Voices - Vol 2

Faculty Bookshelf

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 18:33:41 +0000

Faculty Bookshelf Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/12/2019 - 11:33

A quick look at what colleagues are saying about our faculty’s recent publications.

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HighlightED

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 22:06:39 +0000

HighlightED Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 16:06

First cohort of Master’s in Higher Education students graduates

Denver native Paula Abitia had always wanted to attend her “dream school,” CU Boulder, yet as a first-generation student of color, the reality of her dream included the struggle for a sense of belonging. She credits higher education professionals with helping her get through challenging times, including staff with the McNeill Academic Program, where Abitia is now paying it forward as a program Coordinator.

Abitia is one of five students who graduated last spring as the inaugural cohort of Master’s in Higher Education graduates. Launched in 2017, the program prepares knowledgeable, ethical and diverse leaders and offers evening coursework to accommodate professionals’ busy schedules.

Based in the School of Education, the program is a collaboration with departments across campus. Program founder Michele Moses notes that the combination of scholarly work and experiential learning is unique among higher education degrees.

“Not only do students gain a strong foundation in the history and philosophy of higher education and knowledge of program evaluation and research methods, but they also hone practical higher education skills in courses led by current higher education leaders,” Moses said.

Guaranteed admission now offered to high schoolers who study education

Colorado high school students interested in becoming teachers and community leaders can now earn guaranteed admission to CU Boulder’s School of Education. Introduced in fall 2018, the admission guarantee came from an agreement between CU Boulder and two high school concurrent enrollment programs, Teacher Cadet and Pathways2Teaching®.

Both programs offer college readiness courses and college credit for 11th- and 12th-grade students interested in exploring teaching as a career.

“We care deeply about recruiting and supporting excellent teachers, and it’s an honor to work with these programs to help collectively address critical teacher shortages, especially in areas where it matters most,” Dean Kathy Schultz said.

This novel agreement allows CU Boulder to effectively enroll students who have the academic preparation, interest in education and demonstrated strength in the nonacademic variables necessary to succeed as a teacher and as a community leader.

Graduate students launch new online, peer-reviewed journal

In 2017, a group of doctoral students came to the dean proposing a new journal. Just one year later, the School of Education’s student-run journal published in December.

The Assembly, a journal for public scholarship on education, is an open-access, peer- reviewed, online publication that promotes timely dialogue among educators, researchers, students, community members and policymakers. Articles and multimedia pieces come from contributors in Colorado and across the nation, and their works aim to transform systems and practices to advance educational equity.

The inaugural issue featured topics such as discussions and disagreement among teacher unions and educational effects on displaced students following Hurricane María (more on on Page 4).

Learn about The Assembly’s mission, editorial board and calls for proposals at colorado.edu/journal/assembly.

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Coming home

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 20:00:03 +0000

Coming home Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 14:00

Hannah Fletcher

From student to custodian to principal, alumnus uses experience to transform local schools

It feels good to be home, says Michael Atkins with his contagious smile, as the proud new principal of Denver’s Stedman Elementary, a dual language school.

“I wanted to go back into the community and give back,” he said. “Even though the neighborhood looks a little different, it’s still my community. I can keep some historical presence within this building.”

Atkins (MEdu‘15) grew up just a few blocks from the diverse, longstanding school in east Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, but he did not attend the school. Park Hill has a storied past as the epicenter of efforts to desegregate Denver schools brought forth by local African American and Latino parents in the 1970s. The resulting busing legislation was among the first in the country outside Southern states, and the policy altered educational experiences for students like Atkins well into the ’90s.

Atkins was bused to different schools during a challenging time for neighborhoods like Park Hill. He remembers Denver’s “summer of violence” in 1993, when local kids were victims of violence, and gang activity regularly made the local and national news.

Busing led to enhanced opportunities but ultimately disparate experiences for Atkins. Despite being bused in the name of integration, his middle school seemed to be separated into wings for African American and Latino students, while the wing for advanced classes served mostly white students. He felt unsupported, and he rebelled.

It sent me into a space of not seeing myself in classrooms, not thinking that education was built for me,” he said.

By high school, opportunities emerged from a new climate and reputation seeded by his gregarious older brother. Atkins was able to engage in school again, and from there he pursued a bachelor’s degree and became the first in his family to graduate from college.

Armed with a degree and a desire to work with youth, Atkins set his sights on positions in education. He had worked with children in his mother’s daycare, and he was eager to meet the demands of being a new father. When he returned to local schools to apply for paraprofessional openings, he was pointed toward custodial roles, so that’s where he landed.

Years later, Atkins transferred to a new school, where he was greeted by a familiar face—his former second-grade teacher-turned-principal. She warmly remembered Atkins and his family and listened to his story. Weeks later, she offered him a reading and writing specialist position, finally a paraprofessional role. It changed everything for Atkins.

“It still makes me emotional to this day, because I don’t think,” he paused, “I know that my route would have been completely different in education and in life without that intervention.”

Later as an elementary teacher, another new opportunity arose—to earn a master’s degree through the CU Boulder School of Education and the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education.

“I heard my grandmother's voice saying, ‘Education is the key to unlock all doors,’ and I knew I needed to jump,” the longtime CU Buffs fan said.

Atkins had been involved with the BUENO Center’s professional development programs, and he incorporates the program’s bilingual and biliteracy principles into his curriculum and keeps in touch with his graduate school classmates to this day.

Atkins’ experiences continue to inform his work in education today, and the alumnus shares his story with his school’s families, students, teachers and staff, including his all-important custodial team. That openness was not always his norm.

I wouldn’t tell my story with my chest out, because I was afraid of what people might think,” he said. “When I shifted that practice, my life changed, because I truly understood the power of vulnerability.”

Modeling vulnerability is one of the many ways Atkins aims to enhance learning opportunities at Stedman, and he believes in fixing systems locally to then change policies broadly.

“When I reflect on own experiences, I am always looking at it from the perspective of ‘that happened to me, so how can I make sure it doesn’t happen in the future?’”

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Bringing diversity, equity and inclusion into the classroom

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:28:34 +0000

Bringing diversity, equity and inclusion into the classroom Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:28

Hayley Breden (MAEdu’16), graduate in educational foundations, policy and practice, has taught social studies at Denver South High School for almost 10 years, and she is always looking for ways to create awareness and inclusivity in her classroom.

In 2004, when Breden told her high school history teacher that she was considering becoming a teacher herself, the teacher introduced her to a variety of resources, including Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that emphasizes social justice and anti-bias through its magazine and online resources. After college, she found the lesson plans and other educational materials to be helpful in challenging and changing how she saw her role as a white woman educator, as well as in bringing rigorous and engaging materials and lessons to her students.

Things came full circle when she was selected for the 30-person, national Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board in 2017. Since then, she has worked with dedicated, justice-minded educators from across the country and reviewed new materials to help bring Teaching Tolerance's ideas about diversity, equity and inclusion to thousands of educators.

Here, Breden shares what she has learned on the board and her advice for current and future teachers:

1. Know yourself, your history, your potential and your role in our world today. How can we be the best possible educators for our students if we don't know and understand the aspects of our identities that have shaped us?

2. Do your best to call in, rather than call out, colleagues and students who are doing or saying something that does harm to students or society. Find allies and work to educate people who make offensive comments or policies that promote inequity.

3. Remember why you're in this work, and be able to explain why for everything you ask of students and colleagues. We all know that our work is more meaningful to us when we can see how it positively impacts others; the same is true for students.

Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and more—who work with K–12 children. Educators can use the materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities. Learn more at tolerance.org.

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From the archives: CU would rather fight than switch

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:21:56 +0000

From the archives: CU would rather fight than switch Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:21

In 1979, the School of Education at the �鶹��Ƶ faced a threat: Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm’s budget proposal suggested eliminating the School of Education and encouraged making the University of Northern Colorado the state’s “center of excellence” for education.

According to the Daily Camera’s Feb. 8, 1979, edition, School of Education graduate students assembled to fight back, and Dean Richard L. Turner urged graduate students to start a letter-writing campaign to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. At the time, the �鶹��Ƶ offered the state’s only PhD research degree in education. While UNC offered a Doctor of Education degree, it was a practitioner’s degree.

“CU is the only major research university in the Rocky Mountain region, and removing the education component would be a serious mistake,” Turner said.

Furthermore, “phasing out the School of Education would cost the city of Boulder at least $9 million in economic activity by students and faculty,” CU Chancellor J. Russell Nelson told the Board of Regents. He concluded that the motion would save the state very little money while eliminating a “well-developed, mature and effective educational program.”

Later that spring, the Daily Camera reported that the outcry from the dean, students and campus aided in the retention of many of the same fields of graduate education that are the hallmark of the School of Education’s graduate studies today: research and evaluation methodology, curriculum and instruction, social and multicultural foundations, and educational-psychological studies.

Pictured: Dean Richard L. Turner of the CU Boulder School of Education urged graduate students to begin a letter-writing campaign aimed at preventing a proposed phase-out of the school from Gov. Dick Lamm. (Daily Camera Collection, CU Heritage Center)

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Alumni Connections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:17:58 +0000

Alumni Connections Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:17

Most prestigious CU Boulder alumni award to honor Jackie Colt

We all know educators who have changed lives, and the scope of Jackie Colt’s passion has enhanced the lives of countless students, parents, teachers and administrators.

This fall, Colt will be recognized with CU Boulder’s most prestigious alumni award, the 2019 George Norlin Award. The award recognizes outstanding alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in their field and a devotion to the betterment of society and their community. Colt, who earned her master’s and doctoral degrees through CU Boulder, will receive the award at the annual Alumni Awards Ceremony during Homecoming Week in November.

Colt has committed her 40-year career to the promotion of literacy and the generation of knowledge that has increased opportunities for thousands of students, particularly in high-poverty schools. In collaboration with Elfrieda Hiebert, she created and researched a nationally replicated literacy program for schools and struggling readers in the St. Vrain Valley School District, and she also reformed reading instruction for prospective and practicing teachers as a clinical professor at CU Boulder.

Today, Colt is still making a difference as a tutor for struggling adult readers as part of the public library’s Boulder Reads program, and she continues to create improved opportunities for CU Boulder students and faculty by chairing, with great success, our Development Advisory Board.

Maine Teacher of the Year awarded to English education alumnus Joe Hennessey

The entire staff and student body at Piscataquis Community High School gave a standing ovation as their beloved English teacher Joe Hennessey was named the 2019 Maine Teacher of the Year at a school assembly. A 2011 alumnus of the English education licensure program, Hennessey grew up in Colorado and has been teaching in the rural, central Maine community since 2014.

Hennessey, who is more comfortable in his classroom than in the spotlight, deflected much of the attention for his teacher-of-the-year status to shine a light on his students and the community that has embraced him and his teaching. As the humble teacher tours the state and nation, and even internationally as part of his role, Hennessey sees this an opportunity to discuss what makes his rural community strong in the face of often adverse circumstances. In true teacher fashion, he asked assembly attendees to reflect on this.

“What are the things that make us most proud? What barriers to access and success frustrate us the most? And how is it that people coming from six different towns representing a physical area bigger than downtown Portland are able to come together to create a community where everyone is welcome, supported and feels as though their opinions and actions matter?”

Maybe it’s teachers like him.

Nancy Kellogg’s lifelong scientific curiosity and 50-year career earn national accolades

Sparked by an interest in the natural world that began on her family’s Colorado ranch, Nancy Kellogg’s scientific curiosity grew into a lifelong career in science education. With more than 50 years of service to her name and no signs of stopping, Kellogg was recognized this year for “extraordinary contributions to the advancement of education in the sciences and science teaching” with the Distinguished Service to Science Education Award from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the world’s largest organization committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science education.

Kellogg, a CU Boulder education alumna for both her BA and PhD, has been a high school biology teacher, experiential education program developer, professor in Saudi Arabia, and leader in standards-based reform, professional development and equitable assessments. Even in retirement she remains a tireless advocate, serving organizations like NSTA, the National Science Education Leadership Association and the Colorado Science Education Network, which she co-founded.

“I have always been driven to improve science education for all students, provide opportunities for teachers and not accept the status quo,” she said.

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Youth Rising

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:14:04 +0000

Youth Rising Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:14

Hannah Fletcher

How today's youth are finding their voice, and what we can learn from them

“Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” the high school students chanted as they carried colorful signs and blasted messages via megaphone. Drivers slowed and many honked as the marchers made their way down a busy thoroughfare in Lafayette, a diverse city in east Boulder County.

The students organized the march and school walkout to raise awareness and support for immigrant families in their community. �鶹��Ƶ 150 students across all gradelevels attended, but the affair was arranged by just six ninth-graders with support from three CU Boulder student coaches in the Public Achievement program. The initiative promotes youth voice and transformative change with coaches working alongside K–12 students to design civic action projects.

Across the nation, youth movements and moments like these are capturing headlines, and youth activism, while not new, appears to be on the rise.

Youth leaders and advocates

In Lafayette, the students organizing the walkout ensured it was an offsite, unofficial school function and coordinated with police and city officials, who not only supported and protected the marchers but spoke at the culminating rally in a local park.

The mayor honored the students as did JD Mangat, a familiar face to many at the rally. Mangat is a former Public Achievement middle and high school participant and CU Boulder student coach. The alumnus is now the youngest member on the Lafayette City Council at age 23.

The councilor has had a lengthy record of public service to his hometown, beginning with his Public Achievement group’s project raising awareness about gun violence and his work as a youth advisory board member pushing back on youth curfews and restrictions on loitering, and establishing the city’s acclaimed skate park.

“Whether it’s here or L.A., young people face a lot of issues—boredom, or they’re not trusted enough,” said Mangat, who, despite not being a skateboarder himself, saw the skate park as an opportunity to support peers. “(As a leader) you learn to prioritize the needs of the community.”

The son of Indian immigrants, Mangat said his philosophy throughout his work as a youth leader and as a city official has remained unchanged: All people deserve to be heard and to be treated equally with respect. Charla Agnoletti, Public Achievement’s director and a former college coach, says that theme is embraced by the program, which is a part of the School of Education’s CU Engage: Center for Community-based Learning and Research.

When young people are really given the space to express their voice, there’s a lot of magic there,” she said. “I believe living within young people are the solutions, innovations and the radical imagination needed to continue to make our schools and our society a better place.”

Youth-led movements, big and small

The past couple of years have featured highly publicized surges in youth activism, from local to large-scale movements. Local actions can be inspired by national movements, and recent activism is often built on the social movements that came before. The latest movements and their predecessors have been borne out of injustice and racism, and researchers like Ben Kirshner study what motivates activism and how young activists learn in these settings.

“Some contemporary forms of activism have a local focus, or they may stem from an inciting event, like the March for Our Lives,” said Kirshner, professor of learning sciences and human development, and faculty director for CU Engage. “The question is: How do you sustain something after an initial spark, and how do you build something local that has a bigger base that links cities and regions? We can learn more about both of those processes from social movements of the past.”

Learning from the past and present

African American youth were pivotal in the civil rights movement, leading lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina and the Freedom Summer efforts to register African American voters. There is also a proud tradition of school walkouts to protest poor conditions and segregation, such as what occurred with the Chicano movement, where students famously led walkouts or “blowouts” in places like Los Angeles and Denver to bring awareness about racism in schools and call for culturally responsive policies and practices.

In more recent years, Kirshner points to the Dreamer movement, with its leadership from undocumented youth of all ages, and the activism affirming gender and sexual diversity, as movements that have been driven, in large part, by youth.

In his early career as a youth worker in San Francisco’s Mission District, Kirshner found himself interested in understanding what kind of learning environments support youth to step into these activist roles. In the 1990s, activism led by youth of color in San Francisco and Oakland focused on challenging systems and policies to fight against new “super jails” for teenagers and to gain support for educational programs and summer jobs for youth. Kirshner found inspiration in those movements, which led to his work today teaching in education and exploring learning environments that advance educational equity.

Youth movements and schooling

Historically, the education system has played a complicated role in youth activism. High schools have not traditionally cultivated youth voice and leadership, particularly for youth of color. Often the opportunities for student leadership that do exist are limited to planning proms or organizing fundraisers. Yet schools can be a place where students meet, coordinate and, at times, make change.

Kirshner has been studying out-of-school and in-school programs that provide youth opportunities to substantively name injustices they have experienced, carry out researchand develop policies to address issues at the root level.

“I really believe in the potential of schools to be spaces of youth development and voice, and that shouldn’t be something that is just nurtured outside of school,” Kishner said.

Blanca Elena Trejo, a master’s graduate and current PhD student who works with Kirshner in CU Engage, was a high school sophomore in Denver when she first became involved in youth organizing, but she admits she started out a skeptic.

“I will be honest, just as I am with students. I did not get involved with youth organizing work because I wanted to change the world or because I authentically believed that youth can make a difference,” she said. “When the student body president came into my chemistry class to recruit for a new club that would ‘change West High School,’ I remember rolling my eyes and leaning further back in my chair.”

Lured by free pizza, Trejo showed up for that first meeting anyway, and she has been showing up for youth organizing ever since.

Skepticism turned to activism

"I believe living within young people are the solutions, innovations and the radical imagination needed to continue to make our schools and our society a better place."

Trejo found the group’s coordinator to be a caring Latina who “authentically made me and my peers feel like we were powerful beings who could effect positive change in our school and community.” As a young Latina, Trejo knew of the teen pregnancy and school dropout statistics, and she had seen her family ripped apart by the immigration system and racial bias. Her committee work became a refuge, and the self named Voices Heard Committee played a key role in helping establish Colorado’s in-state tuition for undocumented youth legislation, known as Colorado ASSET.

Trejo was recruited and trained as a youth leader for several other local and national organizations while in high school, and she dreamed of starting her own nonprofit as she navigated the challenges of attending a predominantly white, upper-class university as a first-generation undergraduate student.

“I am blessed to have been trained to self-advocate through youth organizing work,” she said.

After graduating—with three degrees—Trejo co-founded INSPiRE, a Colorado nonprofit that combines college and career readiness curricula with youth organizing to support youth in becoming change agents in their schools, families and communities.

Finding inspiration

Kirshner has seen how building coalitions can build strength between parents and youth of different ages and backgrounds, community members and other civic groups. He admits that even after years of working with youth leaders and studying youth activism, at times he can fall into a trap of assumptions and stereotypes about youth that are promulgated in the academy and media. He finds working directly with youth organizers and witnessing their courage and creativity provides the best “proof point for what youth are capable of, in contrast to what a lot of our systems tell us they can do.”

Back at the walkout in Lafayette, Agnoletti is in awe of what the youth can do, and she knows they are proud, too. She enjoys seeing the young organizers go from self-doubting to finding their confidence and agency as citizens and leaders in their communities.

Agnoletti believes it is time to stop doubting and start listening to youth. She points out that the walkout that was planned and executed by high schoolers was inspired by another group of Public Achievement students, middle schoolers who led a similar initiative and left a blueprint for others.

“In this case, a team of ninth-graders were inspired by the work of seventh-graders,” she said. “We can always learn from people who are younger than us, and in young people is where hope and inspiration has always resided.”

Learn more about Public Achievement at colorado.edu/publicachievement and CU Engage at colorado.edu/cuengage.

Story illustration by Maria Carluccio c/o theispot

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Perfect Pairs

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:10:46 +0000

Perfect Pairs Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:10

Time and time again, we hear scholarships are one of the biggest factors in recruiting and retaining talented students. As the cost of living and expectations for education students continue to increase, scholarships are needed now more than ever to support promising and passionate students and future teachers. In their own words, here are what just a few thoughtfully crafted scholarships have meant to current students and new graduates receiving scholarship support.

The Hubert L. Hooks Jones Chapter Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship was established by the Hubert L. “Hooks” Jones Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. with the CU Boulder School of Education to support education students who are inspired to continue the Tuskegee Airmen legacy. In honor of the African-American men and women who served our country with distinction during World War II, this scholarship supports students who aspire to work in and teach students from underrepresented communities.

“Receiving this scholarship was a great honor, as it represented everything that I have stood for. Growing up in a community that is highly diverse, with people from many different types of underrepresented communities, has greatly influenced me and inspired me to create a change. With the help of this scholarship and its mission, I have been able to broaden my knowledge of the inequities in society, empowered students to challenge the education system and learned about how we can implement that into everyday lessons through different courses and practicums.”

—Angelica Gutierrez, inaugural Tuskegee Scholarship recipient and sophomore studying elementary education

The Zola Family Scholarship for Social Studies Teachers was formed in 2007 by John and Jaye Zola, both longtime teachers and former secondary social studies instructors in the School of Education. The scholarship aims to support secondary social studies teacher candidates who will teach in ways that support civic-mindedness, democratic participation, social justice and a commitment to valuing diversity.

“Boulder is an expensive place to live, and because student teaching is so much work and doesn’t pay, it can be really hard to make ends meet. The Zola Scholarship really was a huge help for me, and it helped prevent me from going into too much debt. Moreover, at the scholarship ceremony, I met the Zolas, and they are great people and former teachers. John Zola pointed me toward his website to draw on when I needed resources. It turned out to be a great resource for lessons and lesson ideas.”

—Ben Ortiz, Zola Scholarship recipient, master’s plus social studies licensure graduate and 2019 graduation speaker

The David and Margaret Grohne Scholarship supports full tuition for out-of-state students. Both alumni, the Grohnes came to CU Boulder as out-of-state students from Illinois and so valued their CU Boulder experience that they established two scholarships for students in their majors, engineering and education. Scholarship students have volunteer experience and leadership potential, and aim to become teachers.

“I’ve always felt like I would probably have to stay in Missouri for college, and as great as schools in Missouri are, I really wanted to leave the Midwest. I applied to Boulder simply to feel like it was even a little bit possible for me to attend my ‘dream school,’ despite knowing that the out-of-state tuition was very high. I’ve always been drawn to CU Boulder because of the level of academics, beautiful campus and the campus life. This is why, when I received the David & Margaret Grohne scholarship, my decision to study education at CU Boulder became much easier to make.”

—Axel Duran, a Grohne Scholarship recipient and an incoming first-year student studying elementary education

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5 Dimensions of community-engaged research

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:05:18 +0000

5 Dimensions of community-engaged research Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 13:05

Leah Teeters , Susan Jurow

Many challenges that communities face are ones for which community members have the desire, knowledge and vision to address. What they often do not have, particularly in historically marginalized communities, are the resources—economic, institutional, educational—that could enable them to actualize those visions. Collaborations with institutions such as universities and nonprofits can support the development of community-driven solutions. Approaching problems with community partners rather than for them leads to better-formulated, better-received and more sustainable solutions.

We have refined strategies for making visible partners’ diverse forms of expertise and visions for the future through our collaborative work with a nonprofit in a culturally vibrant neighborhood with a large Latino population and a history of community activism. For five years, we worked with local promotoras to respond to their desire for a training curriculum. Promotoras are neighborhood residents who act as liaisons between their community social networks and organizations that promote community change. Instead of building a static curriculum in the form of a bound book, we jointly developed a dynamic software application that allowed promotoras to document, analyze and share their own professional practices. This design emerged from ethnographic fieldwork founded in trusting relationships that helped us understand the dynamic nature of the promotoras’ professional practices and lived experiences.

A risk in community-engaged research often involves the uses and abuses of power. If we do not attend to how power dynamics shape relationships between community members and researchers, we can undermine or replace community-based knowledge and practices or, in the opposite direction, we may resist sharing our knowledge and expertise out of fear of domination. In these ways, we risk reproducing historical inequities and blocking opportunities for transformative action. We must always strive toward the goal of developing equitable research collaborations where genuine dialogue can emerge. Because what counts as equitable is dynamic, our work toward it needs to be responsive and principled. Researchers and community partners need to engage in continuous analysis of the social and historical contexts that shape the present and how we may be implicated in furthering injustice. This work is challenging but necessary. To share what we have learned from our work with community partners, we developed a community-engaged framework that we hope can support researchers in orienting their work around equity.

We identified five dimensions of engaged research regarding equity:

1. Establishing partnerships

2. Developing trust

3. Working with language differences

4. Planning for action

5. Considering outcomes and sustainability

These dimensions are not meant to represent a holistic research cycle, nor are they meant to be static and linear. We discuss activities in which researchers and community members can engage to develop a more equitable design and research process. We refer to these collaborative activities as “strategies for collaboration.” Using the suggested strategies as points for reflection, community members and researchers can identify indicators of success, barriers faced and innovations implemented. This framework is intended to be a template by which community-engaged researchers (including both university researchers and community researchers) can adapt, expand and identify new domains and strategies that attend to the context of their work.

Community-engaged researchers need to strive for greater transparency of goals, methods and values. With this aim at the foreground, we offer a set of practical suggestions for moving forward with this framework as a guide for collective work toward equity: (1) Engage in broad ethnographicresearch to understand community values and practices. (2) Cultivate relationships of politicized care and committed action. (3) Embrace linguistic and representational diversity as a way to gain a deeper appreciation of partners’ perspectives and values. (4) Practice critical reflection on goals and methods with humility and generosity.

We present these suggestions to facilitate the development of equity-oriented research partnerships. We think that attending to these issues can be a starting point to support methodologies that can promote greater justice.

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Dreaming of a New World

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 18:58:47 +0000

Dreaming of a New World Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2019 - 12:58

Hannah Fletcher

As a child, Enrique Lopez had a strong sense of scientific wonder, but his fascination with science education would come later.

“I always enjoyed learning—like all kids do—but not so much school,”he said. “My interest in science was solidified when I failed my first chemistry class.” Lopez was a freshman taking general chemistry at a community college near his home in central California. He enjoyed the content but ultimately realized he wasn’t going to pass. Despite the impending outcome, he finished the course that semester.

"That perseverance is something we grew up with,” Lopez said. “I was used to not always succeeding but still taking a step forward. That’s the work ethic that my parents always instilled in their kids.”

First in community college and then Fresno State, Lopez dabbled in different sciences before returning to chemistry and passing the course, turning his trajectory toward science. While working on his master’s degree, he got involved in an atmospheric chemistry project studying local air quality, and he experienced what it meant to be a scientist.

“It was the aspects of exploration, asking questions, collecting data and trying to make sense of that information—the wonders of science—that offered a different view of what science is and what it could be as well,” he said.

“What could be” continued to be a theme in his doctoral studies at Stanford and today at CU Boulder. Lopez says he was drawn to the CU Boulder School of Education for its strong ties with science departments across campus and mentorship opportunities from other prominent scholars of color. Lopez, with his quiet, compassionate demeanor, admits that being on campus with limited diversity can be difficult, yet he has found “pockets” for community-building and support. Aquetza is one of those pockets. Aquetza, based in CU Engage, is a transformative, 10-day summer residential program for high school students with strong ties to Chicanx and Latinx communities.

It was created by education student Jason Romero Jr., who envisioned reviving a similar summer bridge program from the 1970s. Romero and peers in the student group UMAS y MEXA (United Mexican American Students y Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán) co-founded the first Aquetza in 2013, and it continues to be led by students today. Somewhat reluctantly, Lopez became Aquetza’s co-director and faculty advisor in 2016. At first, Lopez worried that Aquetza did not fit his research portfolio. Then he witnessed the program in action.

“It blew me away.”

To understand Aquetza, Lopez explained, one needs to understand the historical context of schooling for Mexicans and Mexican Americans, including processes of assimilation and bans on Spanish language. Through readings, discussions and storytelling, the Aquetza youth connect these social and cultural histories with their experiences and begin to see themselves as they have always been, producers of culture and knowledge.

“There’s a strong sense of empowerment when students are exposed to this,” he said. Lopez is still “making sense” of Aquetza, but he said it has broadened his frameworks for student learning and learning environments, and has led him to re-imagine science education as a tool for personal and collective social transformation to better humanity. Aquetza youth, those leading curricula and high schoolers sharing their experiences and dreams, give him hope for the future.

“I feel privileged to be witness to all our youth,” Lopez said. “So often, we focus on everything that’s wrong, but that takes us to a dark place. It’s important that we have opportunities to imagine and dream of a world that doesn’t yet exist, and Aquetza is part of that space to do that.”

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