Educación Popular, Politica y Cultura

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. 14 Back Matter. .


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. . 15 Educación Popular "Politica " Cultura Regeneración, the Association of Raza Educators Quarterly , borrows its name from Ricardo Flores Magón 9s Regeneración , the revolutionary newspaper Ricardo Flores Magón published during early 1900s as a voice against the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz.


In the spirit of Magón 9s vision for a people 9s newspaper and press, Regeneración is a medium where educators and community organizers provide analyses on education issues, and reports of struggles on the ground. In this first issue titled, cEducación Popular, Politica, y Cultura, d the collection of articles touch on the theme of popular education and politics. Dr.


Nolan Cabrera (UCLA) and Dr. Patrick Camagian (University of San Francisco) provide a poignant analysis of the current budgetary crisis in California. Also included are an open letter to teachers by Dr.


Jeff Duncan-Andrade at San Francisco State, and a personal reflection by Carolina Valdez, Co-Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter. Both of these authors call for educators to re-evaluate their roles as teachers and community-activists. T he report on the Coalition Not Arms victory against JROTC shooting ranges in the San Diego Unified School District is insightful and instructive.


Not only does it document the importance of grass-roots, community organizing, it serves as a model for struggle and hope. Finally, we conclude with the section on Cultura, where we feature the paintings of artist-activist Jose Olague from San Diego, California. The Association of Raza Educators was established to uphold the rights and liberties of the Raza community.


Education is essential to the preservation of civil and human rights. It provides the foundation for all political and economic progress and it must be a basic right of all people. Making this right a reality is the fundamental objective of A.R.E.


Raza has been and continues to be oppressed by the educational system within the United States. Therefore, we are obligated to ensure that education serves as a tool for the liberation of our community. A.R.E.


Mission Statement Contents Regeneración the Association of Raza Educators Quarterly Page 2 Educación Popular "Politica " Cultura Statement by the A.R.E. State Concilio on The Importance of Organized Struggle cThe organization of the popular class has come about much more easily and quickly than it was thought. The organizational precedent left by the union, the cooperative, communal action, and so forth have helped.


But the basic thing is the desire of the people to organize themselves. d - Camilo Torres A.R.E. was founded in 1994 as a response to Proposition 187, the anti-im/migrant legislation that would end social services to undocu- mented im/migrants in California and Proposition 227, which ended formal bilingual instruction in California.


Recognizing the need to take action against these and other deleterious policies, members from Unión del Barrio working in education took the lead in organizing the first A.R.E. Chapter. Over a decade later, A.R.E.


has undergone a period of growth and activism, with the formation of the Los Angeles Chapter in 2005 and the Oakland Chapter in 2008. In this brief space, we take the opportunity to highlight one important aspect that defines the political and organizational vision of A.R.E.: the commitment to organized struggle and community- based or ganization. The Centrality of Grass-Roots Organization A.R.E.


upholds the view that transformation of the existing oppres- sive educational, political, and economic system will come about through a collective, grass-roots organized effort by and for the people. Recognizing that collective struggle is a survival strategy used by historically dominated groups, A.R.E. represents an organized attempt to build from this tradition of struggle, thus connecting itself to teacher movements in other parts of the world, especially Latin America, with the goal of creating a mass-based teacher-lead social movement in the United States.


Working Within/Against the Bourgeois State As educators, we assume two primary roles, which often contra- dic t each other. On the one hand, we are what Antonio Gramsci calls cfunctionaries d of the State, or servants of an oppressive system whose aim is socialization into the existing social, ideological and economic order. On the other hand, we are corganic intellectuals d, that is educators who have assumed an ethical and political posture that strives for liberat- ing f orms of education and social transformation.


As organizers and progressive educators, we must begin with a clear understanding of this dual nature of education and its correspond- ing role for teachers. It is with this contradiction in mind, that we empha- size not just critical, feminist, decolonizing, and other progressive forms of pedagogy within formal and non-formal learning contexts, but com- munity organizing and organization. We believe that without an orga- nized front, the personal transformation we experience with our students will be limited to the very institutional spaces that give birth to these.


We see pedagogy, art, literacy, participatory action research, and other cultural forms as central to the educational process, and as a resource for social change. These practices, however, bear a collective rather than individual, and enduring rather than transient, quality when they emerge from bottom-up, grass-roots organic structures rather than from within institutions, such as the public school or university. Beyond Institutional Reformist and Reactionary Models of Social Change Finally, collective forms of struggle have been dominated by two pervasive philosophies of social change, both of which must be open to criticism and re-evaluated given the historical record of oppression in the Regeneración the Association of Raza Educators Quarterly Page 3 Educación Popular "Politica " Cultura Statement by A.R.E.


State Concilio (continued) United States. The first may be labeled the institutional reformist model of social change, that is the view that oppressive political, legal, and economic systems are transformed from within institutional spaces themselves, such as the public school or the non-profit organization. The second is a reac- tionary model of social transformation.


That is, the view that any attack on the State and its repressive policies is both necessary and sufficient for its downfall. As an organization, A.R.E. commends the efforts by teachers, students, parents, and community organizers in their attempts to challenge the oppressive aspects of educational policies and state officials who support them.


However, without a collective, organized front, without an organized movement that brings together different sectors in our society, our lucha will be short-lived. A critical understanding of State power and the interests that support it, necessitates that we engage in a strategic relation with the State. This historical process of democracy cfrom below d or from the grass-roots, will undoubtedly grow with the increase of repression against the poor, women, Blacks, Raza, and other marginalized communities.


cEducation Not Arms d - The Victory in Closing High School Shooting Range in San Diego Represents The Power of Organized Educators and Liberating Education Association of Raza Educators, San Diego cI t is Better to Educate While Standing and Risk Losing a Contract, Than Continue Teaching While on Our Knees. d The most basic contractual expectation for educators within the United States is that we provide youth with the academic skills to survive and cfit in d to the existing social and economic system. This is the baseline for which we get paid, and anything beyond this is not necessary unless the teacher decides to do more.


Educating for social justice, democratic change, human rights, and self- determination are only part of our daily lessons when we individually make it so, and institutionally these educational methods are generally frowned upon if not totally prohibited. For the teachers of the Association of Raza Educators (A.R.E.) the most basic educational assumptions are significantly broader than what is required from us contractually. Our principles are based on the belief that education should not only be provided in a safe environment, but should also be a liberating experience.


A.R.E. is dedicated to promoting education as a human right, with equitable and transparent access to education for all. Helping develop youth that are broadly educated, committed to the advancement of their community, and armed with the tools to critically participate in political debate are some of the most basic goals of A.R.E.


teachers. The 2008-2009 school year was one of exceptional struggles for the A.R.E. Within these times of crisis, war, and undemocratic priorities, A.R.E.


teachers have lead the way as critical educators. Thousands of dollars have been awarded as scholarships for undocumented students, hundreds of meetings and activities have been organized to inform the community of their educational rights, and thousands of hours of class- room time have been dedicated to the critical education of students giving rise to a new generation of young combatants for social justice and self-determination. The Education Not Arms Coalition was one example of this success during the 2008-2009 school year.


Within the context of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, A.R.E. found that the installation of shooting ranges and marksmanship teams, as called for by JROTC, exist as an obstacle to supporting other programs that prepare students for higher education, such as AVID courses, IB and AP, Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) courses. These military-centered programs are even more unacceptable within the current budgetary crisis, as in most cases schools have to Regeneración the Association of Raza Educators Quarterly Page 4 Educación Popular "Politica " Cultura decide which programs to eliminate and which to continue providing to students.


Contrary to popular belief, JROTC programs are funded by school budgets and not by the U.S. military. Thus there must be cuts in order to introduce JROTC into an academic program.


College preparatory courses often suffer major budget cuts even as programs such as JROTC are opened, as happened at Mission Bay High School and other schools throughout San Diego County. Furthermore, marksmanship teams repre- sent a direct violation of the Zero Tolerance policy that has been adopted nationwide in compliance of the federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. Clearly, JROTC is a tactic to recruit Raza and African American youth into the military, since it is no secret that JROTC programs are more likely to be found in Raza working class communities.


JROTC programs represent another imposed restriction on the academic preparation of students, who instead of being prepared for college, have the use of weapons and violence promoted within the curriculum and academic culture of public schools. This is done to prepare students more for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan than for service within their own communities. After over a year of community struggles involving hundreds of students from throughout the San Diego Unified School District, these youn