Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Edwin Mayorga recently shared some reflections on "teaching in the time of Ferguson":

"When we show our students that they matter to us, and that the injustices happening in the world must matter to all of us, we are having an impact. Centering people in the classroom is also an ongoing process rather than a reaction. The infrastructure for a people-centered classroom begins in the planning of the curriculum and is as every bit as essential as is the content we teach (I will discuss this point further in my next post).

"The ideas I am sharing here are modest suggestions, but I think they should remind educators that teaching in the time of Ferguson requires us to teach with our humanity at the center. In carving out spaces to come together we can begin to see each other, and we can begin to connect ourselves to stories of human struggle that are often, intentionally, blurred from sight.

"In coming together we can find hope in each other, and can begin to take further action." 

Read the complete post.

Mayorga, whose courses at Swarthmore include Urban Education and Teacher Narratives, Power, and Policy, also posted a list of teaching resources related to Ferguson, compiled with the help of Associate Professor of Sociology Lee Smithey and the New York Collective of Radical Educators, where he has done educational justice work for 11 years. 

Mayorga is a participant in the National Latino Education Research & Policy Project and is on the community advisory board of the Participatory Action Research Center for Education Organizing. Prior to Swarthmore, he held teaching posts at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College, Hostos Community College, Hunter College, and New York University. Mayorga also worked for five years as an elementary school teacher in the NYC public school system.