School for Liberating Education

About the School for Liberating Education

The School for Liberating Education (SLE)  is an autonomous educational space that offers knowledge that advances social and ecological justice. It is rooted in Ethnic Studies, an interdisciplinary field of study taught mainly at the college and university-level.  Ethnic Studies was the result of student-led social justice movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s across the country. In the handful of colleges and universities where Ethnic Studies was established, it became increasingly unavailable to the communities it was originally meant to serve.  SLE offers college/university-level ethnic studies, including a certificate in Applied Ethnic Studies, without the restrictive admissions requirements or high costs that ordinarily come with college/university education.  It also creates space decolonial, reindigenized knowledge shared by educators who have worked both inside and outside traditional educational systems. Moreover, SLE's pedagogy is grounded in collective care and radical love and thus centers care for one another as well as care for Mother Earth in its approach to teaching.

The Historical Struggle for Ethnic Studies 

In 1968 the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a coalition of students of color, along with allied faculty, staff and members of the community went on strike at San Francisco State University (SFSU) demanding what would later be termed “ethnic studies.” 

After a tense and sometimes violent struggle on the SFSU campus, the TWLF was successful in getting the university administration to meet many of its demands and “Ethnic Studies” was established at that university. Similar campus struggles across California and nationally since 1968 have led to the establishment of Ethnic Studies (which encompasses Asian American Studies, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, Black Studies, and Native American & Indigenous Studies) at colleges and universities throughout the United States.  

The Institutionalization of Ethnic Studies

Though it took social justice activism to create Ethnic Studies, as it has become entrenched in the "Ivory Tower" of higher education, it has become less and less accessible and responsive to the communities it was meant to serve. To begin with, Ethnic Studies is generally only available to those who can get acceptance into 4-year colleges and universities. It is offered at the community-college and K-12 levels in only a limited way. Meanwhile, Ethnic Studies courses at 4-year institutions are too academic. Though they might help students understand and critique systems of power (e.g. racial capitalism, hetero-patriarchy, settler colonialism and etc.), they do not give students the tools to challenge and change those systems of power. That's not the kind of knowledge the grassroots movements that fought for what became known as "Ethnic Studies," wanted.

Attacks on Ethnic Studies

Despite the fact that Ethnic Studies is already quite inaccessible to most people, the right-wing has been on a rampage to shut it down. Despite legislation making Ethnic Studies mandatory at the K-12 level in the state that birthed it, some California Democratic Party politicians have been swayed by Zionists to water-down the curriculum. 

At the same time, the movement against critical race theory (CRT), a framework used by many Ethnic Studies faculty, has been ramped up by Trump and his supporters since his first administration leading to book bans at the K-12 level and public libraries. In the first week of taking office for a second time, Trump signed an executive order to end "DEI" (diversity, equity and inclusion) and "radical indoctrination"  which ultimately places a nation-wide ban on Ethnic Studies.

Liberating Ethnic Studies

The School for Liberating Education (SLE) was established in 2021 by Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, a long-time Ethnic Studies university professor and advocate, who left higher education to make Ethnic Studies available to all. SLE offers many of her courses which were once available only to those who could gain admission and/or pay tuition to the universities where she worked.  SLE courses are for anyone who wants to take them. More than that, Dr. Rodriguez ensures that her Ethnic Studies courses stay true to the mission of the activists who fought for it; what she offers isn't knowledge for knowledge sake but knowledge to advance justice and liberation. 

Toward Decolonial Knowledge

Academic knowledge produced in institutions of higher education is not the only kind of knowledge that is valid and valuable. Experts do not need to hold PhDs. Beyond Ethnic Studies, SLE offers other forms of decolonial knowledge that advance both social and ecological justice. SLE is currently working with healing practitioners, community organizers and others who are experts in the kinds of knowledge that is also vital for justice and liberation.

While most of SLEs offerings are on-line, there are also opportunities for in-person gatherings as well as land-based learning.

SLE shares the mission of its parent entity, the Remagination Lab, which is to incubate and experiment in producing creatively bold, unconventional and deeply transformative learning experiences informed by social justice movements; indigenous and land-based knowledge; the arts; radical love and healing.

SLE's founder, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, is not only a highly regarded academic and an experienced activist and community organizer, but she has also been engaged in deep decolonial healing work and is a regenerative farmer. She brings all of her life and work experience into the courses she teaches and curates.