Solidarity with the People: Organizing to Disrupt Teacher Alienation

ABSTRACT

Although research on teacher alienation and isolation has demonstrated the importance of developing collegial relationships, mentoring, and induction programs, there is limited research examining the ways to support critical educators with combatting their feelings of alienation and isolation as it relates to the larger sociopolitical dynamics they must endure. Within teacher education and teacher in-service development we must engage in research and approaches to learning that acknowledge the possibilities and potential of teachers to lead their development toward becoming critical and culturally relevant practitioners. Using an internal colonial framework where schooling is articulated as an extension of the colonial project, this article explores the reflections of ten educators, from the elementary to high school level, as they worked to create spaces for learning within a teacher-led, community based organization. Drawing from participant observations and interviews with organization members, this article explores the ways participation in a community based organization supported teachers with enduring the social and psychological consequences of the alienation they experienced in their schools. The data explore the ways in which participants worked to develop teaching practices drawing from anti-colonial perspectives and through their process developed a sense of solidarity with other teachers, which is discussed as three subthemes: shared beliefs, community, and commitment.

Notes on contributors

Antonio Nieves Martinez is an assistant professor in the Social Justice Education Concentration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include critical and culturally relevant pedagogies, critical professional development for K-12 teachers, youth participatory action research, teacher organizing, and education for liberation.

Carolina Valdez is an assistant professor in Teacher Education at California State University, Monterey Bay. Her research interests include critical and ethnic studies pedagogies, and grassroots teacher organizing.

Stephanie Cariaga is a graduate student in the Social Science and Comparative Education division at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include critical healing literacy and pedagogy, and critical raced-gendered epistemology.