A New Space for Ethnic Studies Pedagogy—And a Call to Contribute

A New Space for Ethnic Studies Pedagogy—And a Call to Contribute

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

At a moment when Ethnic Studies faces growing political scrutiny and legislative attack in many states—including here in Texas—it is encouraging to see new intellectual spaces emerging to support the field and the educators who sustain it. One such space is Ethnic Studies Pedagogies, a new open-access online journal devoted to critical race, decolonial, and Ethnic Studies teaching and scholarship, particularly in K–12 classrooms and community educational spaces.

The journal brings together scholars, teachers, organizers, and students who are working to understand and transform the ecologies of power and resistance shaping education today. You can view the members of the Editorial board here, of which I am one. Dr. Miguel Zavala from the School of Education at the University of California Riverside makes it sing.

Rather than limiting itself to traditional academic articles, Ethnic Studies Pedagogies welcomes a wide range of contributions, including scholarly research, action research pedagogies, archival histories, testimonios, photo essays, and artistic work. In doing so, it reflects the movement roots of Ethnic Studies itself—born from community struggle, student activism, and demands for more truthful and inclusive knowledge.

Since its launch in 2023, the journal has produced several themed issues exploring topics such as Ethnic Studies as living archives, creative justice pedagogies through art and digital media, and the role of organizing and resistance within Ethnic Studies movements. The most recent issue, Re-Rooting Intersectional Ethnic Studies: Racial Capitalism, Coloniality, and Resistance, continues this tradition by examining how structural power shapes education and community life.

Importantly, the journal’s editorial philosophy is collaborative and community-centered. Submissions are reviewed by scholars alongside educators and community members, and contributors outside traditional academic spaces are supported through a guided editorial process designed to strengthen and nurture emerging voices.

A Call to Contribute

If you are a teacher, graduate student, scholar-activist, organizer, or community educator, this journal is for you.

Ethnic Studies Pedagogies is currently inviting submissions of 2,000–5,000 words (APA 7th edition) as well as creative and arts-based contributions. The editorial board is especially interested in work that explores how Ethnic Studies pedagogy confronts racism, colonialism, and systemic injustice while illuminating the knowledge, resilience, and creativity of communities of color.

At a time when Ethnic Studies is being challenged politically, it is more important than ever that educators and scholars document their work, share their pedagogies, and contribute to the intellectual future of the field.

If you are doing this work—in classrooms, schools, communities, or movements—consider sharing it. The field grows when we write, document, and build together. A listing of special issues appears below and here are the submission guidelines. Enjoy!

Volume 1, Issue 1 (June 2023)

Lead Editor: Ezekiel Joubert III

Theme: Ethnic Studies Pedagogies as Living Archives

[Download Entire Issue]

Volume 1, Issue 2 (December 2023)

Lead Editor: Lani Cupchoy

Theme:Pedagogies for Creative Justice: Artivism, Digital Media, and Filmmaking

[Download Entire Issue]

Volume 2, Issue 1 (July 2024)

Lead Editor: Lani Cupchoy

Theme:Pedagogies for Creative Justice: Artivism, Digital Media, 

and Filmmaking

[Download Entire Issue]

Volume 2, Issue 2 (December 2024)

Lead Editors: Marisol O. Ruiz & Nancy Perez

Theme:"Struggle Builds on Struggle": Resistance and Organizing Through Ethnic Studies

[Download Entire Issue]

Volume 3, Issue 1 (June 2025)

Lead Editors: Marisol O. Ruiz & Nancy Perez

Theme:"Struggle Builds on Struggle": Resistance and Organizing Through Ethnic Studies II

[ Download Entire Issue]

Volume 3, Issue 2 (December 2025)

Lead Editors: Enrique C. Ochoa and Gilda L. Ochoa

Theme: "Re-Rooting Intersectional Ethnic Studies: Racial Capitalism, Coloniality, and Resistance"

[Download Entire Issue]

SPECIAL ISSUES

 

RE-ROOTING INTERSECTIONAL ETHNIC STUDIES: RACIAL CAPITALISM, COLONIALITY, AND RESISTANCE

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2 

Publication: December 2025

Lead Editors: Enrique Ochoa and Gilda Ochoa

 

TEACHING ETHNIC STUDIES IN THE HEART OF COLONIAL RESISTANCE: PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS ON PEDAGOGIES OF ETHNIC STUDIES FOR WHITE-DOMINANT CLASSROOMS, COMMUNITIES, AND SCHOOLS 

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 [call for submissions]

Publication: June 2026

Lead Editors: Michael Dominguez and Suneal Kolluri

 

REMATRIATING BILINGUAL EDUCATION THROUGH ANCESTRAL EPISTEMOLOGIES AND ETHNIC STUDIES PEDAGOGIES

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2 [call for submissions]

Publication: December 2026

Lead Editors: Michelle Soto-Peña, Patricia D. López, and Cueponcaxochitl Moreno Sandoval

 

REVOLUTIONARY LOVE: ANTI-COLONIAL APPROACHES IN ETHNIC STUDIES

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1 [call for submissions]

Publication: June 2027

Lead Editors: Enrique G. Murillo Jr., Gabriel A. Orosco, and Véronica X. Valadez

"Rethinking Ethnic Studies" wins 2019 GOLD WINNER, Foreword INDIES Awards

Congratulations to editors R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala​, Christine Sleeter​, and Wayne Au​ for receiving the 2019 GOLD WINNER, Foreword INDIES Award, education category, for their anthology titled "Rethinking Ethnic Studies."  

Dr. Emilio Zamora and I are proud to say that we have a piece in this volume titled, “Ethnic Studies and Community-Engaged Scholarship in Texas: The Weaving of a Broader ‘We.'” 

Many of these pieces work for both the high school and college classroom. Plus, they grow out of the Ethnic Studies Movement that has gained significant traction in recent years.  So happy for the editors, as well as all the contributors (see Table of Contents below).  

It was a lot of hard work, but it has all paid off.

Felicidades!

-Angela Valenzuela

Section 1: Framing Ethnic Studies

• “The Movement for Ethnic Studies: A Timeline” By Miguel Zavala, R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Wayne Au, and Christine Sleeter
• “Multicultural Education or Ethnic Studies?” By Christine Sleeter, Joni Boyd Acuff, Courtney Bentley, Sandra Guzman Foster, Peggy Morrison, and Vera Stenhouse
• “Ethnic Studies: 10 Common Misconceptions” By Miguel Zavala, Nick Henning, and Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen
• “What Is Ethnic Studies Pedagogy?” By Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Rita Kohli, Jocyl Sacramento, Nick Henning, Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, and Christine Sleeter
• “Ethnic Studies Pedagogy as CxRxPx” By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin
• “Counter-Storytelling and Decolonial Pedagogy: The Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing” By Anita E. Fern‡ández
• “The Matrix of Social Identity and Intersectional Power: A Classroom Resource” By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin
• “Creating We Schools: Lessons Learned from Critically Compassionate Intellectualism and the Social Justice Education Project” By Augustine Romero and Julio Cammarota
• “Six Reasons I Want My White Child to Take Ethnic Studies” By Jon Greenberg
• “Revisiting Notions of Social Action in Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: One Teacher’s Critical Lessons from the Classroom” By Cati V. de los Rios
• “The Ethnic Studies Framework: A Holistic Overview” By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin

Section 2: Indigeneity and Roots

• “Collective Healing: Release the Tears, Confront and Bypass the Fear” By Rose Borunda
• “The Kids ‘n Room 36: Cognates, Culture, and the Ecosystem” By Jaime Cuello
• “‘My Family’s Not from Africa—We Come from North Carolina!’: Teaching Slavery in Context” By Waahida Tolbert-Mbatha
• “Barangay Pedagogy: Teaching as a Collective Act” By Arlene Sudaria Daus-Magbual, Roderick Daus-Magbual, Raju Desai, and Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
• “Do I Need to Mail in My Spit?: The Importance of a Teacher’s Roots in Teaching Ethnic Studies” By Dominique A. Williams
• “Our Oral History Narrative Project” By Aimee Riechel
• “Rethinking Islamophobia: A Muslim Educator and Curriculum Developer Questions Whether Religious Literacy Is an Effective Antidote to Combat Bigotries Rooted in American History” By Alison Kysia
• “Hmong Club: Empowering Us” By Pang Hlub Xiong
• “Critical Family History” By Christine Sleeter

Section 3: Colonization and Dehumanization

• “Burning Books and Destroying Peoples: How the World Became Divided Between ‘Rich’ and ‘Poor Countries'” By Bob Peterson
• “Genocide of Native Californians Role Play” By Aimee Riechel and interview by Miguel Zavala
• “The Advent of White Supremacy and Colonization/Dehumanization of African Americans” By Deirdre Harris
• “Challenging Colonialism: Ethnic Studies in Elementary Social Studies” By Carolina Valdez
• “Cherokee and Seminole Removal Role Play” By Bill Bigelow
• “Sin Fronteras Boy: Students Create Collaborative Websites to Explore the Border” By Grace Cornell Gonzales
• “The Color Line” By Bill Bigelow

Section 4: Hegemony and Normalization

• “Connecting the Dots” By Stephen Leeper
• “History Textbooks—’Theirs’ and ‘Ours’: A Rebellion or a War of Independence?” By John DeRose
• “Learning About the Unfairgrounds” By Katie Baydo-Reed
• “Whose Community Is This?: The Mathematics of Neighborhood Displacement” By Eric “Rico” Gutstein
• “Reclaiming Hidden History: High School Students Face Opposition When They Create a Slavery Walking Tour in Manhattan” By Michael Pezone and Alan Singer
• “Teaching a Native Feminist Read” By Angie Morrill with K. Wayne Yang
• “Teaching John Bell’s Four I’s of Oppression” By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin
• “Ethnic Studies Educators As Enemies of the State and the Fugitive Space of Classrooms” By Tracy Lachica Buenavista, David Stovall, Edward R. Curammeng, and Carolina Valdez

Section 5: Regeneration and Transformation

• “Reimagining and Rewriting Our Lives Through Ethnic Studies” By Roxana Due–ñas, Jorge L—ópez, and Eduardo L—ópez
• “Regeneration/Transformation:Cultivating Self-Love Through Tezcatlipoca” By Mictlani Gonzalez
• “Happening Yesterday, Happened Tomorrow: Teaching the Ongoing Murders of Black Men” By RenŽée Watson
• “We Have Community Cultural Wealth!: Scaffolding Tara Yosso’s Theory for Classroom Praxis” By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin
• “Standing with Standing Rock: A Role Play on the Dakota Access Pipeline” By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
• “Tipu: Connections, Love, and Liberation” By Curtis Acosta
• “Teaching Freire’s Levels of Consciousness: A Lesson Plan” By Jose Gonzalez
• “Chicana/o-Mexicana/o Resistance and Armation in the Post-Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Era: Curriculum Unit Narrative” By Sean Arce

Section 6: Organizing for and Sustaining Ethnic Studies

• “Moving Ethnic Studies from Theory to Practice: A Liberating Process” By Guillermo Antonio G—ómez and Eduardo “Kiki” Ochoa
• “Missing Pages of Our History” By Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine
• “The Emergence of the Ethnic Studies Now Coalition in Yangna (Los Angeles) and Beyond: Two, Three, Many Tucsons” By Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona and R. Tolteka Cuauhtin
• “The Struggle for Ethnic Studies in the Golden State: Capitol City Organizers and Activists” By RubŽén A. Gonz‡ález, Maribel Rosendo-Serv’ín, and Dominique A. Williams
• “Ethnic Studies in Providence Schools” By Karla E. Vigil and Zack Mezera
• “We Don’t Want to Just Study the World, We Want to Change It: Ethnic Studies and the Development of Transformative Students and Educators” By Kyle Beckham and Artnelson Concordia
• “Ethnic Studies and Community-Engaged Scholarship in Texas: The Weaving of a Broader ‘We'” By Emilio Zamora and Angela Valenzuela
• “For Us, by Us: Ethnic Studies as Self-Determination in Chicago” By Noem’ CortŽs, Jennie Garcia, Stacey Gibson, Dua’a Joudeh, Lupita Ramirez, Cecily Relucio Hensler, Cinthya Rodriguez, Maraliz Salgado, David Stovall, JohnaŽ Strong, Jessica Suarez Nieto, Aaron Talley, Lisa Vaughn, and Asif Wilson
• “Victory for Mexican American Studies in Arizona: An Interview with Curtis Acosta” Interview by Ari Bloomekatz