We believe in reciprocal and collaborative approaches to working with our partners towards a shared vision of educational justice. Our work positions our partners as critical collaborators, co-creators, and co-conspirators who are committed to equity and social justice. This approach to collaboration challenges ideas of expertise, knowledge production, and power dynamics between groups, individuals, and communities. This is the spirit of our work.

We believe it is critical for all people to reflect on their own experiences, stories, histories, and identities. This means exploring the dynamics of our hybridized selves, considering race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and language. We are committed to helping educators understand how those identities intersect and exist in relationship to themselves, others, and the communities in which they work alongside.

In order to authentically engage in anti-racist work, we have to begin with our own racial identity stories; we must consider how race has informed our lived experiences (both consciously and unconsciously, explicitly and implicitly) and subsequently, how we see and understand the people and world around us. This journey is one of discovery, healing, and transformation as we develop our racial literacy, cultural competence, and critical consciousness.

We believe in the power of culturally responsive-sustaining approaches to education. We value the sociocultural aspects of language, literacy, and learning. We believe that education, as Bettina Love reminds us, should help students thrive instead of merely survive. We center joy, healing, and spirituality in our work. We are passionate about student voice, agency, and activism. We believe in the power of Youth Participatory Action Research and other methodologies that empower adults and youth to work with and alongside one another to systematically, intentionally, and critically examine issues of social justice in their communities.

We advocate for mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and healing-centered approaches. We take an holistic care approach to supporting the whole child. We advocate for a critical and anti-racist approach to social and emotional learning. We believe all education should be concerned with mental health, wellness, and spiritual growth. We believe responses to trauma should center interventions of healing, recovery, and wellness. We ascribe to a community cultural wealth framework that values the assets and strengths of historically oppressed communities.

We believe that technology and media can play a transformative role in schools, classrooms, and organizations. As multimedia creators and scholars, we believe in the importance of digital and media literacies in twenty-first century education. At the core of our philosophy is the belief that people can become more critical consumers and producers of media that creates social change. We value teaching and learning that encourages artful and aesthetic thinking, creativity, and production. We believe that change happens in the doing and the making.