guest speaker, Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, addressing the faculty
On Friday, September 18th, Sonoma State University’s School of Education (SOE) gathered off campus at the beautiful Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation’s Heron Hall for a retreat focused on the theme of social justice. Carlos Ayala, Dean of the School of Education invited the faculty and staff to collaboratively investigate what social justice means in general, and specifically in respect to the work we do as faculty and staff at Sonoma State University. Guest speaker Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, a leading expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice and the current Dean of Education at University of San Francisco guided and framed the morning discussion.
In his opening remarks, Dean Ayala suggested that the group look closely at social justice in terms of our daily activities. He discussed how the aim of the day’s lecture and activities was to prepare us to spend this year looking closely and revising the SOE’s Conceptual Framework, which includes the School’s guiding mission and vision statement and spells out values and dispositions that students in the program should embody throughout every stage of the program. This endeavor will be led in part by the Social Justice Faculty Task Group, which formed in Spring 2015 to organize the retreat and guide the work throughout the year, hoping to articulate a definition of social justice that the whole school can stand behind. Dean Ayala suggested that in order to do so, we must reflect on our work, and always ask ourselves “who are we marginalizing by doing this?” and take lessons learned from Dean Kumashiro’s with us in order to create a more diverse and welcoming environment for everyone and better meet the needs of all students in our region.
Dean Carlos Ayala offering his opening remarks to the group
In his presentation, Dr. Kumashiro discussed the complexities and inherent contradictions of social justice work and its implications for the education system and teacher preparation, with discussions titled “Naming the Moment”, “Defining Social Justice in Education” and “Operationalizing Social Justice in the School of Education”. He stressed that injustice is never eliminated, but urged everyone to work toward creating an education system that is ‘less oppressive’, noting that social justice is ever changing, without a fixed definition, and wholly tied to its context.
Using examples from current events like the Seattle teacher strike, Common Core Standards assessment implementation and The California drought, he challenged everyone to look at the public rhetoric about these challenges, compared with the systematic forces at play. He also tied in themes featured in Lani Guinier’s The Miner’s Canary, asking questions such as 'who is winning and losing?', 'who made the rules?' and 'What story are we are recounting to keep the losers inspired to keep playing?'. Kumashiro proposes that by asking these questions we might examine forces that are preventing full inclusion or seeing the conflict in its whole, larger context.
Social justice work involves challenging and intervening systems that are at the root of inequities, to help make things better and more fair. Kumashiro said, “social justice is not a state without oppression but actually an on-going effort and initiative, our job is to name and intervene and challenge injustices.” He asked the faculty to think about situations in terms of three ideas: contextuality (current historical moment), intersectionality (how things are interconnected) and partiality (how we need to be partial to those who are oppressed to change their status).
(from left to right) Dr. Karen Grady, a social justice task group memeber, Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, Dean of Education at USF, Dr. Carlos ayala, dean of education at Sonoma State and Dr. Emiliano Ayala, a social justice task group member
After Kumashiro’s presentations, the group then broke for lunch, allowing time for informal discussion outdoors, and the opportunity to enjoy the Laguna de Santa Rosa setting, with fields and marshes that serve as a vital watershed feeding the Russian River. During the afternoon session, faculty and staff split into several breakout groups to discuss how to apply the morning’s discoveries into the work of the school, from student recruitment, to partnerships, to communications and more. Each group shared their thoughts with the larger group about their personal findings and group discussion. The collaboration period tied back into Kumashiro’s suggestion of the importance of involving the staff and faculty on a larger scale, in collaboration, to help reach goals like recruiting more diverse teachers.
As a whole, the day offered many invaluable tools and examples of social justice in action that raised awareness of equity in the education system. Leaving equipped with tools and experience imparted through the lecture and breakout sessions, our staff and faculty are prepared to face the coming year with a new lens on social justice. To learn more about the details of the retreat and review the external readings, visit our information page and the links above.
