“We Are Here...Because You Were There”: A Kitchen-Table Talk on Anti-Oppressive and Critical (Immigrant) Education

ABSTRACT

Grounded in the Black feminist tradition, this kitchen-table talk brings together five scholars who critically and authentically engaged in dialogue to dissect anti-oppressive and critical (immigrant) education in the post-Trump era. Through a postcolonial lens, we collectively disrupt the oversimplification of immigrant narratives, the notions of assimilation, and American saviorism. We recognize the grief and challenges that immigrants and multigenerational immigrants have faced, and continue to face, when leaving one’s home country. Particularly important to our dialogue is our honoring of immigrant communities’ intersecting identities, activism, and agency. We challenge anti-immigrant rhetoric and resist colonizer mentalities and stereotypes that attempt to censor and erase the identities and stories of immigrant students in U.S. classrooms. This kitchen-table talk serves as both a call and an invitation for educators to provide and sustain learning environments informed by and uplifting immigrant experiences, in efforts to create a space for critical analysis and healing.

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Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Sandra Saco

Sandra Saco is a teacher-researcher pursuing her doctorate in English education at Arizona State University (ASU). She formerly worked as a high school English teacher for seven years and currently teaches introductory writing courses at the university. Her focus is on researching the effects of the adoption of diverse young adult literature in the secondary classroom and analyzing how students unpack the Latinx diaspora through critical discussion and storytelling.

Monisha Bajaj

Monisha Bajaj is a professor of international and multicultural education in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, as well as a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She has edited or authored eight books and written numerous articles on issues of peace, human rights, migration, racial justice, and education. In 2015, she received the Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award from Division B of the American Educational Research Association.

Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon

Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon is an associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Situated at the intersections of educational anthropology, critical pedagogy, bilingual education, and Chicana/Latina feminisms, her work examines the interplay of sociocultural factors, including race, class, gender, language, and citizenship/immigrant constructs in her analyses of educational contexts. She seeks to recognize the intersectional identities and subaltern knowledges that are often ignored by dominant discourses about minoritized and border/transborder communities.

Dolores Delgado Bernal

Dolores Delgado Bernal is the associate dean of the College of Ethnic Studies and a former chair and professor in the Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. As a scholar-activist, she has worked for over 30 years with schools, teachers, and communities to disrupt the miseducation of Chicanx/Latinx students. Much of her teaching and scholarship has focused on feminista methodological approaches to investigate educational (in)equity, Latinx educational pathways, and different forms of resistance.

Rita Kohli

Rita Kohli is an associate professor and coordinator of the K-12 Ethnic Studies Pathway in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. She is also the cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice. Her research explores racism, racial literacies, and racial justice efforts in teaching and teacher education, and she is the author of Teachers of Color: Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Education.

Kevin K. Kumashiro

Kevin K. Kumashiro is the award-winning author or editor of ten books, including Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice and, most recently, Surrendered: Why Progressives Are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education. He is the former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, and his recent awards include the 2016 Social Justice in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Graduate School of Education and Counseling at Lewis and Clark University.