Lorena Germán is a two time nationally awarded Dominican American educator focused on anti racist and anti bias education. She’s been featured in the New York Times, NPR, PBS, Rethinking Schools, EdWeek, Learning for Justice Magazine, and more. She published The Anti Racist Teacher: Reading Instruction Workbook, and Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices about curriculum & lesson development focused on social justice. She’s a co-founder of #DisruptTexts and Multicultural Classroom. Lorena is also the Chair of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. She lives in Tampa, Florida where she is a mami and wife- two of her most important roles.
Session Descriptions
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Right Now
What is a culturally sustaining pedagogy? What does it seek to sustain? Considering the history and constructs of schooling, we must analyze what it is that we want to build instead. Education research must shift in the direction of healing, restoring, and humanizing students as a way to move forward. The future is multiethnic, multicultural, and multifaceted. Our educational goals and initiatives must meet this moment.
This Belongs to You
As educators and workers, we are often told what doesn’t belong to us. Boundaries and limits are set before us of what we cannot metaphorically touch or have. We are blocked off to resources, we are denied access, and more. But there are untouchable powerful things we can have; that belong to us. These cannot be taken from us and have potential to bring about the change we have all needed.