praxis — Recaps — Activism Beyond the Classroom

What do we choose to memorialize? Who should decide what we memorialize? What constitutes a memorial? In 2013, the city of Philadelphia voted to close 23 schools for the 2013-14 school year. The schools ranged from elementary schools to high schools and were located across the city. The city cited under enrollment and budgetary restrictions as the reasons for these closures. As a result, thousands of students and teachers around the city were displaced, the buildings left abandoned, their fates unknown. In this class, we explored if and how the city of Philadelphia should memorialize these closed schools and honor the communities they once served.

Student and Youth Activism: Impact and Memory

When we think about activism movements, we often think of the work of adults. In school history classes, on the news, in our public consciousness, we remember the adults who marched on Washington or occupied Wall Street. But what about the students? What roll has student activism played in making change in our political system? To what extent have student activist movements been remembered by their communities? How have student activists affected change in their communities? Why don’t we celebrate or honor student activists the way we do adults?

Resistance & Reclamation

How do we define resistance and reclamation? How does community organizing create the space for reclamation of power and what are sites of social and political contestation in Philadelphia? In this section we dive into these questions and explore conversations of the Black spatial imaginary, community mapping and storytelling.

Who Gets to Belong?

Centering the history of the MOVE bombing, the 1737 Walking purchase, the removal of Charnae Wise’ Mural and other moments of violence, and erasure , we use this section to discuss the sociopolitical factors that have allowed for the displacement of Black and Indigenous peoples to occur on this land.

Teacher Unionizing in Philadelphia

During this session, we opened discussion on teachers unions and the case of Ocean Hill, Brownsville, NY. A large part of the discussion centered around race and how whiteness is maintained in the structure of education. Our readings exemplified what social justice unionism can accomplish, fostering thought around, “what’s at stake?”. We put social justice unionism in Philadelphia context by focusing on The Caucus of Working Educators (WE), a group of rank and file members of The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT). This upcoming year, 2020, The WE Caucus, is contesting the current PFT leadership for a second time. We heard from two WE members in class who shared their belief in the caucus and their visions for a stronger union. Grass-roots organizing strategy is based on 1:1 conversations and building relationships of trust. We had our class practice organizing conversations to prepare for future phone banking opportunities of calling PFT members to campaign for WE.

2019, teacher organizing, praxisKrystal StrongOctober 17, 20192019, Teacher Organizing

History of Labor Unions

During this session, the class explored the histories of labor unions in the United States, tracing contemporary efforts for unionization to the long histories of labor organizing. We started with a group reflection, inviting students to respond to the question “What does labor mean to you?” on the white board. We then broke out into small groups to discuss case studies on the following labor events: PATCO air traffic controllers strike, grad student unionization, Ocean Hill Brownsville, and fast food workers. Finally, we hosted a group of education labor activists from a number of Philadelphia-based organizations to speak on a panel about their experiences.

2019, praxis, teacher organizingKrystal StrongOctober 10, 20192019, Teacher Organizing