In an Education Week op-ed, University of Illinois-Chicago assistant professor Nicole Nguyen calls on university faculty to “to counter the oppressive systems of inequality that brutalize youths.” She continues,
The ongoing police killings of Black adolescents are a clarion call to academics to remake universities around this public mission. Our privilege as academics charges us with confronting and resisting the cultural, political, economic, and ideological work that makes these killings not only possible but justified. As the media obfuscate the racialized and gendered logics that rendered a congregation of Black teens dangerous, school staff members must build classrooms to empower children to name, interpret, and stand up to these daily confrontations with systems of oppression. We must train future teachers and school leaders to create politically charged classrooms where youths across difference describe, analyze, and address power inequities through collaborative and deliberative coalitions. Classroom learning can sharpen our analytic lens and develop the skills for organizing for social change. Those who can name their world, after all, gain the power to act in it.
I suspect that many of her counterparts in schools of education share her vision but are afraid to say so. Kudos to Dr. Nguyen for admitting that she wants her public university to use taxpayer resources to train teachers and others to be activists for the radical Left.
