{"id":33236,"date":"2025-12-19T14:51:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?p=33236"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:57:14","slug":"a-look-at-the-politics-of-educational-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/19\/a-look-at-the-politics-of-educational-justice","title":{"rendered":"A look at the politics of educational justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his latest book, Dr. Wayne Au provides a broad examination of the politics of curriculum and educational policy in the United States. He covers the rising tide of censorship and challenges to diversity in the classroom \u2014 and shares the hope offered through activism, solidarity and educational justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRace, Curriculum, and the Politics of Educational Justice\u201d is part of the Multicultural Education Series from Teachers College Press. The new volume collects 10 of Au\u2019s previously published essays and articles, which he has curated and edited for an audience of current and future educators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe book is more important now than it ever could have been,\u201d said Au, dean of the University of Washington Bothell\u2019s School of Educational Studies<\/a>. \u201cIt tries to put the politics of knowledge in the context of the struggle for educational justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decolonizing the classroom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The collection begins with a piece titled \u201cDecolonizing the Classroom,\u201d set in Au\u2019s ninth grade honors world history class. Listening to stories of his teacher\u2019s trip to China, the young Au hears a consistent mispronunciation of the word lychee. At 14, he already has a lifelong fondness for the rough red fruit. Eating its juicy flesh is an annual summer highlight, and he\u2019d been raised on his father\u2019s tales of boyhood raids on Hawai\u2019ian lychee groves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Au raised his hand in an attempt to share his firsthand knowledge with his teacher, it goes nowhere. The educator instantly dismisses him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was unable to get past his Eurocentric lens on world history,\u201d said Au. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t validate and recognize my own familial knowledge around Chinese food, history and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also an unwitting counter-example of multicultural education in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among his takeaways from that ninth-grade experience, Au reflects that \u201c\u2026when classes are not grounded in the lives of students, when they do not include the voices and knowledge of communities being studied, and when they are not based in dialogue, it creates environments where not only are white students miseducated, but students of color feel as if their very identities are under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blending practice and theory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By chapter four, the book has moved from this practitioner-focused piece to a trenchant examination of educational theory. \u201cThe Long March Toward Revitalization: Developing Standpoint in Curriculum Studies\u201d is drawn from a peer-reviewed academic journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt lays out the theoretical piece about why it\u2019s important to understand where we teach from, and the cultural politics of what we teach in the classroom,\u201d said Au.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He structures the following two sections of the book in similar fashion, scaffolding from the practical to the thematic. This approach gives readers the full breadth of dynamics at work in the struggle for educational justice. After taking a close look at curriculum, Au goes on to examine racial justice, neoliberal education reform and standardized testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also frames the work as a reflection of his scholarly and intellectual history. \u201cRace, Curriculum, and the Politics of Educational Justice\u201d charts Au\u2019s early explorations of racial justice; then moves on to educational policy and political economy; and, most recently, covers his investigations into the effects of Asian American racialization on education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centering the student experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Au\u2019s history as an educator and activist spans some 30 years. His teaching career began at Seattle\u2019 Garfield High School, where he led the very same world history class in which his teacher had rejected his insights about lychee fruit and Chinese culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Au takes a vastly different approach as a self-described radical teacher. Going beyond a critique of Eurocentric classroom knowledge, he envisions education as the means to a more equitable and just society. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s always been about centering my students\u2019 histories and experiences \u2026 and landing on the side of justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his view, acknowledging and teaching the dark side of our shared history \u2014 including genocide, incarceration, enslavement and exploitation \u2014 makes for both clearer understanding and the ability to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now as dean of the UW Bothell\u2019s School of Educational Studies, Au rarely uses the term \u201cmulticultural\u201d any longer. It was once a radical and much-needed concept, he said, but \u201cthe term became too much of a blanket for everything. We need to take the heart of racial and cultural justice more seriously and carry what I\u2019d frame as \u2018sharper politics.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New book helps today\u2019s educators understand the power that communities can harness through solidarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":33237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[450,215,453,268,452],"school":[418],"class_list":["post-33236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-campus-news","tag-faculty","tag-profiles","tag-research","tag-school-of-educational-studies","school-school-of-educational-studies"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nA look at the politics of educational justice - 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