During the noon hour on April 26, Sacramento State Assistant Professor Dale Allender, Ph.D., and Professor Margarita Berta-Avila, Ed.D. will speak about efforts to require an ethnic studies class for high school graduation for California students. The move is being spearheaded by Ethnic Studies Now, a statewide coalition working to pass local school board resolutions to require an ethnic studies class. The presentation, “A Capitol City Case Study of Curriculum Transformation and Community Empowerment: Ethnic Studies Now Sacramento,” is part of the EDD program’s Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series.
Ethnic Studies Now is inspired by and rooted in the Ethnic Studies movement at San Francisco State University and the University of California Berkeley in the late 1960s; and it is contextualized by regional political skirmishes and multiple state-level legislative processes related to Ethnic Studies budgeting, curriculum and instruction for secondary and post-secondary education. Ethnic Studies Now advocacy is enacted uniquely in different school districts within California. In Sacramento, this advocacy is characterized by a complex collaboration dynamic and a focus on teacher education.
Dr. Allender and Dr. Berta-Avila will describe what Ethnic Studies Now looks like in Sacramento from two participant observers’ analysis of meeting records from the Sacramento City Unified School District Board and Ethnic Studies Now – Sacramento grassroots committee.
Bring your lunch and enjoy the discussion in Eureka Hall 313E on the Sacramento State campus, from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26.
Redefining the Possible in Education 