Kevin Kumashiro

What does it mean for a school of education to advance justice and equity? Is it enough for its mission statement to include words like “justice” and “democracy,” to offer signature programs about justice, or for there to be a critical mass of scholars who write on this topic? Since its formation in 2016, Education Deans for Justice and Education (EDJE), a group of more than 400 education deans and leaders from large and small institutions, has been grappling with what it means to advance — as well as to trouble — justice and equity in and through our schools of education and education systems more broadly. Leading on the EDGE brings together ten chapters, along with an introduction and conclusion, written by deans and leaders from a diverse set of institutions across the United States. These leaders have implemented ideas that support an equity stance in their institutions using the EDJE Framework for Assessment and Transformation, an instrument designed for this purpose. As leaders of schools of education, many of us constantly ask: how can we transform our institutions in meaningful ways to foster justice and equity? What actions can we take that go beyond the essentials of revising the curriculum or diversifying our faculty, staff, and students? How can we take a holistic approach to the transformation of all aspects of our institutions, our governance structures, fundraising strategies, and external relationships with communities? We are living and working in precarious times with justice-oriented work at universities threatened at the federal level with possible serious ramifications at both public and private universities. With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, affirmative action measures, and equal opportunity policies under attack, university leaders committed to actions that support equity and access in their institutions require resources to support their work. Many initiatives that claim to address issues of justice and equity focus solely on curriculum and pedagogy. This Framework addresses all of the major areas in a school including admissions, hiring, development, budget priorities, community engagement, the support of faculty, staff, and students of color, as well as curriculum and pedagogical practices. The Framework was written by a large and varied group of people with great expertise and experience, who came together several times to pool their knowledge and resources. Through Leading on the EDGE, the authors tell complex and varied stories. While in some institutions, faculty quickly embraced ideas for focusing on justice and equity, other faculties were more reluctant. The stories in this volume reflect moments of vulnerability as well as strength. Authors reflect on the issues and challenges that arose from this work, how they adapted the Framework for their unique contexts and goals, how they got started, challenges they encountered, initial outcomes, how the work can be translated to other settings within the university and in other educational settings, and provide concrete strategies for their colleagues. At a time when education leaders are under attack, Leading on the EDGE provides concrete ideas and strategies for taking a stand and proclaiming a commitment to the transformative work of justice and equity in higher education. Chapters of Leading on the EDGE are conveyed in a variety of genres and styles: some are organized as case studies, others are more similar to reflective essays; some focus on assessment of the institution or school’s focus on equity and justice, while others turn their attention to how programs were implemented, including those results; some are written in a more traditional academic style while others more autobiographical, dialogical, or even artful.Perfect for courses such as: Higher Education Administration, Educational Leadership, Multicultural Education, Foundation of Education, Educational Policy, Race and Education, Research Methods, Social Justice Education, Organizational Management (in Education)

In today’s troubling times, we frequently find ourselves in conversations with educational scholars, educators, and university students about feeling overwhelmed with the attacks on and challenges facing education, and unsure of how to act in this moment. What does it mean to leverage scholarship for public impact? What impact on public debate, awareness, or policy can collective action as large groups of scholars and leaders make that more traditional scholarship cannot or simply does not aspire to make? That is, when scholars and leaders speak in a collective and public-facing way, what interventions can we make in movement building for public education and for the public commons more broadly? Collectives and the Commons: The Role of Educational Scholars in Movement Building for Justice grapples with such questions by diving into the years-long journeys of four scholar collectives working toward justice in and through education. Each emerged in different times, places, and circumstances, but in recent years have connected under a “collective of collectives” umbrella that allowed them to share resources and support one another in their work: CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education), CARE-ED (California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education), HSESJD (Hawai‘i Scholars for Education, Social Justice and Diversity), and EDJE (Education Deans for Justice and Equity). The result of this effort is this volume, which serves as a resource for scholars who are interested in working collectively for movement building and advocacy. With that goal in mind, each chapter consists of two key components: a narrative essay (how the collective formed, how they were organized and operated, their theory of change, the initiatives they undertook, how they pushed scholarship into the public space, challenges faced, and lessons learned or take-aways for others interested in educational advocacy) and a range of selected artifacts (research briefs and fact sheets; statements, petitions, testimonies; media and art work; and public events and symposiums).Collectives and the Commons is needed today more than ever. The current assault on education is an assault on teachers and students, and on the welfare of everyone. This book should be read by every scholar interested in seeing social justice applied to schools, classrooms and students. It can also be adopted in a variety of courses in Colleges of Education.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Education, Educational Equity, Educational Leadership, Educational Policy, Foundations of Education, Multicultural Education, Race and Education, Research Methods, Social Justice and Education, Teacher Education

Moments & Movements: Counterstories for Critical Asian American+ Studies in Education is a collection of counterstories born from community and shared commitments to challenge the ways diverse diasporas and experiences of people from the Asian continent and the Pacific Ocean are largely made invisible, silenced, and erased. By defying reductionist narratives, the collection highlights stories built upon generations of struggle, resistance, advocacy, and joy, that impart wisdom for the current moment and for Asian American+ movements in the future, particularly movements based in education. The book’s topics, located at the nexus of multiple and interconnected fields, such as education, race/ethnic studies, policy and community studies, have broad appeal to a cross-section of university academics; P-12 teachers and leaders; and community educators and activists. Using the framing of Critical Asian American+ Studies, the chapters in this volume emphasize criticality as central to the work of educators committed to more just futures. The plus (+) symbol in “Asian American+” highlights the volume’s efforts at diverse inclusion and openness to various groups under a broad umbrella geographic category, including voices of various Pasifika, Arab and Middle Eastern communities, without eliding their distinct histories, cultures, politics, and experiences or erasing the tensions within and across the broader category of Asian American studies. The book is organized thematically into four sections that reflect key moments in an ongoing movement. This organization acknowledges that readers may be at different points in their journeys towards developing more critical perspectives or knowledge of Asian American, Arab/Middle Eastern American, and Pasifika peoples’ experiences in education. The first section, "The Moment We Begin", focuses on foundational beginnings, telling stories of how the authors made important first steps in creating the change they wished to see in their educational spheres. The second section, "Building an Inclusive Movement", examines how educators sustain and deepen their work within and outside of classrooms. The third section, "Extending the Movement", then looks at Critical Asian American+ Studies outside of classrooms and schools by attending to educational leadership, families and teacher identities, policy arenas, and educational, cultural, and community activism. Finally, in the fourth section, "Envisioning New Worlds", chapters attend to what justice-focused, future-oriented movements might look like for Critical Asian American+ Studies. All too often, critical community-grounded work can feel daunting. This collection pushes beyond prescribed borders that separate our communities and separate us into our own educational spheres (e.g. P-12, higher education, teacher education) and roles (professor, teacher, principal, student). As one of the few edited collections with such diverse perspectives, this collection provides multiple paths forward in Asian American, Arab/Middle Eastern American, and Pasifika Studies, inspires with its counterstories of struggle and success, and challenges readers to consider their own next steps.Perfect for courses such as: Asian Americans in Education; Critical Studies in Education; Multicultural Education/Sociocultural Foundations in Education; Ethnic Studies/Asian American Studies; Social Justice in Education; Critical Pedagogy and Education; Urban Education; Race, Ethnicity, and Education; Introduction to Education; School and Society

2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic TitleAcross the globe, students are speaking up, walking out, and marching for social and ecological justice. Despite deficit discourses about students, youth are using their voice and agency to call forth a better world. Will educators respond to this call to stand with students in relational solidarity as co-constructors of a new tomorrow? What is possible when teachers and students engage together in new ways? Pedagogies of With-ness: Students, Teachers, Voice and Agency offers insight into the transformative possibilities of education when enacted as the art of being with. Driven by student voices and their experiences of marginalization, this text takes a clear ethical stance. It asserts that students are both capable and competent. Taking a narrative approach, this book honors academic work that is rooted in educational practice. Expanding beyond traditional conceptions of student voice, chapters engage in meditations on three themes: identity, pedagogy, and partnership. This book is an exploration of with-ness, a way of knowing, being, and acting. By centralizing the all-too-often suppressed wisdom of youth, teachers and researchers engage in new forms of critique and possibility-making with students. Editors reflect on this central theme, exploring the dimensions of such pedagogies of with-ness. Through this book, teachers are invited to imagine pedagogy under this new framework, actively committed to students, their voice, and mutual engagement. Click HERE to watch the Pedagogies of With-ness book discussion.