HOUSTON COLLECTIVE REIMAGINING EDUCATION
The Houston Collective for Reimagining Education is a community of students, organizers, educators, and community leaders committed to advocating for and implementing Asian American Studies in school districts across Houston. We hope to reimagine, repurpose, and transform the education system to be one that is anti-oppressive and one that reflects the lived experiences and desires of students of color.
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ABOUT HCRE
MISSION, VISION, PURPOSE
We would like to acknowledge that the work we are trying to do to push for Asian American Studies would not be possible without the organizing, activism, and hardwork of students, teachers, activists, organizers and community leaders who helped pass Mexican American Studies and African American Studies and opened up possibilities for additional courses in ethnic studies.
The origin story of Asian American Studies ties its roots to the civil rights movement and the radical student actions of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1968, The Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of student groups, raised awareness on the deep and long-standing racial inequality in the United States and demanded for the creation of programs that focused on the histories of people of color. The term Asian American was coined that same year, according to activists and academics. The first Asian American Studies curricula were established at the University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University and the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1969. Though it’s been 50 years, Asian American Studies can still be hard to find and only a handful of post-secondary institutions offer degrees in the field today and continues to receive criticism. We believe as The Houston Collective for Reimagining Education that Asian American Studies is essential to helping us to better know and understand ourselves and our history. It is our hope that through Asian American Studies, students soak up the teachings of our history that have long been overlooked in public school classrooms, to learn that they are part of the legacy of the Asian American movement, and to build solidarity with other communities of color. We hope to continue the historical push for Asian American Studies that organizers and activists began decades ago and to bring Asian American Studies into Texas public school classrooms.
ISSUES & DEMANDS
We hope that you will join us in this fight.
Issue: Culturally relevant courses go far beyond the classroom in cultivating a generation of leaders who will need the necessary skills and knowledge to create a just and equitable society. Asian American Studies is an essential part of the fabric of ethnic studies and needs to be taught in K-12 classrooms to benefit all students.
Therefore, we demand that:
1. K-12 public classroom instructions include the histories of people of color in the United States that spotlights Asian American and Pacific Islander perspectives.
2. We demand that the Texas State Board of Education develop a set of curriculum standards for Asian American Studies and approve the course for students to take in public schools
Besides our regular schedule, we also frequently host visiting teachers and speakers.
