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Last Day of  2013

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Walking In My Shoes

Final Paper

EDUC 403

12/9/13

Walking In My Shoes

“In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky—her grand old woods—her fertile fields—her beautiful rivers— her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery and wrong,— when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies. May God give her repentance before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity.” – Frederick Douglas

            I start this paper with this quote knowing that I am part of the healing process this country needs to go through and that I relate deeply to Frederick Douglas’ love and loathing of this country.  Like him I find myself called to leadership to “labor and wait” for justice and humanity in education.  It is my stance that a spiritual renewal around leadership is needed and therefore I am using spiritual terms of growth (borrowed from my church, East Bay Church of Religious Science) This paper will use four stages of “spiritual growth” and how I have been contemplating their roles in my leadership growth.

To Me

By Me

As Me

Thru Me

“These are the four stages of our God in this life,” Reverand Eloise stated as I sat and listened with my congregation last month, on a Sunday early morning service.  This paper will reflect my understanding of my current educational leadership journey and how it has cycled in and out of leadership roles sometimes public and formal and some in the private shadows.  In this journey my relationship to “God” or “Higher Spirit” has always been my guide.  When thinking about leadership and education I felt I could only express it using these four stages to define my philosophy and beliefs about leadership. Through these stages I always found myself refocusing  on the context of the mission and purpose of schools and education.  Finally I hope to show in my concrete examples a working application of my understanding around human learning and the role of teaching in advancing that learning and how it is not only my current career and parental choice but one that is a spiritual choice as well.

“To me” phase

At one point I felt the educational system was happening to me, I had a victimized point of view.  Similar to the introductory quote from Fredrick Douglas, I felt for many years this country had wronged my people (Mexican, Native American and Irish) in a wide variety of ways.  For example, as a female student of color who came from a low income family, most of the time public schools and “the academy” was a struggle; socially, financially, culturally, and spiritually. However to me it was just a struggle to push under the rug.  I now see how wrong I was in trying to push my past behind me and to think I don’t bring that past to my current leadership especially to my educational leadership. 

As a public educator I became very frustrated when I felt that the system was starting to “happen to me” as a teacher and in an urban public school as well as to my daughter involved in that system.  As Sinclair and Wilson state in  New faces of leadership, “Outsiders” or Biculutralism in adaptive leadership bring those viewpoints and values to leadership practice; “identities which do not rest on membership of a single social group or tribe but are able to inhabit multiple groups and cultures without feeling threatened or paralyzed,” have a different lens of leadership. In this moment of not wanting to be a victim or have my daughter “suffer” a type of situation I went through  I decided to take on every type of leadership role SFUSD offered in my school site as well as outside.

“By Me” phase

In this phase where I decided to take on the system I never felt such frustration at times as well as supreme success.  I now realize after really looking at the various organizational frames I was trying to balance and juggle many roles.  Not only did I have an intention to keep people at the center of my choices specifically students and teachers, or teaching and learning, but I realize I was also trying to change structures and political frames.  The multiple cultures became a huge struggle for me to balance.  Not only was I holding multiple roles as a teacher leader on site but I became heavily involved in teacher leadership in the political frame or with various Teacher Unions.  I wanted to tackle bureaucracy nationally and state wide and became a part of AFT and CTA in a variety of capacities; CFT Common Core Teacher Leader, CTA Proposition 30 Release Time Member, CFT Teacher Leader for Policy Change in San Francisco.  During this time however I was also doing teacher leadership by becoming Nationally Board Certified. However as Wilson states in his text, “Bureaucracies in which 2 or more cultures struggle for supremacy will experience serious conflicts as defenders of one seek to dominate representatives of the others.”(p.101)

            This conflict that was so made so clear to me as Union Representative and then National AFT leader as well as CTA leader was made controversial when I was not only trying to defend teachers but sticking up for my students as an advocate.  I knew that the various cultures I was surfing in and out of as well my past points of view were all valid voices.   Yet  being pulled in many directions I felt I needed more concrete understanding of what all these leadership conflict/choices I had taken on meant.  I felt a leadership disequilibrium and “The Call” I had needed clarification if I was going, “To be the change I wanted to see (Gandhi).          

The various ‘cultures’ surrounding leadership and education became a whole different culture in and of itself and I felt I needed a clearer “mind map”. This is what has led me to research Educational Leadership especially here at Mills which has a social justice, feminist lens.  Being aware of “the system” and that I was now a part of that system (that I at times felt victimized from) I felt needed to be able to make educated choices. Until now I refer to these leadership dilemas as “culture” however can relate to Bolman and Deal when analyzing how the conflict of structures and human resources as different frames and lens of how organizations function.

“The assumptions of the structural frame reflect a belief in rationality and a faith that the right formal arrangements minimize problems and increase quality and performance.  Where the human resources perspective emphasizes the importance of changing people (through training, rotation, promotion, or dismissal), the structural perspective focuses on designing a pattern of roles and relationship that will accomplish collective goals as well as accommodate individual differences.” (p.101) Now  after a year and half of my Masters program at Mills I feel like I am once again transitioning as well as see a different side of my leadership in education manifested.

“As Me” phase

            Now that I am truly understanding the roles in educational leadership and how it has affected my choices as a leader, parent and teacher I find myself in a metacognition about education.  I used to dread conversations around problems of learning and now through the help of various Professional Learning Communities including my Union leadership I find myself actively engaged and not emotionally overwhelmed.  For example, when brainstorming with teacher leaders from SFUSD (chosen by AFT for a year long team approach to educational policy) some of my main concerns when deciding how I wanted to engage in public policy in education. I brainstormed this picture.

 In this AFT “think tank” of teacher leaders we were asked to think of an “ideal” world in the land of educational decisions.  I felt and do feel that multiple stakeholders need to find ways to communicate and listen to one another in order to make decisions that are taking all points of view into consideration. This perspective was definitely influenced by the idea that I am modeling the type of leadership I want to see.  Through participation in Mills Ed. Program, my teacher leadership as well moving to a new district this year I am finding myself ready for the next phase of my leadership as well as my understanding of decision making.

As I am moving forward through the stages of my leadership I find that I am no longer victimized but educated in and by my experience.  I no longer attract conversations that feel isolating in intention or demoralizing in its victimized viewpoint of  bureaucratic systems. There are many leaders out there doing the work and modeling that commitment in bureaucracies as well as in their day to day decisions.  I too am that walking and breathing entity in which teaching and learning is more than a task or goal, but is a way to empower humanity especially this country that my more than half of my ancestors have been a part of for thousands of years.

“Thru Me” phase

A reflection question was once posed to us in our class, how and why should a leader nurture relationships in an organization? I emphasize this question in this part of my paper because I believe that a phase I am approaching will require me to not only recall this question but many I have had here at Mills with automaticity or leadership messages working “thru me”.

I  remember what my classmates had to say about it that day…..

My classmates key words:

·      Healthy communication

·      Nurturing strengths

·      Being aware of your weaknesses

·      Reflection in Action

            This question for me was obvious – organizations are made of people. According to Bolman and Deal, one of the frames of looking at organizations through human relationships has the metaphorical symbol of “Family”.  Boleman and Deal make that point that central to a good organization noting that when positive human resources needs are met, skills and relationships are valued organizations thrive.  I agree with this image of leadership as EMPOWERMENT.  I would like to take it one step further and say that thru my understanding of education and community we can’t help but know that we are a “family” working together to make our society better. That education doesn’t happen to us, by us, or as us, but thru us.  And as I manifest that leadership truth as a career choice in education, a parenting choice, and spiritual choice

I echo the words of many of my spiritual partners and guides when I say….

I let it go

I let it be and

So it is.

-sd

On Poverty and Systemic Collapse: Challenges to Education Research in an Era of Infrastructure Rebuilding by Gregory K. Tanaka

note: for educational purposes only 

copyright Greg Tanaka 

On Poverty and Systemic Collapse:

Challenges to Education Research

in an Era of Infrastructure Rebuilding

by

Gregory K. Tanaka

Mills College

American Educational Research Association

September, 2012

In this essay I argue the economic inequities of today carve out a very large social condition that is orders of magnitude greater than can be conveyed by the term “poverty.” This condition derives from a massive theft of public wealth and abandonment of the principles of representative democracy.

There is a silver lining: on encountering “systemic collapse” (a breakdown of society’s largest social institutions), we as education researchers are presented with a challenge for which we are uniquely well suited. We do applied work and as such, are predisposed to building something new. But will we be ready to make contributions that match the human need in an “Era of Democratic Renewal?”

Most Americans have become poorer and not as a result of a four-year cyclical downturn. This is systemic. From 1972 to 2012, U.S. hourly earnings adjusted for inflation dropped from $20/hr to just $8/hr (Nielson, Bullion Bulls Canada, 2/7/11). While social welfare benefits made up 10% of all salaries and wages in 1960, today it is 35% (Economic Collapse, 4/16/12). Where in the 1970s the top 1% earned just 8% of all income, this year they earned 21% (Id). In 1950, household debt as a percentage of disposable income was 30% but by 2011 rose to 120% of personal income (Tanaka Capital Management, August, 2011). By 2011, 100 million out of 242 million working age Americans were not working (Seabridge Gold Annual Report, 2011). Today, one-fourth of all children in the U.S. are enrolled in the food stamp program (Economic Collapse, 4/16/12). And since being established in 1913, the Federal Reserve (representing the largest U.S. banks) has destroyed 96% of the dollar value of U.S. family savings by printing money (Economic Collapse, 2/9/12).

Meanwhile, the 1% has truly become “the elites” by boldly stealing from middle and working class Americans. During the 2007-2010 financial crisis, $27 trillion in bailout money was given to U.S. banks that was “off-budget,” meaning it was not derived from taxes but rather taken from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid accounts paid into by taxpayers over a 40-year period (Catherine Austin Fitts, 9/4/12). In 2009-2010, 93% of all new U.S. income went to the top 1% (U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, 6/29/12). A simple solution is available but Congress won’t act: a return to the tax rates of the 1950s-1970s would result in a 50% tax on the top 96-99% and 75% tax on the top 1%. This alone would cover ¾ of the current U.S budget shortfall.

The net result is that the U.S. is stuck with $150 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities, leaving U.S. taxpayers with more debt per capita than citizens of Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain (Economic Collapse, 7/14/12). Worse, the global overhang from debt, derivatives and contingent and unfunded liabilities and pension accounts is now a whopping $1.5 quadrillion (Greyerz, King World News, 7/20/12). With global GDP at $50 trillion, the financial “overhang” is systemic and unredeemable.

Is this the end of democracy as we knew it? All three branches have certainly failed the American people. It was Congress that reduced the elites’ income tax from 75% to just 15% (for long-term capital gains). The White House authored NAFTA (exporting millions of manufacturing jobs offshore), launched two oil wars and gave trillions to bankers. Most appalling, it was the U.S. Supreme Court that sanctioned in Citizens United the ability of the super rich to “buy” U.S. elections, thus bringing to an end the “representative” characteristic of representative democracy.

To restore democracy, a massive project of social change is now needed that can model the contours of a democracy that is participatory and might include the following kinds of ideas. (I invite others to offer ideas of their own.)

·Exempting full-time preK-12 public school teachers from having to pay federal

  income taxes;

·Paying off the U.S. bonds with low yield (and later, cheaper) dollars, followed

  by a re-linking of the dollar to gold at $300/ounce, absolving U.S. citizens of

  all debt (Iceland model), letting banks restart as utilities, seizing illegal

  accounts held for Americans in the Cayman Islands, etc, and closing down the

  Federal Reserve;

·Paying for this renewal by deploying already available technology that can

  produce far cheaper, clean energy—e.g. artificial photosynthesis, splitting water

  molecules to create ethanol, and passing cars over electromagnetic rods in roads

  (like charging an electric toothbrush);

·A second Constitutional Convention that is, this time, “by, for and of the

  people,” redefines a “person” as a human being, includes term limits, and enacts

  a participatory democracy; and

·The creation of independent think tanks that are in the public interest and can

  conceptualize, operationalize and evaluate initiatives like those above.

To renew this country, and its democracy, education researchers will need to do several things differently. We will need to broaden our work from a tendency to perform narrowly at the “mid-range level” of change in organizations, schools or programs—to a concerted effort to combine three registers in one analysis (“macro” systemic change in the largest social institutions, “micro” reformulations of the self, and “mid-range” change in organizations).

We will also need to shift from “assessment overdeterminism” to an emphasis on infrastructure rebuilding. This will mean more large scale, longitudinal, participatory projects; theorizing the connection, if any, between performing social change and development of the self; replacing NCLB/RTTT with policies that teach critical thinking, creativity, science, history, the arts, and coming into being by helping others also to come into being; new epistemologies that unite a diverse country; and change in reward systems to prize the above.

The question, then, is whether we as researchers in the public interest will be caught in a propitious moment worshipping old research epistemologies and methodological registers—or be willing instead to alter the reach and aim of our work to match the magnitude of the task before us. 

Philadelphia closing public schools

Public Pedagogy: Hood Games

Public Pedagogy Assignment

Educ. 440

6/18/03

Sunny Dawn

            I live in Sausalito. I know when I first started thinking about living in Sausalito I had no clue the dynamics of the area. I just knew rich people lived in “Yacht land” and that it had lots of trees and a beautiful view.  I have now lived in this area for about 2 years and have found there are many cultures in the Marin County area.  However there is one area never talked about or that not too many people even know exist, Marin City. It has a marginalized community that seems invisible to the tourists or residents of pretty Sausalito.  It is in this place that I found a brilliant public Hip Hop space last month called, Hood Games.

            When driving home one day I saw a large poster that said, “Marin City Skate Day” on the outside of the tennis courts (which are never used in Marin City) and saw that it was turned into a skate park with a bunch of ramps.  I had seen a couple of functions there in the last 2 years but never interested until the free skate park idea, see I was a skater when I was a kid and have always hoped my daughter would be into it.  So she was game and I took her over to the daylong event.  When we got there I realized it was so much more than just a free skate day.  Yes there were tons of kids with skateboards but it was so much more.  There were people making food, making healthy smoothies using a blender powered by a bicycle, art table for kids to paint there skateboard helmet, the make shift ramps for a skate park, DJ playing ‘old skool’ RB/Hip Hop jams and large vinyl poster in the center of it all that said “Hood Games”.  The counter cultural capital was so obvious to me.  It was by far the coolest event that has happened for youth for the entire two years I have lived here.

            The dominant message was in my opinion was, “look we are here and loving our version of life.”  I was so proud my daughter who was not intimidated being only 1 of 3 girls skateboarding that day.  The space created had a very loving vibe and was not very competitive at all which I know can be at some of the skate parks in the city.  There were people of all races there and you could tell parents involved were so happy their child was having a good time.  The counter narrative was also clear because there were no booths trying to sell anything, which can make a person feel poor if they don’t have any money to participate (as so many fairs do in the area).  In fact they were not charging at all to use the ramps.  The food was very affordable and the smoothies were free.

The young men facilitation, who were Caucasion and African American, were emphasizing that being engaged was the most important part. For example, skater tricks that were performed received prizes and somehow my daughter (who barely knows how to skate) got a prize. Now usually prizes are a sticker or something but no she received some really nice skater socks, which I know are not cheap.  I saw a lot of kids received socks and I thought that was so brilliant because all kids need socks from all economic ranges but especially kids who are of low income which is a factor in Marin City.  There were other posters represented CA Healthy Kids and Tower Park, I’m not familiar with these organizations but the fact they were part of the funding for this shows that other populations are aware of the need to contribute to the communal wealth of these kids that live in Marin City.

I also appreciated that healthy food was being encouraged, art was a focus and that there were skater mentors on the court making sure everything was flowing smoothly.  I know for a fact that skating is sometimes considered a “white boy thing” only and that was definitely not the message this particular day. I think some of the messages being conveyed by having this space in Marin City was that look we are not just a poor area of this Sausalito experience but, we are a living thriving culture that has amazing things to offer this community.  I felt it gave voice to the people in that area that seem never seem to be a part of the corporate “yacht” culture of Sausalito.  I appreciated that the 3 girls, my daughter being one of them, were photographed numerous times together by lots of people.  I believe because the girls were of different skin colors as well as their gender showed that this space is positive for these young girls in a dominantly male sport and it said a lot about the philosophy of the parents as well involving their daughters, if I may say so.  These counter narratives to the locally  dominant narrative was great, I appreciated it because I often feel there is not enough opportunities for the low income kids in the area or for kids to just get together and have a good time.  Another obvious moment of all of us acknowledging our cultural capital,was when the kids took a group picture of their skateboards and the young man who took their photo climbed the fence and told the kids, “ Raise your skateboards! And on the count of three shout,‘Marin City’!”  I truly appreciated this because you don’t hear Marin City in a positive tone too often if ever and the Hood Games organizers knew that.  The day had a feeling of being alive and free and had such an authentic beauty to it.

            Later my daughter and I reflected on the fact that as my daughter puts it, “all the African American people live over there and all the old white people live in Sausalito, well except for us mom.” (my daughter is unaware of her skin color she says she feels Native American, Mexican and Irish).  Just being able to have deeper conversations like this with my daughter speaks to our understanding of race dynamics in our community.  I believe that ‘Hood Games’ nonconfrontationally helps with these difficult conversations.

            I was able to interview the founder/coordinator of ‘Hood Games’ and he said he has other spaces like that in West Oakland and he is trying to have that area of Marin City (which is in the Section 8 housing) become a public space. I found out that he is also a teacher at the local charter school, Willow Creek Academy.  I was able to give my contact info to the founder and told him about this paper.  He was really interested in this class and I hope he and I can have a deeper dialogue about working together as soon as he knows I am a teacher in the area now.

            I believe my positionality in regards to this space is a bit multidimensional.  I see it through an educator’s lens and appreciate how important it is for not just the “low income or marginalized” youth but for all kids in the area, which I know came out that day.  It is huge that events like this continue to flourish in this area to avoid segregation of the have’s and have not’s which is one of the reasons why I moved out of the city as well as decided to take a break from Urban education in S.F.  As a parent who doesn’t have a lot of money being able to take my daughter to a safe space that has the type of culture I relate was also important to me.  Although I love the trees and birds in Sausalito/Marin City the people are a bit challenging to get to know in both cultures.  I know I never quite fit the mold for either populations as an “middle class educator, who is a queer person of color/single mom”, yet this Hip Hop space provided a place for my daughter and I in which the labels were not really significant.

Hip Hop Pedagogy!! Ted Videos

Another Ted Video about Hip Hop Pedagogy, Shakespeare in Rap, Yo!
Hip Hop And Shakespeare

Poetry TEdx and Hip Too.

Reflections and 3 Reading Responses to Week 4 of Hip Hop Pedagogy Class at Mills

I humbly post these reflections as I am jumping into my own understanding of Crit. Theory and CHHP (Crit. Hip Hop Theory)

Response Paper #1 to KRS ONE and CHHP

By Sunny Dawn EDUC 440

Descriptive Phase: KRS ONE speaking at Temple University and Akon’s paper together really highlight the need for real education in the classroom.  KRS ONE has a deep history in hip hop and talks about his real experience.  Akon stayed away from his personal history and had a very academic tone that uses Friere Theory of Action as a basis for discussion.  I appreciate the various references and agreed with Akon’s paper as well as appreciate how much he references Andrade.  What keeps sticking out for me is the truth that I believe is extremely hard to work with other public education teachers who work from the deficit model versus asset model. Personal Interpretive Phase: The hardest thing for me to swallow is that the education system is so personal to me.  I see other teachers of color that I work with and they are definitely not sticking their “conscious” evolved necks out for their students.   Critical Phase: In fact they practice discipline policies that silence students in their class that have a different cultural tone than them or that doesn’t fit in the mold of academics they are trying to deliver or as Akon puts it, “School cultures and practices encourage students to believe that a meritocratic educational system exists, that students are responsible for their own failure, and that issues of racial inequality, hip hop, and social justice are not worthy of study inside or outside of schools.”Creative Transformative Phase: KRS ONE as a rapper has been a huge influence on me and to watch (both parts) of his Youtube talk at Temple reaffirms my practice.  I also participated in what Akon calls CCHP this past semester with my 5^th grade Special Education Social Studies class. Using this exact platform; “…transformative education for the poor and disempowered begins with the creation of pedagogic spaces where marginalized youth are enabled to gain consciousness of how their own experiences have been shaped by larger social institutions.”  The only reason  I was comfortable enough to do this curriculum where we the curriculum was based on how imperialism impacted us as African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans was because I did not have to worry about them being tested.  In fact it’s the only subject 5^th graders do not get tested on and my 5^th grade General Education teachers  as well as the principal could care less what the Special Education students are learning about.

Response Paper #2 to What is Pedagogy?

By Sunny Dawn EDUC 440

Descriptive Phase/Personal Interpretive Phase: “Discourse” (a way of life) as summed up in the first sentence of Au’s piece is the best word for summing all 3 articles in this week’s reading and thinking about CHHP.  I remembered when I was an R.A. for the dorms at Chico State, I put this in the bathroom all year long.  “Because it is a distortion of being more fully human, sooner or later being less human leads to the oppressed to struggle against those who made them so. In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both,” Freire. (p.26)  This was one of so many subtle movements I was a part of in my twenties when hip hop started to first effect how interact with the world (the beginning of my punk rock/hip hop/electronic meets politics when I was 24, a wee 13 years ago.

Critical Phase: Bell Hooks writing always seems to hit me in the core of my body.  I actually avoid her now days because I can barely hear her break it down and feel the deepness of my own life too. For example, I will not watch that Precious movie, but I know reading PUSH changed my life.  I can relate to Au’s motivation for writing an article that felt pretty self explanatory and yet his acknowledgment that acadamia are not people of color I found a bit offensive, For example, Au states“….safe to assume that students do not regularly read critical theorists and academic journals…” I found the statement an unnecessary opinion in his purpose for writing the article.

Creative Transformative Phase: The readings translates very easy to my practice with particular points from Hooks.  I related to her journey as student and as teacher, although she is a professor and I am in K-5 education. Words or phrases form this text stick out in my mind as an educator, “confine each pupil”; “active participant, non a passive consumer”; “teachers must be committed to a process of self-actualization”; “professors who claimed to follow Freire’s model even as their pedagogical practices were mired in structures of domination”.  As I move forward it is hard for me to educate colleagues to their blindness regarding students and what they bring to the classroom, I guess I am still looking for the right district or school that would support the mind, body, & soul.

Response Paper #3 to Critical Perspectives By Sunny Dawn              EDUC 440            June 11, 2013: Descriptive/Personal Int. Phase: What sticks for me in this week’s readings out is the constant referral (in the CHHP blog) Andrade’s perspectives in the dialogue of Critical Perspectives. Andrade’s  work shows the importance of laying out the “counter narrative” as well empirically documenting the “Quasi-Darwinian belief system” that has been legitimizing our failing urban school systems.  While at New College in 2007 I had a chance to hear Andrade speak as the Key Note of the T4SJ Conf. as well as in my teacher credential program.  I can’t lie and say his words and philosophy didn’t impact my career.  So much so that I had my daughter be a part of the “low income urban” school I was teaching at, just to be fully a part of the movement of change in the urban school or a “ryder”.  However I digress because coming full circle I agree with Andrade that teachers who are making the conscious choice of being a part of this counter narrative pedagogy need more support.  As Andrade states, “…more attention must be paid to the type of training, development, and support that are given to urban teachers and school leaders.” (p.9) Critical Phase: “Misconceptions” of “gangsta rap” I have to disagree with, “violent lyrics are not intended to be taken literally, but rather should be seen as metaphorically boasting and as artistic challenges to competitors on the microphone”(Kelley, 1996, p. 189). I think at one point I agreed that the violent language and overtones were metaphorical and at one time totally resonated and needed to hear “that bitches” were not going to triumph over me. However I believe my own evolution within Hip Hop has changed with age.  Rappers in the Bay seem to speak louder to a spiritual oppression that I feel deeper than the actual physical/cognitive one experienced in academia or the work force that some “gangsta” rap speak of. Transformative Phase: What has come to me through these readings is the need to really legitimize educators who are doing this work.  I need my leadership to take the “serious” tone of conscious political acts within the public sphere, more than academic research.  Although I believe in all the underground HH movements in the Bay and have a pride that Andrade is here in Oakland, a professional consistent public forum for educators, beyond T4SJ is desperately needed.  I know that my efforts will be targeting that as I move forward and my skills in leadership need to be channeled in that way for me to have a renewed commitment to public and private education.