Six MAT Alums Help Make Annual Social Justice Conference a Success
Founded in 2007 by a group of educators from Portland, Olympia, and Seattle, the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference strives to promote equity and racial justice in the classroom, encouraging grassroots efforts in schools and communities to enhance the learning and well-being of children and to build broad democratic movements for social and environmental justice. It embraces the social justice goals of Rethinking Schools, which is “dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism,” and works for peace and justice not only in the United States but throughout the world, opposing war, militarism, colonialism, and occupation.
Suzie Kassouf (MAT ’20), Matt Reed (MAT ’16), Julia Kirkpatrick (MAT ’16), Jaydra Johnson (MAT ’16), Chloé Avila (MAT ’17), and Tim Swinehart (MAT ’05) will discuss topics including environmental justice, storytelling, political movements, and debate in their respective presentations and workshops.
- Suzie Kassouf is a social studies teacher at Grant High School in Portland. Suzie is also an organizer with the Sunrise Movement.
- Matt Reed is a social studies teacher at McDaniel High School in Portland. They are editors of the forthcoming second edition of the Rethinking Schools book, A People’s Curriculum for the Earth.
- Julia Kirkpatrick is a seventh-year Language Arts teacher, teaching at Grant High School in Portland.
- Chloé Avila is a sixth-year secondary language arts teacher at McDaniel High School in Portland and Oregon Writing Project coach.
- Jaydra Johnson is a writer, K–16 educator, and artist living in New York City. She is a graduate of the Oregon Writing Project and a former NWTSJ organizer.
- Tim Swinehart teaches social studies at Lincoln High School in Portland. He is co-editor of A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis, and is a member of the Portland Public Schools Climate Justice Committee.
Complete details about this year’s conference can be found at https://nwtsj.org/wp/.
