Learning Liberation:
The Ethnic Studies Podcast
Season 1
Find us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Podcasts!
The first season of our podcast will debut in the Spring of 2024 and will feature episodes on:
Native American & Indigenous Studies
Ethnic Studies in Elementary Schools
Teaching Palestine
Black Lives Matter at Schools
Queering Ethnic Studies
Episode 0:
The Ethnic Studies Movement
To kick off this podcast’s pilot episode, we’re joined by our very own co-host Juana Teresa Tello, as well as Anita Fernández, and Jason Ferreira. In this episode they’ll share more about the origins of the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies, which was established in 2021, but has collaborative origins and lessons that span well beyond this timeline.
We encourage new listeners to to our podcast to start with this episode to help orient you and provide context to our Liberated Ethnic Studies movement.
Episode Resources:
Interview: Jason Ferreira 1968 – The Strike at San Francisco State
NPR Code Switch: ‘On Strike! Blow It Up!’
KQED: Ethnic Studies: Born in the Bay Area from History’s Biggest Student Strike
Rethinking Ethnic Studies: Edited By R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala, Christine Sleeter, Wayne Au
Episode 1:
Native American & Indigenous Studies
Our first official episode is dedicated to highlighting Native American & Indigenous Studies. Interviewers, Anita Chikkatur and Sarah Garton, are joined by guests, Nathaniel (Nate) Taylor and Sylvia Fred. All four are situated in the greater Red Lake community, in what is now known as Minnesota, providing texture to the local context that has birthed Endazhi-Nitaawiging Charter School, a community-built school led, and implemented with, culturally relevant, rooted, and responsive Ojibwe curriculum and pedagogy.
We encourage new listeners to to our podcast to start with Episode 0 to help orient you and provide context to our Liberated Ethnic Studies movement.
Episode Resources
Endazhi-Nitaawiging Charter School
Red Lake Ojibwe Immersion Program Pre-School
Throughline podcast episode about the history of Red Lake Nation and Leech Lake Nation
Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe by Anton Treuer
Ojibwe in Minnesota by Anton Treuer
Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman & Bruce White
The Youth Group That Launched a Movement at Standing Rock The New York Times
Mni Sóta Maḳoce: The Dakota Homelands curriculum (6th grade)
Episode 2:
Ethnic Studies in Elementary Schools
Welcome back to another school year teaching and learning liberation! This second episode of the season features interviewers Kate Frazier and Dr. Ronnie Gordon, both Co-Assistant Directors at Whole Child, within the Tacoma Washington Public Schools.
Kate and Ronnie had the opportunity to interview Dena Harris, who is currently teaching 5th Grade Ethnic Studies in North Thurston Public Schools (in Lacey, Washington). Prior to this, she served as a District Instructional Coach and developed and recorded over 150 ELA lessons for elementary teachers to use during remote learning instruction. All the lessons were aligned with the Social Justice Standards and highlighted diverse cultural perspectives.
She is also the author of www.teachinghumanity.org, an online resource for curated children’s books, educator resources, recent book reviews and recommendations, and a guide to choosing anti-racist books that address social justice.
Episode Resources
Episode 3:
Teaching Palestine
It’s been one year since the beginning of the genocide in Palestine. With over 42,000 Palestinians murdered, 17,000 of them children. Now more than ever it’s important that we are teaching Palestine. Joining us on this two-part special episode are Samia Shoman and Rifk Ebeid, interviewed by Jody Sokolower.
Samia Shoman and Jody Sokolower are co-coordinators of the Teach Palestine Project at the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Samia is a California native with Palestinian roots who has dedicated her career in public education to promoting racial and social justice in the classroom and in broader educational organizations. A long-time high school social science teacher with a special love for working with English learners, she currently serves as an administrator in her school district.
Jody is a long-time political activist, educator, writer, and editor. She is the author of “Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village” and is also a cofounder of our Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies. As managing editor of “Rethinking Schools” magazine, she also coedited the award-winning “Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality” in 2016 and edited “Teaching the Wars in the Middle East” in 2013. Jody has taught middle and high school students, adult English language learners, and teachers.
Rifk Ebeid is a Palestinian American Muslim writer, attorney, and pediatric speech language pathologist. She is the author of three children’s picture books about Palestine: “Birthday Kunafa,” “You Are the Color,” and “Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey To Palestine,” which was nominated for the 2020 Palestine Book Awards. She is also the producer of “I Am From Palestine,” an animated short film about the Palestinian-American experience in school.
Episode Resources
Rifk Books: Children’s Books About Palestine
Teach Palestine Project
Teaching Gaza Now: A Multiple Narratives Approach
Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story