Teachers, community-based educators, youth, families, other organizers and activists and allies concerned with education for liberation are invited to join us for a one-day conference. Our conference aims this year include:

• Facilitate dialogue, share resources and build strategy among those interested in education for liberation,
• Develop youth leadership and support youth voice in education,
• Build a movement for quality education that combines the visions of youth, communities, families and teachers

The Expo will take place Thursday, May 10, 2012, from 12pm to 2pm at the New York University Kimmel Student Center. The event is open to students of all ages/grade levels. Click here to register to attend and/or present: http://sjexpo.org/.

The Social Justice Expo is presented by Brooklyn International High School, the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at NYU, the Education for Liberation Network, Make the Road New York and Validus Preparatory Academy.

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 • 6-8pm at Mission High School Library

3750 18th Street
San Fransisco, CA

Panelists:

• Roger Alvarado, Spokesperson of Third World Liberation Front
• Representative Teachers from the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American Studies Program
• Flor Burruel, Student Activist, Pima Community College, Arizona
• Marcela Itzél Ortega, 11th Grade Student, ARISE High School

Moderator:  Jason Ferreira, SFSU College of Ethnic Studies

In January, 2011, Arizona state attorney general Tom Horne declared the Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies program illegal. Over the past year, teachers, students, and administrators have come together to challenge Horne’s ruling, but on January 10, 2012, the TUSD school board voted 4-1 to cease all MAS classes immediately for fear of losing state funding.

In response, the Network of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG), a national coalition of grassroots teacher organizing groups, coordinated No History is Illegal in February, a month of solidarity work in support of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program and those in struggle on the ground in Arizona.

The current battle over Ethnic Studies is part of a longer history of struggle that emerged out of the civil rights and national liberation movements in the 1960s. San Francisco State University’s Third World Liberation Front led the longest student strike in US history in 1968 and succeeded in establishing the College of Ethnic Studies.

What were the core politics reflected in the origin of “Ethnic Studies” at SFSU?  How is the battle for Ethnic Studies being waged in Tucson today?

In this mulch-generational panel discussion with teacher and student activists, we will view the battle over TUSD’s MAS program through a longer historical lens by hearing from a veteran of SFSU’s Third World Liberation Front as well as representatives from Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Program and local student organizers.  We will look at ways to support the struggle in Tucson while building our own capacity in the Bay Area to support the movement for a transformative and liberatory education.

There will be 3 local screenings of the movie, Precious Knowledge in the weeks before this event.  For more information and to see Precious Knowledge, the film, click here

Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin
The Educators’ Network for Social Justice and other community organizations invite educators and community members interested in issues of race and social justice in education to attend this outstanding conference. As educators we recognize the need for on-going conversation on teaching about issues of race and bias at all levels of schooling. However, we see very few staff inservices or resources devoted to these important topics. We want to give educators and community members an opportunity to learn from and network with one another and to find new resources (print, web and human) that can help us all confront racist, classist and biased education.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Keynote Speaker, Linda Christensen, whose work on literacy and social justice has been featured in Rethinking Schools.
• Interactive workshop sessions
• Panel: local schools with Anti-racist/Anti-bias initiatives.
• Informational tables from sponsoring anti-bias organizations
• Networking opportunities with other educators.

Registration includes lunch and continental breakfast.