http://hdl.handle.net/2451/63556 2026-08-21T04:38:09Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/76036 Title: Introduction to Special Issue: Centering Community Healing, Sustenance, and Resilience in STEM and Computing Education Through Art and Social Justice Authors: DesPortes, Kayla; James, Clarisa; Gaines, Dejarelle Abstract: Computing, technology, and engineering education are in particular need of examining how we can bring love, community, and joy to the center of learning experiences to support a diversity of youth to flourish. Computing and STEM disciplines are often taught in ways that detach knowledge from people and communities, making it difficult to explore a variety of personal, social, and societal connections that are not already at the center of the tech industry. These exclusionary practices limit the way work is accomplished—including who is involved in the design work and who technological innovations are designed for; as well as the way the work is situated within our society—including what problems technology is designed to solve and who benefits from particular innovations (Benjamin, 2019; Noble, 2018). Learning experiences and spaces for technology education should support youth as they develop new knowledge and skills in ways that recognize them as full humans, and enable them to ground it in their ideas, perspectives, interests, goals, identities, communities, relationships, and local environments. The goal of this special issue is to bring together educators’, researchers’, and youth voices in conversation about how we are centering self-empowerment in our educational work and how we can drive forward our practices. 2024-07-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/76035 Title: The Intentional Layering of Love, Imagination, and Expression as a Pathway to Freedom: A Conversation with Drs. Detra Price and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz Authors: Touloukian, Cami; Price, Detra; Sealey-Ruiz, Yolanda Abstract: This conversation was first imagined as an interview with Drs. Detra Price and Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz about their groundbreaking book Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces. With a focus on fostering and learning from students' digital activism by purposefully weaving together pedagogies for racial justice and multimodal literacies, their book and their scholarship is the perfect fit for this special issue. However, much like their book that recently won the Divergent Publication Award, these two scholars and visionaries are not easily boxed in. Thus, while our conversation begins by exploring how arts and technologies can come together to promote healing, we also delve into the intentional layering of love, imagination, (un)learning, artistic expression, amplification, and trusting relationships as essential components for building the world we want to live in. 2024-07-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/76037 Title: Roots: Poetry, Performance, and Photography Authors: Nix-Sow, Divinity Abstract: The editors of Voices in Urban Education (VUE) first became connected to "artivist" Divinity Nix-Sow when she submitted a series of photographs to the student art competition for our special issue focused on community healing, sustenance, and resilience at the intersections of technology, art, and social justice. Alongside her photographs, Divinity emailed us the following: Hi, my name is Divinity Nix-Sow! I’m from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. I am a poet, natural hair stylist, model, and overall artivist! The theme of this issue really stood out to me because it represents everything I stand for. The photos I’m choosing today are from my Black History Month natural hair shoot! I’ve been a stylist since I was 15. I am self-taught and my business recently turned 5 years old! I also recently wrote a poem called Roots which inspired the entire theme of my photo shoot. I wanted to honor and pay homage to where I started and where I come from. So, I collaborated with my photographer and traveled across NYC for 2 weeks to style all of the models' hair. I shot this in my neighborhood beauty supply store, which the manager let me do free of charge! It’s truly something special when you can take one little idea from your notes app and turn it into reality.  Our editorial team was blown away by the power of Divinity’s poetry, performance, styling, and photography. We have included one of the photographs to introduce the Expressions in Urban Education section of this issue. The full collection of photographs are also included here, along with her poem, Roots, which appears in both written and video format. 2024-07-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/76031 Title: Take a(nother) Left at the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Revisiting the Queer Crossroads of Art, Religion, and Education of Big Gay Church Authors: Wolfgang, Courtnie N.; Rhoades, Mindi; Cosier, Kimberly; Sanders III, James H. Abstract: In this excerpt from a chapter originally published in McNeil et al (2017), five queer art educators interrogate the intersections of religion, education, the arts, and LGBTQ identities through an annual performance session called "Big Gay Church" (BGC). 2023-07-18T00:00:00Z