Re-imagining Learning through Critical Educational Alternatives

Fairhaven Interdisciplinary Concentration

Marie Ytell

Winter 2020

Committee Members:

Chair- Clayton Pierce

Dolores Calderon

Tamara Spira
 From an early age, I decided I wanted to become a teacher. To me, playing with

friends meant making them listen to me repeat what I had learned in class that day.

School was my favorite place to be. My biggest role models were my teachers. I dreamed

of the day I could stand in their shoes. As I progressed through my academic life, from

elementary to middle school, my entire attitude shifted. School had become a profound

source of anxiety, a place of pressure and competition. By 8th grade, I was spending

more days in the nurse's office avoiding my teachers and peers than I was in the

classroom. The most confusing part was that I still wanted to love school, but I felt as

though I was being taught to despise it.

By high school, I knew I needed a change. I started my freshman year at an

alternative school, called an expeditionary learning school. This was a community-based

school that focused on student autonomy, and hands-on, interactive learning.

Throughout my four years there, I rediscovered my love for school and learning, and I

adopted new attitudes around what I believed school should be. I strongly felt that

traditional schools focused too heavily on test taking, workforce readiness, and lacked

ways to build critical thinking skills.

I went into my undergraduate with the idea that I would study education. I

wanted to learn more about alternative education in order to focus on teaching personal

growth and applicable life skills. When I began this journey, I lacked a social and

cultural understanding of my own positionality and privilege within this context. I

quickly found the Education and Social Justice minor and began to discover a

perspective that I had yet to be exposed to, ironically enough, at the fault of my

educational history.
 These perspectives that I was exposed to were the realities of racism, white

supremacy, colonization, the patriarchy, and heteronormativity. I learned how these

larger structural issues were not only impacting children's education, but actively being

reproduced through schooling. After my first few ESJ classes, I concluded that the

minor would serve as a basis for my major. The Fairhaven concentration provides the

opportunity for me to take what I am learning in this minor and expand on it.

It is a common mis-connotation to say that our education system is broken. The

school system in the United States is functioning in exactly the ways it was intended to;

which is to disadvantage People of Color while creating opportunities for success,

specifically economic advancement, for white people. (Fasching-Varner ET AL, 2014, pg.

410). Through memorization and testing models of education, forms of surveillance,

control, and punishment, and the re-production of imperial and settler colonial

narratives within curriculums, the United States education system maintains itself as a

structure of white supremacy as it has evolved within capitalism.

One of the prevalent disadvantages that functions in the US education system is

that of anti-blackness. Brown v.s Board, the supreme court case that ruled racial

segregation as unconstitutional, was just over 60 years ago. This court case decided that

integration meant transferring Black students into white schools. This court case was an

act of erasure of Black knowledge and education and an act of assimilation into how

white schools teach and operate.

At the core of being human is the desire and ability to learn. I see everybody, no

matter what stage of their life, as a learner and student, with the capacity to grow and

gain new understandings of themselves and the world around them. Learning is not

something that can be simplified to what occurs within the walls of a classroom. It is
something that occurs in the daily lives of all people, in their interactions with self and

others. Expanding my learning from the confines of a classroom and taking charge of

my own education is something that I had the privilege to experience because of my

positionality to access this form of schooling as a middle class, cis-gendered, white

woman. However, the reality for People of Color, low income people, and other

marginalized communities, is that these alternative forms of education are not widely

accessible. Additionally, many alternative forms of education are equally as responsible

as traditional schools for excluding the histories and current realities of marginalized

people, while continuing to teach white, colonized curriculum, both through the

material presented in class as well as through hidden cultural curricula. This unwritten

curriculum is taught through behavioral expectations such as punctuality and discipline,

and power dynamics that arise when teachers are seen as authority figures.

This concentration examines how alternative approaches to learning can occur by

focusing on integrating culturally relevant pedagogy that incorporate critiques of white

supremacy, colonization, patriarchy and capitalism, ultimately helping us to reimagine

education in the US. This re-imagining of radical learning will be explored through the

themes of social justice theories of education, community building, food justice, and

creative expression and interactive learning. It is also important to note the emphasis

that will be placed in my studies on understanding students lived realities as sites of

legitimate knowledge. In Tara J. Yosso’s research for instance, this is referred to as a

cultural wealth model. Yosso(2005) uses a Critical Race Theory framework to develop a

cultural wealth model that “focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge,

skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go

unrecognized and unacknowledged.” (p. 69)

 In studying culturally relevant approaches to learning as a basis for radical

learning, this concentration explores the question, “Is it possible to re-imagine learning

within existing educational structures, or does this require an entirely separate system?”

Or, thought of alternatively, “In what ways can we use the resources available in existing

education systems to aid in the creation of alternative systems?” and “What changes can

be made in today's classrooms to address immediate concerns faced by marginalized

communities?”

Within these themes noted above, I plan to expand on how each can be used in

conjunction with cultural relevancy to reject traditional schooling practices and

knowledges and incorporate existing models of student autonomy and interactive

learning as seen in many alternative education spaces.

In my concentration, I will be using the term People of Color is used to describe

non-white people. It is important to note that this term is not monolithic and does not

fully encapsulate every identity and experience that it speaks to. It is used as an

umbrella term; however, it is not to say that these structures of oppression operate in

the same ways upon different groups of people or within the variety of communities that

exist within these groups. I also use the term ‘student’ to not only describe people who

are a part of official schools, but also as a broader term to describe any person, despite

their connection to academic spaces.

Social Justice Theories of Education

Social Justice is a core value throughout this whole concentration, but as its own

theme, I wanted to focus specifically on social justice theories regarding schooling.

Through my Education and Social Justice Minor, I was introduced to new ways of
thinking and learning about the world around me that had been excluded from my k-12

education. I discovered that all my knowledge surrounding colonization, slavery, the

civil war, and other historical events in the United States were rooted in white

supremacy.

I believe that schools and other educational spaces should be heavily focused on

teaching and learning about social justice in order to challenge white narratives that

underlie schooling in the U.S. For People of Color, social justice focused education is one

important process in re-imagining learning. From a young age, many People of Color

from a variety of backgrounds participate in their own oppression by engaging in

curriculum that upholds whiteness as superior as well as enforces other means of

oppressions through the hidden curriculum. In other words, whiteness maintains its

power in schools by not including the true histories and realities of People of Color.

Along with the insufficient curriculum, Students of Color are surveilled and controlled

more-so than white students therefore making it difficult for them to counter hegemonic

narratives and sets of practices that perpetuate white supremacy and settler colonialism.

Therefore, simply introducing a new curriculum into the current system is not the only

part of re-imagining.

While Communities of Color have and continue to resiliently organize and work

against these systems, it is very difficult for mass re-structuring to occur. In this

historical context it is difficult to challenge the capitalist, white-washed curriculum

because of the structural disadvantages that racial and economic injustices create in or

schooling system and society. Social justice education could be a starting point for such

a challenge to occur. It is also necessary for white people to have education rooted in
social justice to address their own positionality and privileges and understand that the

system itself is rooted in violence that white people still benefit from.

Including social justice centered education into existing curriculums is one of the

most important changes that can be made to address immediate concerns in the k-12

education system. Along with this, any re-imagining of an education system outside of

the current one, also must be grounded in social justice. However, this is not a simple

overnight task.

Considering that the majority of teachers in the US are white women, ‘social

justice’ curriculum can easily become culturally incompetent, offensive, and harmful

towards People of Color. I believe that there is the potential for white people to teach

themes of social justice, but I also understand the importance of having more

representation of race in teachers. On one hand, having white teachers, teaching social

justice and speaking about experiences that are not their own can be dangerous and

damaging. On the other hand, placing the responsibility of having Teachers of Color

teach about violent histories and current realities of their own race, can also be harmful.

As a white women, this is an important part of my learning in this field of study. In this

concentration, I am writing about systems of oppression that I benefit from, and as I

move forward into my professional life, my privilege will continue to play a role in my

experiences. As I move forward in my education, I will explore the question, “How can

culturally relevant, social justice curriculum exist in a way that does not reproduce

violence against People of Color?”

In examining this question and others in relation to this theme, I have taken a

number of courses along these lines of study. In the course FAIR 336B: Neoliberalism

and Public Schools, I explored the topic of school reform vs. school abolition. I have
come to understand that topics like these do not have a simple solution. As I continue

my own education and grapple with questions like the one mentioned above, I know this

area of study is part of a life-long learning experience. Other classes I have taken in this

thematic area are AMST 301: Comparative Cultural Studies, ESJ 411: Education and

Social Justice, and FAIR 297A: Disability Identity Development.

In the classes I have taken, I have learned a lot about social justice, or more

specifically the injustices that exist in the education system. Although there is not a

perfect way to teach this topic, I think these topics of white supremacy, capitalism,

colonialism, neoliberalism, and much more, can and should be taught to students from

the beginning of their educational career. I plan to also take FAIR 319B: Critical Race

Theory in hopes to learn more about this framework and its relation to education and

the preservation of white supremacy.

Community Based Education

When I envision a re-imagination of the educational system, I see community as

one of the core components. Humans are naturally communal beings. We thrive in

spaces where we can build relationships and work alongside others. Education should

not be an exception to that instinct. I believe learning spaces should be environments

where collaborative relationships are built and nourished. My understanding of how and

why education should be grounded in community building draws from Paulo Freire’s

philosophy of Critical Pedagogy. This is an approach to education that allows students to

challenge and transform the dominant narratives in the classroom and the world around

them. In the course, FAIR 314E, Critical Pedagogy, we focused on how today’s

classrooms are hyper-individualized, competitive arenas that replicate the capitalist

workforce of the United States. I believe that using frameworks such as Critical

Pedagogy, academic classrooms, as well as un-official learning environments can be

transformed into spaces of community and collaboration, that nurture the well-being

and growth of all students.

Community based approaches to education, and community building pedagogies

are one way to address immediate concerns in the classroom, while also being a

direction to look towards when re-imagining the ways our society goes about teaching

and learning. In my capstone course for the ESJ Minor, 414D: Race, Class, and Public

Education, I wrote my final research paper on how community-based models of

education can create safer, more equitable classrooms for Students of Color. My

research focused specifically on Latinx communities and how they have disrupted white

supremacist violence in classrooms through community-based approaches that connect

students and teachers to one another and focus on knowledge in their home lives and

the larger community they live in.

Dismantling the power dynamics between students and teachers is important

because it challenges the hyper-individualism and competition in schools. Reframing

this relationship understands everyone in a classroom to be co-teachers, co-learners,

who work collectively alongside one another instead of competitively against one

another. I saw this type of relationship form during my Independent Study, FAIR 280:

Outdoor School Practicum, where I volunteered at a 6th grade science camp. Not only

were camp leaders and the middle schoolers both learners and teachers, high school

students also attended the camp as part of their own education as an opportunity to

practice leadership skills.

 Building relationships between schools and their surrounding communities, is

one step in creating culturally relevant pedagogy, by including students' families and the

knowledge they hold, as part of their education. As referenced through Yosso’s (2005)

model of cultural wealth, it allows students to challenge the white colonial narrative as

the only perspective to learn from and recognizes knowledge from personal experiences

and communities’ histories as legitimate.

Outside of academic classrooms, I have witnessed the educational power of

community through my employment at Max Higbee Center. This non-profit provides

community-based recreation programs for teenagers and adults with developmental

disabilities. I have worked there since January of 2019, as a recreation leader. In my

position, I lead community-based recreation activities that allow the members of the

center to create friendships and build connections around the larger Bellingham

community. Although the center is focused on recreation, I have discovered that it truly

is a place of learning.

The members may not be learning ‘academic skills’ but they are learning

communication skills and problem-solving skills by interacting with lots of people while

learning new sports, crafts, or other activities. Through Max Higbee’s one-on-one

mentoring program, members can individually be paired with staff to work towards a

personal goal. I also see this as an educational opportunity for the members. Some of

the goals include, practicing street safety, learning how to independently workout at the

local gym, and even learning how to read or write. This recreation center is an

educational space that allows people to create connections in order to work together to

achieve personal goals and learn applicable life skills.

 The type of education that it truly needed to respond to our times is one that

teaches people how to work collectively with those in their community, while also

teaching them how to care for themselves. Instead of an education that is so heavily

focused on facts and memorization, we are in need of an education that prepares people

for a life-long journey of learning and self-reflection. We need an education that focuses

on social relationships in the context of our typical areas of study such as math, science,

history, or literature. A community-based education is not separate from these topics

but should include peoples personal experiences and relationships as a part of the

learning process.

In the future, I plan to take ECE 438 Family and Community Relationships to

learn more specifically how to incorporate family involvement in children’s education.

Through my employment, I have seen an example of what is possible outside of

academic settings, so I am interested in looking at what is possible within existing

schools.

Food Justice

The Food Justice movement is something that I was introduced to through my

Fairhaven 203a course, Social Relationships and Responsibility: Food Justice and Food

Insecurity. I learned that the corporate driven food industry that exists in our country is

another site of major social, political, and environmental inequalities. This system is

responsible for large scale food access issues, and therefore health issues for low income

communities and Communities of Color.

After my first course on Food Justice, I decided that this was an area I wanted to

further explore. In the spring of 2019, I created an independent study project (ISP) that
connected Food Justice, to the work I was doing at Max Higbee Center. I titled my ISP

“Accessibility in Food Justice.” Throughout the quarter, I focused on how food can be a

great pedagogical tool in education. Gardening, harvesting, cooking, and eating, is a very

tangible way to teach people about healthy eating, while also providing space to practice

applicable skills that can translate into daily practices. My ISP focused specifically on

how adults with physical and or developmental disabilities may not have spaces where

they can learn and practice these skills, so I spent time engaging with and cultivating

ways to make food education more accessible for this population.

Additionally, food is something with strong roots in the culture of all people. By

using food as a tool to learn more about different cultural practices and beliefs, students

can learn more about their own histories as well as discover new perspectives and

information about others. Every person has different stories about their personal and

familial relationships with food, and the knowledge that they have gained from these

relationships is essential to learning about food in a cultural context.

I believe that food can also be a powerful way to teach about larger political, and

environmental issues. This can be done by studying historical and current movements in

food justice and environmentalism and looking at the ways in which the industrial food

system not only impacts human health, but also the wellbeing of our earth.

Since food is something so personal, yet also deeply grounded in politics, and the

earth itself, it is impossible to separate all these topics. Even as its own theme, I see food

justice as an interdisciplinary area of study that allow students to create strong

connections across these topics and between communities. It is a platform that can be

used in both academic settings, as well as in alternative learning spaces.

 While my work during my ISP was an example of my application of this

information outside of official academia, I grounded this topic in a more traditional

classroom setting in my Critical Pedagogy course. For our final project in this course, we

were to create our own curriculum. I wrote a Food Justice curriculum that was intended

for either a high school, or higher ed. classroom and could be incorporated into

traditional classes such as history, environmental studies, or sociology. Through this

project, I was able to display how Food Justice as a theme could be applicable in existing

models of education and is directly related to social justice.

Outside of credited academic work, I assist the Nutrition Education Program

Coordinator at Max Higbee center in creating and leading cooking classes and gardening

workshops. As I progress through my own education at Fairhaven, I hope to continue

my learning on this topic. In the Spring of 2020, I plan to take FAIR 336B: Outback and

Food Justice, where we will look at food justice in the context of the campus of Western.

Separately from my concentration itself, but in conjunction with this theme, I will be

pursuing the Environmental Justice Minor to learn more about the impacts of

environmental issues on marginalized communities. The class PLSC 348:

Environmental Justice is one that I will be taking for this minor that I see as relevant for

my continued education on this theme. I will also take FAIR 336n: Global Food

Sovereignty which looks at people’s rights in defining their own food systems.

Creative Expression and Hands-on Learning

To me, education should be grounded in reality, and therefore, hands-on learning

is necessary. I think that the most powerful learning is knowledge gained through

experience, so I see people's personal lives as an integral part of their education.

 Art is one of the most personal and hands-on forms of education I have

experienced. Throughout my life, I have found that the process of making visual art and

other creative forms of expression to be a learning process both on their own, as well as

in conjunction with other areas of study. I see art as a way for people to express thoughts

or feelings that may be difficult to convey in words. Unlike a lot of the typical education

structure, creative endeavors are not always a linear process. There is not a ‘right’ or

‘wrong’ answer when it comes to art. When exploring different mediums, whether it be

drawing, creating music, pottery, or creative writing, one must learn the skills of that

craft. However, once baseline skills are developed, the artist process requires a lot of

critical thought and problem-solving skills that can only be learned through experience

and practice.

All forms of art are both deeply personal and deeply political. I see creative

expression an interactive form of education that can combine personal and cultural

knowledge. It can create connections between multiple areas of study, as well as allow

students to relate their own lives to a topic they are studying.

Besides visual art, other hobbies or activities that people participate in outside of

academia are important hands-on learning experiences as well. Whether it be a sport, an

outdoor recreation activity, cooking, watching movies or any other hobby- these are all

ways in which people naturally learn about themselves, and the communities they are a

part of. In RECR 210: Leisure in Contemporary Society, we focused on the personal and

community importance of having non-academic interests that allow people to develop

their own being.

In official academic settings, I believe there should be structured time for

students to explore their own creative outlets. My work at Max Higbee has showed me
that there needs to be more resources outside of schools for all ages and demographics

of people to be able to do this as well, because it can provide a platform for learning for

people who have aged out of the k-12 school system.

This theme relates to the other themes in this concentration as it is very broad.

Exploring one’s creative side can be done in ways that connect them to larger, social

justice topics, through learning about the history of specific hobbies or art forms,

including food, and it can connect people to one another and build community.

During my time at Western, I have taken art courses like FAIR 254X: Intro to

Relief Printing and FAIR 351W: Printmaking Narratives, that have allowed me to

develop new skills, and then expand further to create my own style of artistic expression.

I have also taken some somatic psychology classes including FAIR 243U: Embodied

Mindfulness and FAIR 243U: Science of Stress and Art of Play that have strengthened

my belief that education grounded in one’s own body and the physical world around

them is a very powerful practice.

I am currently working on a printmaking ISP, FAIR 300 where I am taking my

previously learned skills and guiding myself through my own process. I am also taking a

creative writing class FAIR 381G: Reimagining Borders where I am connecting themes

of social justice to another form of creative expression. By using creative writing as a

medium to grapple with things such as borders and migration, I can learn more than

just facts about these topics. I am able to dive deeper into my own positionality and

grapple with how I relate, or do not relate, with them, in a way that is difficult to do in

academic writing.

Creative expression and the arts are platforms for both imagination and learning.

When looking towards re-imagining what learning is and can be, I believe this to be a
necessary component of existing academic spaces, as well as for future sites of learning

outside of schools. When I envision new spaces of learning, I do not see a singular

option. I envision a future that is shaped by communities that meets their own

individual needs.

Senior Project

As I’m nearing the end of my college experience during a pandemic, I am feeling

as though everything is coming to a very anticlimactic end. I am wanting to have some

sort of tangible way to reflect on my education and share my learning with my friends

and family who are interested. For my final project, I am going to be creating an online

portfolio that describes my concentration and showcases work from each of my themes.

I am hoping that this project will give me a sense of closure and help me wrap up my

undergraduate degree in a meaningful way.

Marie Ytell, Faculty Chair: Clayton Pierce

Re-imagining Learning through Critical Educational
Alternatives

Social Justice
Completed:
WWU AMST 301 Comparative Cultural Studies Winter 2018 4 A
WWU ESJ 411 Education and Social Justice Fall 2018 4 A
WWU FAIR 336B Neoliberalism and Public Schools Winter 2019 5 S
WWU FAIR 297A Disability Identity Dev. Spring 2019 4 S
WWU FAIR 319B Critical Race Theory Spring 2020 5 S
Inst Course Title Quarter Credits grade
Community Building
Completed:
WWU FAIR 280 Outdoor School Practicum Spring 2018 4 S
WWU FAIR 314 E Critical Pedagogy Spring 2019 4 S
WWU FAIR 414D Race/Class/& Public Education Fall 2019 4 S
WWU ESJ 416 Critical Race Theory in Education Winter 2021 4 A

Non-Credited Work:
Recreation Leader at Max Higbee Center January 2019- Present

Food Justice
Completed
WWU FAIR 203A Social Relationships/Responsibility: Winter 2018 5 S
Food Justice
WWU FAIR 480 Accessibility in Food Justice Spring 2019 4 S

WWU FAIR 436N Agroecology and Permaculture Spring 2020 5 S

Planning
WWU FAIR 336N Global Food Sovereignty Winter 2021 5 S
WWU PLSC 348 Environmental Justice Winter 2021 4 B+

Non-Credited Experience:
Assisting the Nutrition Education Program at Max Higbee Center

Creative Expression and Interactive Learning

Completed
WWU FAIR 254X Intro to Relief Printing Fall 2017 4 S
WWU FAIR 243U Embodied Mindfulness Fall 2018 4 S
WWU FAIR 351w Printmaking Narratives Winter 2019 4 S
WWU RECR 210 Leisure in Contem Society Fall 2019 4 A-
WWU FAIR 243U Science of Stress and Art of Play Fall 2019 4 S

WWU FAIR 300 Linoleum Hand-Printing Winter 2020 4 S

WWU FAIR 381G Topics: Reimagining Borders Winter 2020 4
S
Senior Project:
WWU FAIR 401a Senior Portfolio Summer 2021 5

Total Credits 94
ISP Credit 12
Non-Fairhaven Credits 20
Upper-Division Credits 65
 Sources cited

Fasching-Varner ET AL. (2014). Beyond school-to-prison pipeline and towards an

educational and penal realism. Equity and Excellence in Education, 47(4), 410-429.

Tara J. Yosso (2005) Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of

community cultural wealth, Race Ethnicity and Education, 8:1, 69-91