Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium holding summit including sessions on teaching students about microaggressions. Abeer Ramadan Shinnawi, mourner of Yahya Sinwar, also presenting.
The PEDC is committed to ensuring DEI remains in schools
The Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium and the Pennsylvania Department of Education
The Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium (PEDC) is holding its annual summit from June 24- 26th. The PEDC describes itself as
“a grassroots organization of early childhood, PK-12, higher education, non-profit, community, and government leaders striving to increase the number of teachers of color, specifically those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, in Pennsylvania.”
PEDC was formed as part of Pennsylvania Department of Education's educator diversity pilot initiative, Aspiring to Educate, but soon morphed into the PEDC so that it could involve more “stakeholders.”
The goal of PEDC is to “collectively co-create an anti-racist, racially diverse, and culturally relevant and sustaining education system where every learner in Pennsylvania thrives.”
A core member of the PEDC is Sharif El-Mekki. El-Mekki is the founder of the Center for Black Educator Development and a close friend of the District of Philadelphia Director of Social Studies Curriculum, Ismael Jimenez. Both El-Mekki and Jimenez have featured in this Substack and in the Free Press.
On its website, the PEDC boasts that one of its main achievements was developing Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education Competencies for Pennsylvania educators, adopted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
However, the Pennsylvania Department of Education guidelines on developing curriculums in line with CRSE, developed by PEDC, had to be withdrawn following a lawsuit from various school districts, parents and teachers who argued that the guidelines violated the first amendment.
The CRSE framework was replaced by Common Ground, a set of competencies that the Pennsylvania Department of Education encourages be incorporated in teacher training and professional development.
These include “cultural awareness” competencies such as engaging in “critical conversations to be aware of conscious/unconscious biases, stereotypes and prejudice”, “recognize institutional biases and their consequences”, and “understand individuals can unintentionally adopt societal biases that can shape the nature of their interactions with groups and individuals.”
Compare the new “Common Ground” cultural competencies with the jettisoned CRSE competencies:
It is clear, then, that PEDC has influence with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Indeed, in 2022, the Acting Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education gave the keynote address at PEDC’s annual summit.
The PEDC Annual Summit
So what of this year’s summit? The theme is: “The Power of Solidarity: Diversifying the Educator Workforce Together.”
Seminars include:
“Teaching for Justice Across the Ages: A Spiral Curriculum of Antiracism.” - presented by Dr. Jen Bradley and Luca Poxon.
Bradley is an associate professor of educational studies at Swarthmore College. Among the courses she teaches are “EDUC 014 Pedagogy and Power: Introduction to Education” and “EDUC 018 Critical Perspectives: Educational Activism.”
Bradley’s Bio, published on her Swarthmore page, says the following:
“As a White woman who holds many privileged identities, my work explores the urgency of now and the intersections of child development, identity, racial justice, and activism. My work is guided both by the students in front of me and the multiple worlds in which we all move. In the classroom, we work together to build an environment where voices are heard, where identities are valued, and where we immerse ourselves in projects and topics that matter.
My research explores how young children, educators, and families understand, disrupt, and transform the systems of oppression in which we operate. This inquiry is fueled by my work both inside and outside of the classroom, where I advocate for change, equity, and justice. As an activist and public scholar, I work to organize communities of praxis where knowledge and theory merge with practice and action.”
Bradley is co-founder and core member of the Philly Children’s Movement. The PCM’s vision is
“a world in which children have power and agency in working toward liberation and justice. PCM organizes with families and schools to promote joy, disrupt injustice, and subvert racism in both relationships and systems.”
To enact that vision, PCM has partnered with many schools across Philadelphia for curriculum and professional development training.
Bradley’s co-presenter is Luca Poxon, a product of Swarthmore College and a core member of PCM. Poxon is PCM project coordinator with PEDC.
“Translating Policy Into Effective Practice: A Conversation With Researchers Studying How PA K12 Schools and Higher Ed Institutions are Implementing Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education.”
This seminar will be held twice. This panel includes Dayna Muñiz, a PEDC member and the Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Coalition for Educational Equity (now apparently named Coalition for Educational Excellence.)
“Leading with Love: How White Educators Can Engage and Educate with CR-SE”
“Transformative Teacher Education: Disrupting Pedagogy, Practice and Ideology To Forge Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education.”
Luca Poxon is on that panel too. Along with Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, the co-founder and co-executive director of PEDC.
“Did They Just Say That? Helping Students Understand Microaggressions and How To Respond”
This session is run by Ashia Phillipe. She is billed as the “Advisor of Diversity, Equity and Climate” for the Upper Merion Area School District. But that position has been scrubbed from the district’s website. On Linkedin, Phillipe says she is the “Advisor of School Community Engagement.”
“Flipping the Script: Changing the Narrative of Arab and Muslim Americans.”
This session is being run by Abeer Ramadan Shinnawi. Shinnawi has been covered in this Substack before for her post October 7th 2023 instagram activity.
K-12 Extremism regulars Thuraya Zeidan, Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi and TeachingWhileMuslim mourn Yahya Sinwar
Zeidan, a teacher at Passaic High School in New Jersey who runs “DecolonizetheClassroom” took to instagram to mourn the death of Sinwar - the architect of the October 7th massacre, the single deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Follow up: Sinwar Mourners Sawsan Jaber and Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi at the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts Conference
As previously reported in this substack, Jaber and Shinnawi were to present at the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers and Language Arts Conference. That conference got underway today - regardless of the extremist views Jaber and Shinnawi hold.
Impact Hub Baltimore hosting extreme anti-Israel activist who will give workshops for educators and activists to bring Gaza into the classroom
Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi, of Altair Education Consulting, in collaboration with Impact Hub Baltimore, is hosting the “Gaza Remains the Story” exhibit from the Palestinian Muslim.
Sharif El-Mekki's Annual Black Male Educators Conference Features Extremists and Anti-Israel Hate
Last month, the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values released a report on Sharif El-Mekki’s “Center for Black Educator Development.” The report detailed the CBED’s goal of training black educators in “black pedagogy”, ensuring that “all black students are taught by high quality same-race teachers throughout their K-12 education”, and that they train teac…
This clearly does not bother the organizers of the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium. Shinnawi has also presented at Consortium member Sharif El-Mekki’s Black Male Educator Conference two years in a row. Clearly, some “diverse” perspectives are more tolerated than others.
Ensuring Political Activism remains Entrenched in K-12
You may have noticed that some positions and institutions mentioned in this post have undergone a name-change…
On June 13th, PEDC held the following seminar: “Protecting DEI: Strategies for Equity-Centered Education.”
The session promised to offer “practical strategies for responding to executive orders that affect DEI policies and advancing equity-focused work in education.” Attendees learned “how to adapt to changing policies.” The tagline for the event:
“Let’s Unite to Protect Equity-Focused Work In Our Schools and Communities.”
