What are the origins of educational rights? In this essay, Espinoza and Vossoughi assert that educational rights are "produced," "affirmed," and "negated" not only through legislative and legal channels but also through an evolving spectrum of educational activities embedded in everyday life. Thus, they argue that the…

The author describes his job as pretty mundane. He is a low-level government bureaucrat who sends a lot of emails and works with spreadsheets. Occasionally, when he gets to do something creative, like put together a sign, pamphlet, or slideshow, he feels a sense of peace and wishes he could do it more. This past spring, the author finally decided…

The author first decided to take art classes out of curiosity, but art gradually changed her perspective on life and became a medium through which she saw herself. This hobby became a process by which she began to create an artwork of her own life. This article describes what the author has learned about her own life through art and how it has…

During the winter of 2011-2012, Weardale, England, was the setting for an ambitious informal adult education project. In this rural area in the northeast part of the country, the local arts collective, Jack Drum Arts, established a community play project entitled "The Bonny Moorhen." This dramatic undertaking aimed to retell the story of…

In this article, Michele K. Sommer recalls the struggles she experienced during elementary school with daydreams so real that she was lost in them. She reports using her artistic skills to complete school assignments to no avail, becoming keenly aware even as a child that the adults in her life regarded her daydreaming as a defect (she was a…

The author, Victor B. Almanzar, reports on his introduction to the arts while growing up in New York as a young teenager. He felt like an outcast from society due to his language barrier and numerous ethnic groups different from his. He became involved with other students who, like himself, were harassed and suffered from bullying due to their…

This article describes how the author, Nicole Keller, found that her writing grew richer and more honest as her understanding of movement and her own body evolved through an Introduction to Modern Dance course. For the first time in her life as an aspiring writer, she felt connected to art, literature, and her personal history in ways that…

"Why should they stay? This is our land. We were born here!" The year is 2004. The class is at a fictional town meeting in a rural village in Cambridgeshire, England, debating whether or not a group of travelers who have pitched up in a field at the edge of the settlement should be allowed to remain. The debate is coming to a climax, and…

In recounting the history and present dynamics in the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, Sherry Deckman presents a portrait of what it means to leave a space better than you found it through song. The story of Kuumba--Harvard's oldest black student organization and now its largest multicultural organization--is told through the experiences of…

In this article, Richard J. (Rich) Reddick and Victor B. Saenz, two assistant professors of color, utilize scholarly personal narrative to reflect on their trajectory from undergraduates at a predominantly White institution--one prominently mired in a legacy of discrimination and exclusion toward people of color--to faculty members at that same…

Debate goes on about the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. In presidential speeches, one-minute congressional floor statements, and intermittent media coverage, we hear passionate arguments for and against this federal legislation that would provide a path toward citizenship for hundreds of thousands of…

In this personal essay, Aurora Chang describes her experience of "hyperdocumentation"--the effort to accrue awards, accolades, and eventually academic degrees to compensate for her undocumented status. In spite of her visible successes and naturalization, Chang still confronts the rage and intolerance of American "commonsense" beliefs about…

This article presents the author's personal narrative as an immigrant from Sierra Leone who has undergone so many challenges in life and ended up turning all these obstacles into opportunities. In this article, the author describes his life growing up in Sierra Leone, his first experience of the horrors of war, his life as a student, and his dream…

In this article, Enrique Sepulveda draws on an array of theological, anthropological, and cultural studies, and critical literacy frameworks, as well as on the voices of transmigrant youth through their poetic and autobiographical writing, to present an innovative pedagogy of "acompanamiento". Sepulveda shares narratives from his research and…

In this article, the author describes his life experiences and how difficult it was for him as a Mexican immigrant living in the United States. His life changed when he moved to America, but his character changed when he started middle school. He had been constantly insulted by his classmates, and at the time he wanted to get revenge. The kids he…