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About Organizing Engagement

Organizing Engagement is an online publication dedicated to advancing knowledge, understanding, and practice at the intersection of education organizing, engagement, and equity. We collect ideas, models, strategies, and policies, and then shares them in the form of introductions, interviews, profiles, and other content.

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“The major obstacle to using an intercultural-competence approach to diversity issues in schools in the same one that exists in societies at large—which is the idea that prejudice and bigotry are personal flaws that can be overcome, and that learning what not to do will be adequate for intergroup relations. In my experience, this mistaken idea keeps diversity work on the extracurricular sidelines. If diversity is approached as learning what to do in multicultural relations, it can be positioned as a more central educational strategy in schools, organizations, and communities.”

— Milton Bennett, Director of the Intercultural Development Research Institute and Creator of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity
Photo of Mark Warren, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Co-Author of Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Frontlines of the Educational Justice Movement

“For a lot of people, particularly more affluent white Americans, their children are going to well-resourced public schools that are embedded in communities with a lot of support and with highly qualified teachers teaching a curriculum that’s relevant to their lives. These families typically don’t have any direct experience with the kind of education that children from low-income communities of color—particularly African American and Latino students—experience, and therefore they don’t have a real understanding of the obstacles, indignities, or violence these students face.”

— Mark Warren, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Co-Author of Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Frontlines of the Educational Justice Movement

“If you remain in a space that feels safe and non-threatening to dominant norms, then you will likely never feel ‘ready’ for the difficult work of challenging and dismantling oppression. We cannot wait for everyone to feel ready to combat racism, but instead we need to boldly challenge people to step into discomfort.”

— Keith Catone, Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education and Author of The Pedagogy of Teacher Activism: Portraits of Four Teachers for Justice
A photo of Zack Mezera, youth organizer and outgoing executive director of Providence Student Union in Rhode Island.

“Student advocates are trying to fix what they're experiencing in their environment. You may disagree with their analysis, but it's at least bringing to the surface a real issue the students are experiencing. Not investing in or suppressing youth voice and organizing leaves these perspectives and data points unsurfaced, which then gives teachers, administrators, or politicians less information to make wise decisions. If you want to run a student-centered school, you need to know what works or doesn't for students—it's that simple.”

— Zack Mezera, Youth Organizer and Outgoing Executive Director of Providence Student Union

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Participatory Budgeting

June 1, 2020
A community-engagement process that can make public spending more democratic.

Equity Literacy

November 11, 2019
A framework that describes the abilities and attributes of “equity literate” educators.

Youth Engagement Continuum

November 1, 2019
A model that describes degrees of youth engagement that progress toward collective youth empowerment in decision-making.