2024-25 INSTITUTE FOR TEACHERS OF COLOR COMMITTED TO RACIAL JUSTICE
ITOC is on-going critical professional development space designed to support wellbeing, strengthen racial literacy, and cultivate the racial justice leadership capacities of teachers of Color who work in K-12 public schools that serve students of Color. A unique collaboration between the disciplines of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Ethnic Studies, this national conference rigorously selects and supports ITOC Fellows across the U.S. and beyond each year.
Applications are now closed for the 2024-25 school year.
Please check back on February 1, 2025 for next year's application or sign up for our mailing list to stay in touch.
Applications are now closed for the 2024-25 school year.
Please check back on February 1, 2025 for next year's application or sign up for our mailing list to stay in touch.
VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING KEYNOTES
A “Dream-Like World”: Girls and Femmes of Color Freedom-Dreaming Through the Arts
Dr. Grace D. Player
September 25, 2024; 4:30-6:00pm PST
This talk will invite the audience to consider the ways that Girls and Femmes of Color (GFOC) freedom dream beautiful educational worlds through artistic practices, including art-making and curation. Through the exploration of a year-long project with a curatorial board of 5 GFOC, this talk will explore the ways that GFOC use curatorial praxis and the arts to 1) conceptualize education justice, and 2) create radical pedagogical artspaces that center GFOC learning, teaching, and creative practices. In doing so, this presentation understand GFOC as sophisticated teachers, learners, creators, and theorists of educational justice and offers suggestions for how educators might collaborate with GFOC to dream of and construct more just educational worlds.
Dr. Grace D. Player is an Associate Professor at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Player's work is rooted in her experiences as a mixed-race Asian American woman of Color and a daughter of a Japanese Brazilian migrant woman. She is a literacy scholar, educator, and artist who has a longstanding commitment to collaborating with communities of Color to work toward educational justice. Following a career of classroom teaching and literacy professional development, she pursued her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania where she developed as a community partner, researcher, and educator. Her work takes on a feminist of Color lens and inquires into how Girls and Women of Color mobilize their raced, gendered, and cultural knowledges and ways of knowing to forge sisterhoods that resist injustice and transform worlds. Pushing against constricting and Eurocentric research methods, she pursues work that center relationality, story, art, and aesthetics as ways of making meaning. Her current project, funded by a Spencer Racial Equity Grant, uses radical collaborative curation as a method to inquire into the ways Girls and Femmes of Color harness their multiple literacies toward envisioning and enacting educational justice through the arts.
Dr. Grace D. Player
September 25, 2024; 4:30-6:00pm PST
This talk will invite the audience to consider the ways that Girls and Femmes of Color (GFOC) freedom dream beautiful educational worlds through artistic practices, including art-making and curation. Through the exploration of a year-long project with a curatorial board of 5 GFOC, this talk will explore the ways that GFOC use curatorial praxis and the arts to 1) conceptualize education justice, and 2) create radical pedagogical artspaces that center GFOC learning, teaching, and creative practices. In doing so, this presentation understand GFOC as sophisticated teachers, learners, creators, and theorists of educational justice and offers suggestions for how educators might collaborate with GFOC to dream of and construct more just educational worlds.
Dr. Grace D. Player is an Associate Professor at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Player's work is rooted in her experiences as a mixed-race Asian American woman of Color and a daughter of a Japanese Brazilian migrant woman. She is a literacy scholar, educator, and artist who has a longstanding commitment to collaborating with communities of Color to work toward educational justice. Following a career of classroom teaching and literacy professional development, she pursued her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania where she developed as a community partner, researcher, and educator. Her work takes on a feminist of Color lens and inquires into how Girls and Women of Color mobilize their raced, gendered, and cultural knowledges and ways of knowing to forge sisterhoods that resist injustice and transform worlds. Pushing against constricting and Eurocentric research methods, she pursues work that center relationality, story, art, and aesthetics as ways of making meaning. Her current project, funded by a Spencer Racial Equity Grant, uses radical collaborative curation as a method to inquire into the ways Girls and Femmes of Color harness their multiple literacies toward envisioning and enacting educational justice through the arts.
Silence as Agency: Navigating Ruptures, Resistance, and Healing in Classroom Spaces
Dr. Timothy San Pedro
October 16, 2024; 4:30-6:00pm PST
This keynote discusses the multifaceted role silence played in a course focusing on Native American history and literature. Using three students’ storied navigation in this classroom space, San Pedro explores how silence—often interpreted as passive disengagement—can instead be a form of active resistance, cultural preservation, and critical literacy. By re-storying three students’ interactions in this learning space, San Pedro shares the ways they navigated moments of rupture, resistance, and eventual healing. In doing so, their stories reposition silence as a powerful agentive tool for both students and educators, challenging dominant narratives around learning and knowledge production. Additionally, the session highlights the concept of culturally disruptive pedagogy (San Pedro, 2018) and how fostering such environments can allow alternative voices to shape the curriculum, build agency, and facilitate healing from curricular inequities. Key questions addressed are: How can silence be reinterpreted as forms of agency? In what ways can moments of rupture in the classroom be used as opportunities for negotiation and re-centering voices often marginalized in the curriculum? How does culturally disruptive pedagogy facilitate the dismantling of hegemonic norms and empower students to critique social inequities?
Dr. Timothy San Pedro is an Associate Professor of Critical Studies in Education: Race, Justice, and Equity at Ohio State University. He is Filipino American and grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana. His experiences there led him to focus his scholarship on the intricate link between motivation, engagement, and identity construction to curricula and pedagogical practices that re-center content and conversations upon Indigenous histories, perspectives, and literacies. San Pedro is an inaugural Gates Millennium Scholar, Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color Fellow, Ford Fellow, Concha Delgado Gaitan Council of Anthropology in Education Presidential Fellow, and a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. Learn more about Dr. San Pedro's work at www.timsanpedro.com
Dr. Timothy San Pedro
October 16, 2024; 4:30-6:00pm PST
This keynote discusses the multifaceted role silence played in a course focusing on Native American history and literature. Using three students’ storied navigation in this classroom space, San Pedro explores how silence—often interpreted as passive disengagement—can instead be a form of active resistance, cultural preservation, and critical literacy. By re-storying three students’ interactions in this learning space, San Pedro shares the ways they navigated moments of rupture, resistance, and eventual healing. In doing so, their stories reposition silence as a powerful agentive tool for both students and educators, challenging dominant narratives around learning and knowledge production. Additionally, the session highlights the concept of culturally disruptive pedagogy (San Pedro, 2018) and how fostering such environments can allow alternative voices to shape the curriculum, build agency, and facilitate healing from curricular inequities. Key questions addressed are: How can silence be reinterpreted as forms of agency? In what ways can moments of rupture in the classroom be used as opportunities for negotiation and re-centering voices often marginalized in the curriculum? How does culturally disruptive pedagogy facilitate the dismantling of hegemonic norms and empower students to critique social inequities?
Dr. Timothy San Pedro is an Associate Professor of Critical Studies in Education: Race, Justice, and Equity at Ohio State University. He is Filipino American and grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana. His experiences there led him to focus his scholarship on the intricate link between motivation, engagement, and identity construction to curricula and pedagogical practices that re-center content and conversations upon Indigenous histories, perspectives, and literacies. San Pedro is an inaugural Gates Millennium Scholar, Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color Fellow, Ford Fellow, Concha Delgado Gaitan Council of Anthropology in Education Presidential Fellow, and a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. Learn more about Dr. San Pedro's work at www.timsanpedro.com
Public Keynote: Centering Justice and Our Wellness: Building and Sustaining the Critical Nature of Our Work - An Archaeology of Self Focus
Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz
November 6, 2024; 4:30-5:45pm PST
Co-Sponsored by: UCR School of Education's K-12 Ethnic Studies Speaker Series
*This keynote is free and open to the public!*
Register at this link.
In the journey of fighting against injustice in education, teachers of Color are deeply impacted because this journey can open wounds they received during their own education in schools. Yet, they muster the energy to find a deep sense of joy and love for the communities they serve. But in the midst of challenging the system that so often works against teachers and students, we must also remember to turn inward, to center our own wellness and well-being. The archaeology of self reminds us that loving our students and our work must also mean loving ourselves. When we prioritize our own healing, we build the capacity to sustain the critical work we do—and to do it with the fullness of joy and justice.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In May, 2024 Yolanda was recognized with the prestigious Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Award from New York University. She is co-editor of five books and is co-author of the multiple award-winning book Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces (2021) where she examines her concept of Archeology of Self ™ in education. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, was published in March 2020. Her sophomore book of poetry, The Peace Chronicles, was published in July, 2021. Yolanda opened the 2022 TEDx UPENN conference at the University of Pennsylvania with her TEDx Talk: Truth, Love & Racial Literacy. For three years in a row, she was named one of EdWeek's EduScholar Influencers -- a list of the Top 1% of educational scholars in the United States -- a highly selective group of 200 scholars (chosen from a pool of 20,000). At Teachers College, she is the founder of the Racial Literacy Project @TC, and the Racial Literacy Roundtables Series, where for 15 years, national scholars, teachers, and students facilitate conversations around race and other issues involving diversity. Yolanda appeared in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright” (2016), a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou, and "Defining Us, Children at the Crossroads of Change, a documentary about supporting and educating the nation's Black and Latinx males youth. Connect with Yolanda on Twitter at @RuizSealey and on Instagram at @yolie_sealeyruiz
Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz
November 6, 2024; 4:30-5:45pm PST
Co-Sponsored by: UCR School of Education's K-12 Ethnic Studies Speaker Series
*This keynote is free and open to the public!*
Register at this link.
In the journey of fighting against injustice in education, teachers of Color are deeply impacted because this journey can open wounds they received during their own education in schools. Yet, they muster the energy to find a deep sense of joy and love for the communities they serve. But in the midst of challenging the system that so often works against teachers and students, we must also remember to turn inward, to center our own wellness and well-being. The archaeology of self reminds us that loving our students and our work must also mean loving ourselves. When we prioritize our own healing, we build the capacity to sustain the critical work we do—and to do it with the fullness of joy and justice.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In May, 2024 Yolanda was recognized with the prestigious Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Award from New York University. She is co-editor of five books and is co-author of the multiple award-winning book Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces (2021) where she examines her concept of Archeology of Self ™ in education. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, was published in March 2020. Her sophomore book of poetry, The Peace Chronicles, was published in July, 2021. Yolanda opened the 2022 TEDx UPENN conference at the University of Pennsylvania with her TEDx Talk: Truth, Love & Racial Literacy. For three years in a row, she was named one of EdWeek's EduScholar Influencers -- a list of the Top 1% of educational scholars in the United States -- a highly selective group of 200 scholars (chosen from a pool of 20,000). At Teachers College, she is the founder of the Racial Literacy Project @TC, and the Racial Literacy Roundtables Series, where for 15 years, national scholars, teachers, and students facilitate conversations around race and other issues involving diversity. Yolanda appeared in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright” (2016), a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou, and "Defining Us, Children at the Crossroads of Change, a documentary about supporting and educating the nation's Black and Latinx males youth. Connect with Yolanda on Twitter at @RuizSealey and on Instagram at @yolie_sealeyruiz
Teacher Educator of Color Convening:
Creating a Homeplace for Teacher Candidates of Color: Building Future Teacher of Color (FTOC) Affinity Spaces in Teacher Education
Dr. Amanda Morales, Dr. Terry Flennaugh, and Andrea Carreño Cortez
January 24, 2025; 12:00-2:00pm PST
For the past four years, ITOC has hosted a Teacher Educator of Color Convening in January to support the needs of university-based teacher educators of Color pursuing racial justice in their programs. This year, a panel discussion and breakout groups with racial justice leaders in teacher education entitled, Creating a Homeplace for Teacher Candidates of Color: Building Future Teacher of Color (FTOC) Affinity Spaces in Teacher Education will be on Friday, January 24, 12-2 PM PST. We are excited to announce that our three speakers will be Dr. Amanda Morales of University of Nebaska-Lincoln, Dr. Terry Flennaugh of Michigan State University, and Andrea Carreño Cortez of University of Washington, Seattle.
If you are interested in joining this workshop with a community of racial justice-oriented teacher educators of Color, please apply at this link by Thursday, December 19, 2024. Notifications regarding attending this workshop will be sent by January 10th. Current ITOC fellows will be accepted to attend, but must still apply so we can plan accordingly.
If you are interested in joining this workshop with a community of racial justice-oriented teacher educators of Color, please apply at this link by Thursday, December 19, 2024. Notifications regarding attending this workshop will be sent by January 10th. Current ITOC fellows will be accepted to attend, but must still apply so we can plan accordingly.
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Dr. Amanda R. Morales is an associate professor of education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research addresses issues of equity and access for minoritized students across the educational continuum, from preschool to graduate school. More specifically, her current work focuses on teacher diversification pathways, teacher preparation for working with (im)migrant, multilingual, and minoritized students, critical mentoring for teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCITs), and understanding the lived experiences of pre-service and in-service TOCITs in predominately White institutions. She has won national recognitions and research awards from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the American Education Research Association, and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Association. Amanda is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed publications and has written, led, and collaborated on numerous successful national and regional grant projects (totaling over $8.5 million dollars). Amanda teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses on multicultural education, intercultural communication, and critical, de-colonial/anti-colonial theories in education.
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Dr. Terry Flennaugh is the associate dean of diversity, inclusion and community partnerships. Also an associate professor, he specializes in race, culture and equity in education. His research focuses primarily on the educational experiences of Black males and other students of color in urban contexts. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, he examines the sense-making processes involved in constructing identities that lead to high academic performance in urban schools. He also studies issues of educational access and equity for communities of color in addition to single-sex educational spaces for urban youth.
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Andrea Carreño Cortez (she/her/ella) is a first-gen Mexican-American woman and the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants from Oaxaca. Andrea’s experiences as a former ITOC program assistant inspired her to co-create Future Teachers of Color (FTOC) Committed to Racial Justice groups with undergrads, graduate students, and pre-service teachers of Color. This sparked an interest in research to understand and highlight how university students of Color with career goals in education practice refusals and embody solidarity as they organize around shared commitments to work towards educational liberation and decolonization. She currently resides on Coast Salish homelands as a 4th year doctoral candidate in the Culturally Sustaining Education program at the University of Washington, Seattle. In her free time, Andrea enjoys nature walks, baking, sharing meals with friends, and hosting movie nights!
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I Am Because We Are: Engaging Community in Our Classrooms Toward Collective Justice
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“Community” in mainstream educational spaces often remains undefined and detached from a political purpose. Yet, from the freedom schools of the Civil Rights movement to present day conceptions of abolitionist teaching- Black, Indigenous and people of Color have utilized community to resist white supremacy and other forms of oppression toward self determination. Drawing on the South African philosophy of ubuntu, this talk conceptualizes community from an African centered perspective in order to disrupt neoliberal and individualist aims of schooling. Ultimately, what does it mean to teach from a relational standpoint to center, sustain, and draw knowledge from students and their communities to strengthen the collective toward justice and liberation?
Dr. Hui-Ling Malone is an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research concerns K-12 education regarding culturally sustaining pedagogies, critical pedagogy, and youth activism to advance equity in schools and their surrounding communities. Dr. Malone is a former secondary teacher who has taught in Detroit, MI, Los Angeles, CA and the Bronx, NY. Her work centers on young people and draws on community-centric pedagogies to strengthen relationships between students, schools and surrounding community members toward self-determination and social justice. Dr. Malone’s current projects include sustaining future teachers of color in teacher education programs, and youth participatory action research with Black high school students along the central coast of California. She received her doctoral degree in Teaching and Learning, with a focus on urban education from New York University.
ITOC Keynote
Dr. Leisy Abrego and Dr. Genevive Negrón-Gonzales
March 19, 2025; 4:30-6:00pm PST
Keynote description coming soon!
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Dr. Leisy Abrego is Professor in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, always in search of liberatory spaces in the classroom, in community with colleagues, and in accompaniment of immigrant communities and movements in research. She is a member of the first large migration of Salvadorans who arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. Her research and teaching interests—inspired in great part by her family’s experiences—are in Central American studies and law & society. She writes about the intimate consequences of U.S. empire and immigration policies for Central American migrants and Latinx families in the United States. Her books include Sacrificing Families: Navigating Laws, Labor, and Love Across Borders (Stanford University Press, 2014), Immigrant Families (co-authored with Cecilia Menjívar and Leah Schmalzbauer, Polity, 2017), and We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States (co-edited with Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Duke University Press, 2020). She also supports and advocates for refugees and immigrants by writing editorials and pro-bono expert declarations in asylum cases.
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Dr. Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales is Professor in the School of Education, affiliate faculty in the Migration Studies Program, Faculty Director of the MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs program, and the inaugural director of Casa Madríz, a Living Learning Community for first year Latinx students all at the University of San Francisco. As an interdisciplinary scholar of education and immigration, her research focuses on the educational and political lives of undocumented young people; deportation, immigrant families and violence at the border; and the educational navigations of Latinx communities. Her books include Encountering Poverty: Living and Acting in an Unequal World (co-authored with Ananya Roy, Claire Talwalker and Kweku Opoku-Agyemang, 2016, UC Press), We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States (co-edited with Leisy Abrego, Duke University Press, 2020), and The Latinx Guide to Graduate School (co-authored with Magdalena Barrera, Duke University Press, 2023).
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Virtual Public Keynote
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Keynote description coming soon!