, updated chapters, expanded global perspectives, new resources for families and educators, and timely guidance for confronting anti-Blackness in schools, media, and public discourse.To love Black children is to teach them who they are.To teach them who they are is to protect their souls and spirits.To protect their souls and spirits is to secure our collective future.This is a love book.This is a liberation book.This is an urgent book.Perfect for courses such as: Foundations of Education; Black Education; African Studies; African American Studies; Introduction to Early Childhood Education;

We Are Children of the Corn/Somos Hija/o/xs del Maíz: Husks of Hope, Resistance, and Latina/o/x Educational Success is a collection of empirical studies that explores the complex and multi-faceted journeys of Latina/o/x students. With maíz (corn) as the guiding symbol, this book incorporates indigenous teachings and knowledge to highlight the pillars and resources of support—referred to as “husks”—that nurture Latina/o/x students' growth, resilience, and achievement as they navigate the U.S. schooling system. This anthology offers examples that underscore the role of schools, families, and communities in shaping Latina/o/x students’ trajectories from pre-K to higher education.The volume builds upon the parent book, The Chicana/o/x Dream, by examining the intersectional experiences of Latina/o/x students in varied educational contexts, the resources they access within educational spaces, and their familial and community support systems. Using the Framework of Atravesada/o/xs Nepantleando (FAN), the authors in this anthology illustrate how Latina/o/x students become nepantlera/os—change agents who create and foster diverse cultural spaces and advocate for transformation. The book is organized around three themes: planting seeds to foster college access, cultivating students to foster college readiness, and harvesting to support college completion. Through these themes, the volume aims to empower educators, researchers, and policymakers to foster diverse, equitable, and inclusive school and community spaces that amplify Latina/o/x student voice and center their experiences.We Are Children of the Corn/Somos Hija/o/xs del Maíz is a valuable contribution to the scholarship on the Latina/o/x student experience in the United States. It is the perfect text for a variety of courses in Ethnic Studies and Cultural Studies.

A Soul-Centered Approach to Educating Teachers has been created by A Black Education Network (ABEN), a national organization whose mission is to reverse the backward slide of Black students by utilizing culturally informed research, technology, and visionary community networking within the African Diaspora to facilitate academic and cultural excellence wherever scholars are. This interactive book presents portraits, narratives, and essays to illustrate the impact of ABEN on Black educators and those they serve.Traditional teacher education, curriculum, and instruction is largely disconnected from the lived experiences of diverse students and their communities. Current debates around Critical Race Theory and its application to curriculum call into question culturally responsive practices while others are striving for ways to support equitable practices in the classroom. Questions about these practices include, What does teacher and learning look like when grounded in community voice and practice? How can we better integrate the history, context, experience, and voice of the communities being served? How can teacher education apply authentic problem solving to address the concerns of a community?This inspirational and educational tale answers these questions for the myriad teachers, parents, administrators, school districts, community organizations, and community members who seek a better understanding of how to foster, access, and learn from spaces of Black excellence for Black children. Soul-Centered is essential reading for both scholars involved in a variety of disciplines in Education, and for community leaders interested in seeing how improved education practices can hugely benefit their constituents.