The Education Department's Colloquium Collective invites for Dr. Lilly Padila's talk, titled:

Do Palestinian Lives Matter in Teacher Education?: Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education 

Many self-proclaimed “social justice” teacher educators remained silent on Palestine prior to, during and following October 7th, 2023, citing ‘not knowing enough about the conflict’ to absolve themselves of the responsibility of addressing the genocide–and the ongoing settler colonial apartheid state. In teacher education, this compulsory Zionism is particularly troubling, especially for teacher education programs and faculty who claim to follow the foundations of critical race theory and culturally sustaining pedagogies. This phenomenon is not new; in 2013, a teacher got fired for inviting Ziad Abbas, a Palestinian educator-activist, to speak as part of a school unit on social justice and human rights. “They were teaching about social justice and human rights. They thought they were very radical. She didn’t realize the minute it comes to Palestine it’s a different issue” (Sokolower & Abbas, 2013). This tension begs the question: Do Palestinian Lives Matter in Teacher Education? This talk explores why and how it is imperative to center Palestine and an anti-Zionist commitment within teacher education through lenses  like FaithCrit and humanizing pedagogies.

Please join us on Zoom or in McHenry Room 3170 for a collective viewing experience.