Schooling as Marronage: Self-Determination, Counter-Hegemonic Education, and Repurposing Schools for Black and Brown Children.

In this talk, Dr. Noguera will discuss the creation of the Roses in Concrete Community School (RiC) in East Oakland, California, which was conceived as a counter-hegemonic schooling project and a response to community demands for self-determination in education. Noguera applies the theory of Freedom as Marronage (Roberts, 2015)—a reference to the freedom that enslaved peoples found in escape, flight, and in liminal and transitional spaces—to schools, and argues that RiC is an example of Schooling as Marronage—liberatory schooling practices grounded in autonomous community and freedom for Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples. Unlike traditional schools, which typically function as mechanisms of social and cultural reproduction in settler colonial societies, RiC was guided by a vision of transformation and healing. Noguera will discuss the transformative potential of the project and highlight lessons and challenges for this community, which are relevant for others who hope to enact liberatory visions through education and schooling.