“a set of political projects and emergent movements, rooted in place-based struggles over the curriculum, as communities fight for an education that is culturally relevant and responsive to their needs, interests, aspirations, and dreams.”
— Sleeter and Zavala, 2020
What is Ethnic Studies?
Sleeter and Zavala (2020) describe ethnic studies as “a set of political projects and emergent movements, rooted in place-based struggles over the curriculum, as communities fight for an education that is culturally relevant and responsive to their needs, interests, aspirations, and dreams” (p. 6).
Ethnic Studies encompasses radical, humanizing pedagogies which focus on decolonizing education systems. Ethnic Studies is made up of transformative curricula that take culturally responsive content further by centering BIPOC students and communities as knowledge keepers and encouraging their liberation from oppressive, exploitative forces under racial capitalism.
Further, Ethnic Studies projects, grounded in critical race theory, critiques power relations and disparities and empower students to resist these imbalances. BIPOC students are encouraged to reclaim all aspects of their identities and engage in envisioning and taking action towards a future without such imbalances.
Philadelphia is situated on Lenni-Lenape Land.
What is the History of Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia?
The U.S. education system has been used as a tool to maintain colonization and to strip BIPOC communities of knowledge systems and ways of being that do not align with white, european knowledge systems.
In 1968, African American, Asian American, Chicanx, and Native American students at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University founded the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) and started the movement to institutionalize ethnic studies in their universities. After various strikes, protests, and ongoing pressure towards administration, they succeeded in establishing the first Ethnic Studies Department in the U.S. and established a precedent of curricula taught by and for BIPOC communities. Beginning in 2005, Philadelphia schools began requiring Black History courses for graduation.