Background/Context: Leah Boveda, a sophomore at Brown University, collaborated with her mother--Mildred Boveda, an intersectional studies scholar situated in special education and teacher education--to make sense of her high school community activism in Arizona. They retrace how Leah's experiences eventually shaped her understandings of and…

In response to a need for increased engagement given the #RedForEd movement, this article draws upon my experience as an organizer and participant in the recent wave of teacher activism to provide implications for theories of teacher agency and political transformation. First, I conceptualize the Arizona #RedForEd movement's unique position beyond…

This article traces how Mexican American Studies (MAS) scholar activists led and supported a statewide movement for MAS in Texas. As a Xicana feminist scholar activist, Saldan~a draws from her retrospective memory and personal archive of organizational notes, movement documents, personal testimonies before the State Board of Education, and photos,…

In 2018 there have been constant anti-immigrant rhetoric, policies, and enforcement. Most recently, Trump referred to immigrant children as "future criminals" who needed to be kept in prison-like detention centers and "tender age facilities" (Min Kim, 2018). Meanwhile, the 4.5 million children of immigrants already in the US…

When schools closed their doors in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a scramble to adjust to remote learning. Over the summer and into the fall, the debate over reopening took center stage, as school leaders struggled to answer how and when it would be safe to return to the classroom. The Center for American Progress (CAP)…

In the wake of the Tucson Unified School District dismantling its highly successful Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, students staged walkouts across the district to demonstrate their opposition. Student-led walkouts were portrayed as merely "ditching," and students were described as not really understanding why they were…

Drawing from observations and interview data, this essay examines the role of "hormiguero agency" in nurturing empowered identities amongst Latin@s in Phoenix, Arizona. Specific links are made to how dehumanizing state level policies are resisted in multiple spaces, including schools, activist organizations, and within underground…

This essay looks at Ethnic Studies activism in Arizona through a rhetorical lens in order to highlight epistemological aspects of activities such as a high school Chicano Literature class, Roberto "Dr. Cintli" Rodriguez's journalism, and student activism to defend the Mexican-American Studies Department. Taking rhetoric's premise that…

In response to the banning of Mexican American Studies in Tucson, students in the newly formed Chican@ Literature, Art, and Social Studies program displayed their resiliency in the face of the oppressive actions of the Tucson Unified School District and the state of Arizona. This article serves as a platform for the voices of these dedicated youth…

The author's class has been invited to speak on NPR's "Call-In-Radio" and two of her students, Omar and Diana, were elected to be their spokespeople regarding HB 2281, Arizona's controversial ethnic studies ban. Omar stressed that he and his classmates are engaged by this topic because they see what's happening in Arizona is wrong--that…

When children are under attack, teacher educators need to instill activism as well as pedagogy in preservice teachers. The author describes an incident in Arizona in which children of color and communities of color are the targets of the assaults. The incident is one of many unjust occurrences that have transpired in Arizona on the heels of a…

The protest against Arizona House Bill 2281 designed to ban Ethnic Studies from K-12 public schools on 12 May 2010 in Tucson resulted in 15 arrests. Students walked out of their classrooms in large numbers to defend their Mexican American Studies curriculum and program. Based primarily on participant observation of the protest, the authors examine…

Stand for Children was founded in the late 1990s as a way to advocate for the welfare of children. It grew out of a 1996 march by more than 250,000 people in Washington, D.C. The aim of the march was to highlight child poverty at a time when Congress and the Clinton administration were preparing to "end welfare as we know it." Jonah…

Critics of affirmative action announced last week efforts to get bans on racial and ethnic preferences on the ballots in four states--Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma--as part of a plan to thrust the issue into the national spotlight in the November 2008 elections. Ward Connerly, the prominent anti-affirmative-action activist who played a…