What is the Critical Educators of Color Pathway?
The Critical Educators of Color Pathway (CECP) offers an alternative to the systemic exclusion of educational leaders and teachers of color with course and community work through Portland Community College (PCC). PCC supports CECP students by offering guidance for those interested in the teaching profession, creating an ecosystem of educators committed to social transformation.
The CECP is grounded in ethnic studies. The preparation of critical educators involves the questioning of systems and institutions that reproduce oppressive outcomes disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color. Students in the CECP program take a three-course ethnic studies sequence with their cohort at PCC that connects them with community groups, K-12 students, and schools for community-engaged learning, and this cohort model helps students build group support that they will carry on into the field of teaching.
The underrepresentation of teachers of color in Oregon is an extension of current and historical practices that have dehumanized and erased Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and other peoples of color. Genocide, settler colonialism, and the Indian boarding school system were designed to strip Indigenous peoples of their lands and identities. The Black Exclusion Laws that were a central feature of Oregon’s state formation banned people of African descent from living in the state and violently punished those who remained within the state. These laws were not completely removed from the state constitution until 2002. Latinx families have been settling in the Willamette Valley for generations and represent the largest ethnic group in the state. However, while roughly 40% of Oregon public school students are students of color, only 11% of teachers are teachers of color (Oregon Department of Education 2020-2021).
Local advocacy, youth activism, and intergenerational solidarity have resulted in changes at the local and state level. In 2017, Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass legislation requiring the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools (House Bill 2845). That same year, Senate Bill 13 was passed, requiring the Oregon Department of Education to develop statewide curricula relating to Native American tribal history, tribal sovereignty, culture, treaty rights, government, socioeconomic experiences, and current events in Oregon. In addition, Senate Bill 182 allows for the Oregon Teacher Scholars Program to help people overcome economic barriers to teaching certification and the teaching profession. In alignment with these political actions at the state level, the CECP works toward a more just and humanizing K-20 schooling and liberatory praxis.
The CECP is grounded in ethnic studies. The preparation of critical educators involves the questioning of systems and institutions that reproduce oppressive outcomes disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color. Students in the CECP program take a three-course ethnic studies sequence with their cohort at PCC that connects them with community groups, K-12 students, and schools for community-engaged learning, and this cohort model helps students build group support that they will carry on into the field of teaching.
The underrepresentation of teachers of color in Oregon is an extension of current and historical practices that have dehumanized and erased Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and other peoples of color. Genocide, settler colonialism, and the Indian boarding school system were designed to strip Indigenous peoples of their lands and identities. The Black Exclusion Laws that were a central feature of Oregon’s state formation banned people of African descent from living in the state and violently punished those who remained within the state. These laws were not completely removed from the state constitution until 2002. Latinx families have been settling in the Willamette Valley for generations and represent the largest ethnic group in the state. However, while roughly 40% of Oregon public school students are students of color, only 11% of teachers are teachers of color (Oregon Department of Education 2020-2021).
Local advocacy, youth activism, and intergenerational solidarity have resulted in changes at the local and state level. In 2017, Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass legislation requiring the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools (House Bill 2845). That same year, Senate Bill 13 was passed, requiring the Oregon Department of Education to develop statewide curricula relating to Native American tribal history, tribal sovereignty, culture, treaty rights, government, socioeconomic experiences, and current events in Oregon. In addition, Senate Bill 182 allows for the Oregon Teacher Scholars Program to help people overcome economic barriers to teaching certification and the teaching profession. In alignment with these political actions at the state level, the CECP works toward a more just and humanizing K-20 schooling and liberatory praxis.