Guiding Principles & Values
Core values and principles of Ethnic Studies aid in guiding and developing Ethnic Studies courses, unit, lesson plan. They are not global abstractions, but rather are foundational and alive in the lessons. The double helix serves as a visual model for the Guiding Principles and Value, each strand signifying the interdependence between holistic humanization and critical consciousness. Humanization includes the values of love, respect, hope, solidarity, and is based on the celebration of community cultural wealth. Holistic humanization posits that learners are aware of their own selves, their thoughts and learning in context of the human experience a whole and critical consciousness is the charge that the learner will engage in transformative change for the better. The values rooted in humanization and critical consciousness shape the guiding principles. Together, these are the two interwoven guiding values and seven principles Ethnic Studies lessons should included in Ethnic Studies courses:
Celebrate and honor Native People/s of the land and Communities of Color by providing a space to share their stories of struggle and resistance, along with their intellectual, historical and linguistic knowledge. For example, a unit of study that invites students to learn the pre-colonial hxstory of the land their school occupies, or a unit on the hxstory of indigeneous climate change resistance movements both honor the historical and contemporary struggles of Native People/s to gain sovereignty over their land and protect the environment.
Center and place high value on pre-colonial, ancestral, indigenous, diasporic, familial, and marginalized knowledge. For example, a lesson that researches how student’s family medicine traditions are connected to Native medicine ways and then compare them, for example, healing plants, to contemporary western treatments gives primacy to scientific knowledge and healing expertise of ancestral and indigenous peoples. Or, a unit of study on the powerfully interdependent three sisters, maize, beans and squash crops that exemplify the deep agricultural and scientific knowledge of Native People/s whose resulting food surplus creation sustained indigenous group’s growth.
Critique empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society. For example, ethnic studies units can include the analysis of contemporary art pieces that critique neocolonial ideologies, for example historic and contemporary travel brochure images (or other advertising field) that stereotypes BIPOC in order to identify how the tourism industry exploits and stereotypes BIPOC for profit.
Challenge imperialist/colonial hegemonic beliefs and practices on ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels. For example, youth can discuss an ongoing bar graph of the perceived ethnicity and relative social status of characters in young children’s picture books to identify how authors, artists, and publishing companies use children’s literature to normalize silencing of Asian Americans, for example. Students then co-write letters to publishing companies of these books expressing their concerns and/or appreciation for portrayals of BIPOC.
Connect ourselves to past and contemporary resistance movements that struggle for social justice on global and local levels to ensure a truer democracy. For example, researching the first families of color to purchase a home in a red-lined neighborhood of the school’s area and co-writing a children’s book about their experiences shows how ordinary BIPOC fought and still fight for access to home ownership to struggle for economic power. Or students can engage in an oral history project narrating the experiences of family or community members in the education system as part of the hxstorical context of the struggle for Ethnic Studies.
Conceptualize, imagine, and build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promote collective narratives of transformative resistance, critical hope, and radical healing. For example, after researching segregation within or between schools, students write and make public comments at their school board meetings with recommendations for racial integration policies to build new possibilities for resisting white supremacist schooling structures.
Cultivate empathy, community actualization, cultural perpetuity, self-worth, self determination, and the holistic well-being of all participants, especially Native People/s and People of Color. For example, students collect stories from BIPOC elders in the community about their wisdom for the future and publish and promote these on a website that promotes the well-being of BIPOC based in the knowledge of community members' expertise.
Celebrate and honor Native People/s of the land and Communities of Color by providing a space to share their stories of struggle and resistance, along with their intellectual, historical and linguistic knowledge. For example, a unit of study that invites students to learn the pre-colonial hxstory of the land their school occupies, or a unit on the hxstory of indigeneous climate change resistance movements both honor the historical and contemporary struggles of Native People/s to gain sovereignty over their land and protect the environment.
Center and place high value on pre-colonial, ancestral, indigenous, diasporic, familial, and marginalized knowledge. For example, a lesson that researches how student’s family medicine traditions are connected to Native medicine ways and then compare them, for example, healing plants, to contemporary western treatments gives primacy to scientific knowledge and healing expertise of ancestral and indigenous peoples. Or, a unit of study on the powerfully interdependent three sisters, maize, beans and squash crops that exemplify the deep agricultural and scientific knowledge of Native People/s whose resulting food surplus creation sustained indigenous group’s growth.
Critique empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society. For example, ethnic studies units can include the analysis of contemporary art pieces that critique neocolonial ideologies, for example historic and contemporary travel brochure images (or other advertising field) that stereotypes BIPOC in order to identify how the tourism industry exploits and stereotypes BIPOC for profit.
Challenge imperialist/colonial hegemonic beliefs and practices on ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels. For example, youth can discuss an ongoing bar graph of the perceived ethnicity and relative social status of characters in young children’s picture books to identify how authors, artists, and publishing companies use children’s literature to normalize silencing of Asian Americans, for example. Students then co-write letters to publishing companies of these books expressing their concerns and/or appreciation for portrayals of BIPOC.
Connect ourselves to past and contemporary resistance movements that struggle for social justice on global and local levels to ensure a truer democracy. For example, researching the first families of color to purchase a home in a red-lined neighborhood of the school’s area and co-writing a children’s book about their experiences shows how ordinary BIPOC fought and still fight for access to home ownership to struggle for economic power. Or students can engage in an oral history project narrating the experiences of family or community members in the education system as part of the hxstorical context of the struggle for Ethnic Studies.
Conceptualize, imagine, and build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promote collective narratives of transformative resistance, critical hope, and radical healing. For example, after researching segregation within or between schools, students write and make public comments at their school board meetings with recommendations for racial integration policies to build new possibilities for resisting white supremacist schooling structures.
Cultivate empathy, community actualization, cultural perpetuity, self-worth, self determination, and the holistic well-being of all participants, especially Native People/s and People of Color. For example, students collect stories from BIPOC elders in the community about their wisdom for the future and publish and promote these on a website that promotes the well-being of BIPOC based in the knowledge of community members' expertise.