This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
A Thoughtful Introduction to my book, Subtractive Schooling—Through Becky Morales’ Lens, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
Every now and then, someone comes along who is able to take a body of work and make it newly accessible—clear, grounded, and meaningful in ways that reach beyond the academy. I want to share one such example with you. In this YouTube video, educator and global learning advocate Becky Morales offers a thoughtful and generous reading of my book, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. What I appreciate most about her interpretation is not simply that she engages the core ideas, but that she does so with care, clarity, and a deep respect for the lived experiences at the heart of the work.
Becky brings into focus what “subtractive schooling” really means—not as an abstract concept, but as something that shapes students’ identities, language, and sense of belonging. As she notes, the book examines how schooling processes can strip away students’ cultural and linguistic resources even as they claim to educate them . At the same time, she highlights the importance of what I have called “authentic caring”—a form of relational, humanizing practice that stands in contrast to these subtractive forces.
What is especially meaningful to me is how Becky translates these ideas for educators, parents, and community members. She reminds us that this work is not only about critique, but about possibility—about how we might do schooling differently, in ways that affirm rather than erase who students are.
I share this not to revisit my own work, but to lift up hers. In a moment when conversations about education are often flattened into soundbites or politicized narratives, Becky Morales offers something else: a careful, accessible, and deeply humane engagement with what is at stake for young people in our schools.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch. It’s a beautiful example of what it means to read with care—and to teach with purpose. You may follow her YouTube @BeckyMorales
Becky Morales, creator of KidWorldCitizen.org and author of GlobalEdToolkit.com, shares activities to enhance global learning. Topics include: geography, world culture, empathy, service learning, cultural exchange, family travel, world recipes/music/films for kids, multicultural crafts, multicultural children's literature, educational technology, adoption, and multicultural families.
Again, the video is a must-see. Very enlightening and very well done.
Kamola’s work exposes how today’s outrage against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives is not a spontaneous groundswell, but a strategically engineered campaign—fueled by dark money, media distortion, and political opportunism—to erode public trust in higher education.
At the heart of this manufactured backlash is a false narrative: that DEI threatens free speech and academic freedom. I does not. These orchestrated attacks aim not only to dismantle DEI efforts, but also to silence critical inquiry and maintain entrenched hierarchies of race, gender, and power.
What emerged was a shared call to reframe the conversation entirely. We must reject the false binary between DEI and academic freedom. Defending DEI is defending academic freedom. And both are essential to the public mission of the university. I can earnestly say that this is how we have treated it in our struggles here in Texas as detailed in a recent publication titled, Disrupting Colonial Logics: Transformational Resistance Against SB 17 and the Dismantling of DEI in Texas Higher Education (Valenzuela, Unda, & Mena Bernal, 2025).
Kamola put it plainly: this isn’t just about DEI or free speech—it’s about power. Who gets to speak? Who gets heard? And who benefits when institutions of higher learning become ideological battlegrounds?
In response, the charge is clear: our resistance must be collective, courageous, and rooted in long-standing struggles for educational justice. We must forge collaborative strategies within and beyond the university—building solidarity, sharing resources, and reclaiming higher education as a space for critical thought, democratic values, and public good.
The culture war is not about culture—it’s about control. And the stakes for the future of higher education could not be higher.
-Angela Valenzuela
Reference
Valenzuela, A., Unda, M. D. C., & Mena Bernal, J. (2025). Disrupting colonial logics: Transformational resistance against SB 17 and the dismantling of DEI in Texas higher education. Ethnic Studies Pedagogies, 1(1), [pp. 7-24]. https://www.ethnicstudiespedagogies.org/gallery/Volume3-Issue1-Final.pdf
Re-posting this video and blog from 2019. History doesn't go stale after all. In contrast, it's very much alive and must be re-told to each generation so that we do not take for granted the sacrifices, wishes, desires, and accomplishments of our forbears to whom we owe so very much. đ
-Angela Valenzuela
Thanks to Dr. Rudy Rodriguez who reminds us that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation. Texas A & M University Professor Carlos Blanton cites the importance of bilingual education to European-origin groups like Czechs, Germans, and Poles in Texas, dispelling the myth that bilingual education was or is only for Latinas/os in Texas.
Dr. Rodriguez' email correspondence explains the importance of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation:
Why is this legislation important??? This federal act provided the impetus for the implementation of the original federally funded 76 bilingual programs in the U.S. Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso were among the 17 original programs in Texas. It also led states such as Texas to repeal the English-only laws approved as early as 1918.
In the 1976, the legislation was amended to include federal funds for teacher training, including the fellowships for master’s & doc study in bil ed- related specialty areas. For more on the history of the legislation & Texas bilingual ed, click video link below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWbN_Y8aa5kPlease distribute further to interested colleagues.RudyR Rodriguez
As we think in our own country of trans and LGBTQ rights, "Las Muxes" [pronounced 'MOO-ches'] from the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico—and specifically from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec—remind us that gender is not only fluid but an unquestioned, accepted part of life in different parts of the world. Moreover, this is hardly a phenomenon that derives from our ostensibly "woke" moment, but is Indigenous and centuries old, predating Columbus' invasion of the Americas.
I am readily reminded of Two-Spirit peoples and ways of knowing and being in Native North America about which there is a growing scholarly literature (e.g., Robinson, 2020). In short, what is today considered by some to be divergent is actually native to this continent. How cool is that?
They live dignified lives in the context of their own community and society. As expressed by one of them, their primary problem occurs with respect to Mexican government policies that disallow them to attend secondary schools and to otherwise get formally educated.
This becomes salient at the secondary level because it is by the age of 12 or 13 when they come into an awareness of their gender and schools don't allow them to dress like girls or women. Consequently, they are forced to take up roles associated with the care of the home and assisting with community festivities. They get relegated to gendered occupational roles like seamstresses, weavers, cooks, hair stylists, and so on. Moreover, the state's reinforcement of rigid gender identities constructs a specific kind of gender identity that alienates and excludes them from educational opportunities and that further lead to discrimination. sexual violence, and exploitation.
Scholars like Maria Lugones urge us in the modern era to consider gender from the perspective of how people that have been colonized, struggled historically not solely with the rigidity of gender categories introduced by Western European colonizers, but also how the introduction of race in the 1500s erased not solely the complex, situated understandings of gender throughout the Americas, but women themselves.
With echoes of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?," Indigenous notions of gender were subjected to a system of racial classification that justified slavery, conquest, and all manner or racial and sexual violence. We live today the vestiges of that horrible history to which patriarchy is obsessively invested.
Before we construe this as a battle between the sexes, let's understand that patriarchal violence is as harmful to men as it is to women, if not more so. Personally, I find this liberating and fully compatible with our most powerful religious and spiritual traditions that center notions of love and acceptance, particularly, of those deemed "other," in a shared quest for a world where all diversity is embraced simultaneously with the notion that all human beings—by virtue of being human—are intrinsically worthy of dignity and respect.
Do view the video. Thanks to Dr. Martha Lengeling for sharing.
On this day of Mother's Day of 2023, I ponder Nancy MacLean and the 88th session of the Texas State Legislature that will soon come to a close. I reflect on big items on which I have remained relatively current, including voter-suppression, cultural wars, high-stakes testing and accountability, city preemption politics, school privatization through vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs), as well as anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bills.
Accordingly, I urge all to view this extraordinary lecture by Duke University, award-winning history of politics Professor Nancy MacLean. Her talk is titled, "Scholar-to-Scholar Talk: Nancy MacLean, "The Pre-History and Likely Sequels—of the Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol," March 2, 2022. [Youtube]
And what a captivating storyteller she is!
MacLean provides a gripping, conceptually keen analysis of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the the U.S. Capitol to help lay out a framework of concentric circles of support and validation of the Trump agenda that is not just intentional but also engineered and historic, putting democracy at risk.
Expressed differently, according to studies of democracy globally such as studied by the Institute for Democracy in Stockholm, Sweden, our country is slipping if these factors are present:
Individuals' right to vote through voter suppression policies and practices are curtailed. The following agendas are at play: disinformation campaigns that exploit the ignorance of the casual observer; a rigging of the judiciary or a highjacking of the legislative process; fierce privatization agendas such as with roads, prisons and schools that, as she says, "engorge corporate partners"; an undermining of established norms of governance; and a weaponizing of tensions over race, sexuality (transgender battles), and religion (anti-Islamism) to intentionally divide and fragment the polity. Sound familiar?
We're in fact ranked next to Hungary as a fledgling democracy. MacLean comments that these contrived dynamics put voters in a "constant state of fear, anger and agitation."
Listening to this and having read her prophetic book, Democracy in Chains (2018), I can easily see the power plays of the 88th Texas Legislature through this lens. She cogently explains how this represents a well-orchestrated, decades-long, agenda by a highly extremist radical right to seize power.
She rests this agenda at the feet of the Koch Donor Network that she says consists of close to 700 donors "determined to make the world to their liking."
Within this network are ostensibly autonomous organizations like the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Federalist Society and others. Big oil is also a large part of this group which helps keep the horrible lie that climate change isn't real alive.
What they collectively seek is unfettered capitalism free of regulations that converts existence to a market where the best education—or other services one can get—is the best one can buy. Say no to vouchers and ESAs!
For this to prevail, consent must get engineered. Here is where citizens' very consciousness comes into play. Hence, we witness the attack on the schools to keep teachers feeling vulnerable and weakened. Book bans and other attacks on curriculum are part of the playbook, as well as a weakening of faculty governance at the higher education level such as through a limiting or ending tenure, DEI, and "woke curriculum" that faculty teach.
A message to all professors: Our silence does not protect us!
For Ethnic Studies advocates in K-12, we've not even been able to get House Bill 45 out of committee for a hearing this legislative session! At least during the last 2021 legislative session, the exact same bill came out of both houses and landed just shy of the governor's desk, but Republicans decided to debate CRT instead of Ethnic Studies. None of this is coincidental, but rather contrived. And what is so unfortunate is how black, brown, and white youth could benefit equally from a curriculum that sheds light on intergroup histories, tensions, and solidarity throughout history. This curriculum is, in fact, a helpful antidote to the white nationalist ideologies that find fertile ground in the legislated ignorance that itself has a long history as I myself have documented in my own work (Valenzuela, 2021).
It should therefore come as no surprise that some Latinos and other people of color, succumb to such ideologies when they've been deprived of curriculum and pedagogy that speaks to theirs', as well as others' experiences. Someday, by the way, Ethnic Studies will just get called "a good education,."
I am reminded of Herman and Chomsky's (2010) notion of a manufacturing of consent—through whitewashed books and curriculum that are designed to keep our youth in the dark regarding the actual truths of history. Doing so is less easy these days compared to earlier times when folks didn't have access to the Internet. And not just that, but there has been an evolution of consciousness itself—to which so much of the intrigue surrounding Gen Z attests (Twenge, 2023)
Still, right-wing trolls and websites spread all manner of disinformation that, as MacLean expresses, is referred to by some as the "Outrage Industry." This works to make people feel scared and defensive—especially of the "other"—like they are under siege.
Might we not even link a general sense of malaise to this that manifests in so many ways, including domestic abuse and gun violence—both of which are empirically linked?
If you're in Texas right now, this has been quite the session, so incredibly hostile to our transgender youth, drag queens, immigrants, gun safety advocates, women that seek abortions, and minorities—atop existing campaigns that seek to limit the vote, ban books, curriculum, along with eliminating tenure, diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and initiatives at the higher education level.
These agendas do not come from the people. Most families are worried about the economy, want greater security and gun safety laws. They are concerned about the grid, desirous of great public schools, concerned about debilitating student debt, and greater access and funding support for their children's pursuit of higher education.
Simultaneously, and not trivially, we are also all observing the shift to a multiracial/multiethnic democracy. Instead of leading on these changes, including a furthering of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and initiatives, those in power are seizing not just power, but a white chauvinist, culturally supremacist vision of society where wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of the few.
My, how that is so NOT a winning strategy in a state that is only becoming more, not less, diverse!
It was clear that there were "a thousand fires" that we had to put out this legislative session. We were correct in understanding that the purpose was in part ideological, but also designed to fragment or weaken us as an advocacy community. What MacLean allows us to consider is that fragmentation and polarization under the auspices of the so-called "culture wars," is part of a much larger scheme that attaches to oligarchy where a small group of people hold most of the power.
We should all find it disturbing, as a manifestation of white supremacy, Alabama Congressman Tommy Tuberville's recent statements that white nationalists are as entitled to the military as anybody else when an ethical and moral stance would have been to state instead that they should all be removed. The clear danger in this as MacLean outlines, is the development of factions within the military that could lead to a divided military about which U.S. generals have already openly expressed concerns. I encourage all to see this video on Extremism in the Military.
Solutions? We definitely need to get dark money out of politics. This requires a lot of grassroots mobilizing in order to protect election integrity. To promote democratic processes and democracy itself, we need leaders that are prepared to do the hard work of challenging the well-heeled ecosystem of a right-wing outrage industry, and bringing down the tone and frenetic noise of (un)civil discourse and highly partisan politics, while they're at it.
Let's ourselves remember, as Ghandi once said, that we ourselves need to be the change that we want to see in the world. We shouldn't ourselves be polarizing. Admittedly, when the house is on fire, it's hard to not be a bit upset about that. Yet, if we see this as part of an anti-democratic strategy to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the few, it becomes important to manifest the opposite of what extremists want to see. After all, chaos, disorder, and division among the masses serve their agenda as MacLean well explains.
I spoke yesterday evening with my soon-to-be 11-year-old grandson and 4-year old granddaughter about guns and violence, news of which they cannot possibly be immune, even as small children. Without a doubt, they not only hear things, but they have their own opinions.
I shared that as opposed to speaking from our fear or anger, how we need to speak from our hearts so that we can be peaceful and still in the storm that surrounds us. The heart reminds us of love, care and compassion, I said. Yes, the storm is all around us and we may sometimes feel small and scared. Maybe what we all have to do, I told them, is to be the calm vessel in the ocean. We cannot control the ocean, but we ourselves be calm. And then our vessel connects with other vessels that also want to be calm. And we do this with our parents, families and communities and we build a new and better world in this way.
My granddaughter was stoked by the conversation and wanted to know more about the heart. She shared that she drew a picture for me, her grandma, to let me know how much she loves me—as well as another for her mother. I told her that the heart is love, caring, kindness, and compassion and that I couldn't be happier and looked forward to getting her drawing. Yep, being a grandma is awesome.
I really do think that most people are good and that we want to live in peace—not just with each other, but also with our Earth mother. I also think, and science has shown, that we are super-collaborators as a species. I see this all the time in the university classroom. Hence, despite the challenges there is much reason to be hopeful.
However we all walk away from this legislative session, we're all entitled to our emotions, but let's not at all succumb to cynicism or despair. If you do, you empower those in power that hold ill will toward you and your community and want to elicit this from you and me as a sign of achieving their aims.
Pathetic, but true and that's what MacLean underscores in her talk.
Those of us who advocated this session on behalf of our children, youth, and communities—and we were many—enjoyed a sense of solidarity-building, love, and commitment to a more just, caring and inclusive world where all enjoy and deserve a sense of dignity and belonging.
I am excited about this world that we are building from the ashes of legislative animus. At all cost, we must hold onto that vision. It is abundantly clear to me that we possess all the resources, talent, and wherewithal to prevail such that the solution remains the same: Organize, organize, organize.
I am so proud of our young people. From where I stand, there was a palpable growth in our grassroots organizations and a fresh, post-pandemic energy of a new generation of young, driven activists and leaders. In contrast to Republicans' false, even weird, narrative of DEI initiatives creating divisions, ours is a positive, hopeful—yes, diverse, equitable, and inclusive—vision for the future.
Ours is not at all about division—but rather a coming together as a rich tapestry of intersectional, intergenerational, multi-ethnic, socioeconomic, and racial diversity, enunciating democratic principles like fairness, openness, transparency, due process, academic freedom, as well as the value and hard work of diversity, equity and inclusion.
It is in this very circumstance and context that we organized just such a group that calls itself Black Brown Dialogues on Policy. We call on Black and Brown unity and coalition building for the expressed purpose of addressing policy concerns and possibilities that we hold in common—and there are many. We use the terms "Black" and "Brown" in order to not lose half of our group by using labels (like "Latinx" or "African American" vs. "Black," etc.) that get in the way of the kinds of things that we need to work on together as similarly-situated communities with histories of coalition building and knowing, always, that there is more that unites than divides us. In the interest of clarity, "black and brown" is for us a large tent inclusive of all genders, socioeconomic classes, racial and ethnic groups, as well as white allies.
Our membership also consists of an aggrieved humanity, most particularly, the Uvalde families advocating for reform. Now we add Allen, Texas, to a growing list of casualties whose deaths should not be in vain. I hope that Gov. Abbott signs into law the bill that will raise the age limit to 21 for any person to be able to purchase a high-powered weapon. I hope vouchers don't pass and that our state leaders open their eyes and see the U.S.-Mexico border as the humanitarian crisis that it is.
It's not easy, but we do win when we hold onto the core of who we are and don't become the polarizing, divisive, or violent force that oligarchs want us to become.
Do listen to Dr. MacLean. Her analysis not only masterfully connects the dots, but is prophetic. Forewarned is forearmed.
Happy Mother's Day, everybody!
-Angela Valenzuela
References
ABC News. (2020). Examining Extremism in the Military. Retrieved:
Twenge, J. M. (2023). Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future. Simon and Schuster.
This statement by Arnold Schwarzenegger is so incredibly powerful and moving. I encourage all to see it. It speaks directly to those that have chosen, or are choosing, the path of hate. He speaks personally, drawing on his own father's experience as a Nazi during the time of Nazi Germany, and how his father was himself hurt by getting deceived by a false, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology. However, he implores, change and personal transformation are within reach.
His sage advice aligns to research which shows that racially hostile environments where people live and work, is bad for not just blacks and other minorities, but for whites, as well. For a recent example of this from research, look at this study out of UC Berkeley by Jordan Leitner and colleagues whose study is published in the 2016 online edition of Psychological Science.
Schwarzenegger's eloquent words align with research which shows that prejudice reduction means addressing extreme ethnocentrism
through deep introspection together with educating oneself on histories like the Holocaust, instead of believing, or getting mis-led, as it were, to conspiracy theories. To this, we should add the importance of increasing
levels of meaningful contact with people different from yourselves—be it racial, religious, sexual orientation—or simply folks whose perspectives vary from your own.
At our best, and drawing on Gordon Allport's treatise, The Nature of Prejudice, all of humanity is spiritually interconnected, and manifests healthy psychological functioning, as a consequence. We are not born pre-judging people different from ourselves; rather, this is learned from family, media, social media, television, and the like. We can therefore un-learn this.
Change is never easy and it takes time. And a good education like the kind that I believe we all teach at the university is precisely about providing us with not just one lens, but a multiplicity of lenses through which to understand our complex world.
Truly, there is redemption to be had and abundant lives to be lived for us all if we work to increase our consciousness in the ways that Schwarzenegger suggests.
Leitner, J. B., Hehman, E., Ayduk, O., & Mendoza-Denton, R. (2016). Blacks’ Death Rate Due to Circulatory Diseases Is Positively Related to Whites’ Explicit Racial Bias: A Nationwide Investigation Using Project Implicit. Psychological Science, 27(10), 1299–1311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616658450
Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I am happy to provide you with enjoyable representations for children—and to some extent, for adults—on how a bill (or bill proposal) becomes a law in the U.S. Congress.
The first, 2016 video maps on well, albeit in the most general of ways, what happens in our state legislatures. The 2021 version adds complexity to how a bill becomes a law in the U.S. Congress.
You can view this link to learn about how a bill officially becomes a law from the perspective of the Texas State Legislature. If you scroll to the bottom of the document, there are helpful graphics in this document that outline the process. Not nearly as fun a Schoolhouse Rock, but nevertheless about how we do business in a democracy.
These are helpful instructional videos for elementary and secondary classrooms so that children and youth aren't left completely in the dark about what politicians are up to when they make laws, especially those impacting them.
Plus, one never knows what this might inspire. đ
In honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, here is a short, instructional video from the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley on structural racism.
We must collectively build a world where we all share in a sense of belonging, a world where there is no "other," or anyone who is "less than." More immediately, an ounce of knowledge can be a pound of cure.
Enjoy!
-Angela Valenzuela
The “Structural Racism Explained” video draws upon many varied sources in formulating specific definitions for different types of racism. The video and prompts provided in this video and teaching guide (download here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/struct...) are designed primarily for teachers to help students clarify and sharpen their understanding of the material, spur and support classroom discussion of the video and ideas, and provide ideas and leads for further research. But the materials are also useful for people who work in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) spaces and local governments.
Teachers should feel encouraged to prod students to read and engage with source materials. The video and prompts provided here are designed and developed primarily for high school students, but can also be used by upper-level middle school systems or undergraduate university students, with tailoring.
If you have any questions or suggestions concerning these materials, please get in touch at belonging@berkeley.edu.
The video script and teaching guide were developed by Stephen Menendian.
Maria Rivera is a little girl with BIG dreams. With a handwritten letter, she expresses all the hope and inspiration she feels for her hero, the first female President of The United States. Representation within The White House teaches Maria that she too, can be anything she dreams of. Dear Mrs. President reminds kids to create their own destiny, and boldly pursue their life’s ambitions and dreams.
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Luke Snedecor
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Ana Maria Medici
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Ana Maria Medici
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Wyatt Hall
CAST
Frances Hatcher
Maria Eugenia Salgado
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Curated by KIDS FIRST! Film Festival
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The Planet Classroom Network brings together musicians, dancers, video game creators, filmmakers, learning innovators, and emerging technologists from all over the world to entertain, educate and engage youth and to provide a rich cultural experience at a time when art and learning institutions everywhere are not accessible. The Planet Classroom Network is by youth for youth. Young people from around the world played a significant role in conceptualizing, creating, and producing the network’s vision and programming.
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Here is a video put together for Hispanic Heritage Month for the Hispanic media market. Thanks to Texas NAACP Chair and Civil Rights Attorney Gary Bledsoe for his beautiful words. Thanks, as well, to Alejandro Molina and Marvin Garcia for suggesting this opportunity, and to the brilliant Luis Sebastian Santana and DarĂo Ramos duo for putting this video together.
Gary, you’re gold. I respect you so much am truly humbled and honored by your beautiful words and our more than 20-year friendship in the struggle for social justice in Texas.
-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
