‘Reclaiming Our Voice’: ethnic studies curriculum makes its way to Santa Ana Unified School District

Chapman University hosted an event Oct. 4 highlighting the ethnic studies program recently implemented at Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) in hopes for the curriculum to become more apparent in other school districts in Orange County. Photo by EMILY PARIS, photo editor

Chapman University hosted a conversation Oct. 4 regarding the ethnic studies program implemented throughout the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), allowing K-12 students in the district to learn about the importance of ethnic studies at a young age. 

The event was hosted by the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences through their art and lecture series, “Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Ethnic Studies.” Over 120 Chapman and SAUSD students and faculty attended the event. 

This conversation was one out of many events that the college has held so far with many others coming up throughout the remainder of the semester.

The panelists in attendance at the event consisted of SAUSD Vice President Carolyn Torres, SAUSD Superintendent Jerry Almendarez, Willard Intermediate School Principal Bertha Benavides and SAUSD History and Social Science Curriculum Specialist Linn Lee, whose main role currently is to roll out the ethnic studies program across the school district. Moderating the conversation was Cathery Yeh, an assistant professor of STEM Education and Asian American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin.

Ethnic studies classes have been apparent in SAUSD since 2015, but the program itself was only passed by the SAUSD board in June 2022, making it one of the first school districts in the U.S. to implement this curriculum. According to the event, fall 2022 marks the first semester where incoming freshmen are required to take ethnic studies courses in order to graduate.

Through the school district, there are 38 teachers teaching ethnic studies courses and over 2,000 students taking them. It is being taught as an elective at high schools and middle schools in the district, with ethnic studies also being taught as an English class throughout all ten high schools in SAUSD.

“It was in 2015, during my first year as a curriculum specialist, that the community of Santa Ana was demanding an ethnic studies class and framework for students in the district,” Lee said during the event. “Especially after the state of Arizona banned Mexican-American classes from being taught in schools in 2010, it initiated a statewide movement in California to embed ethnic studies programs within our own school systems. Many schools began to require ethnic studies as a graduation requirement following the movement as well.” 

The event continued on to highlight more about the program itself and how ethnic studies will be embedded into different subjects — such as history and math — which will be achieved by introducing word problems and math equations to students through a multicultural lens. 

The event also focused on the key benefits of having this program at schools in the Santa Ana district, in order to teach younger generations about the importance of cultural diversity and the struggles that marginalized communities have faced and continue to face nowadays. 

“I hope ethnic studies gives (the students) purpose so that they do want to pursue a career in social justice and so they can see that voting matters and participating in our democracy matters,” Lee told The Panther. “For students who identify as people of color, this serves as an additional source of empowerment. Unless we stand up for rights, they won’t be handed to us.”

Junior communication studies and philosophy double major Samuel Edgar was one of the attendees at the event. Edgar has always been very interested in learning about different cultures and is also a part of the Chapman Mariachi Panteras and the Paulo Freire Democratic Project on campus, both of which strongly support ethnic studies initiatives. 

“When you learn about cultures different from your own, it helps expand your appreciation for other people, and for me, the more I learn about different cultures, the more I see our shared humanity,” Edgar said. “By teaching the histories of a wide variety of cultures from a wide variety of perspectives, students will more easily see the value in themselves and their cultures.”

The program at SAUSD consists of both an individual ethnic studies course as well as the embedding of ethnic studies within various school subjects. All courses part of the program will teach students about the history of their ethnicities, social and civil rights movements, race-based systems of oppression and institutional racism. 

“What an ethnic studies framework does is it allows you to take those qualities and find your passion and incorporate your passion of social justice, equity and inclusion into every single thing that you do,” Justin de Leon, Chapman’s director of ethnic studies, said at the event. “When we think of race and these conversations, they’re not something separate from the other classes that we take, so ethnic studies as a program pairs perfectly with all these different subjects.”

With SAUSD becoming one of the first school districts to implement this program, it pushes toward the passing of Assembly Bill 101 on Oct. 8, 2021, which will require all California high school students to receive education in the area of ethnic studies beginning in 2025.

“We don’t want ethnic studies to be an elective just for an elective’s sake,” Benavides told The Panther. “We want it to be an elective that will inform students and younger generations of what we have as individuals of color and what that truly means to us.”