This interactive session will focus on deepening the collective understanding of the nature of oppression within an education context. To do so, it will employ examples of race-based oppression including anti-Black racism and colonization. It will include several elements of oppression that often manifest themselves in educational settings. The session will also include a focus on the principles and practices that are anti-oppressive, and which move toward education for freedom and liberation.

* For College of Arts and Science employees, session 2 of the Dimensions in Diversity will include breakout discussion sessions held on Dec. 10, 11 and 14. An invitation to these sessions will be sent to all college employees by email.

* This presentation will be recorded and available for viewing on the USask Diversity site.

About the speaker

Dr. Francisco Rios (PhD) is professor of secondary education at Western Washington University (WWU). From 2011-2017, he served as dean of the Woodring College of Education at WWU. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin and worked at California State University San Marcos and the University of Wyoming before arriving in Washington.

Rios’ research interests include teachers of color, Latinos in education, and preservice teacher education with a multicultural focus. Rios served as the senior associate editor of Multicultural Perspectives, the journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education. He served as program chair for Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education) for the AERA Annual Program in 2007. Rios was the founding director of the University of Wyoming’s Social Justice Research Center. Francisco served as president of the National Association for Multicultural Education from 2014-2016.

Rios spent the spring of 2005 as a Fulbright Fellow at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Valparaíso in Chile. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Scholar Mid-Career Award from the Committee of Scholars of Color in Education from the American Educational Research Association. In 2017, he received WWU’s Diversity Achievement Award.

About the series

Dimensions in Diversity is a joint initiative of the Office of the Vice-Dean Indigenous and the Office of the Vice-Dean Faculty Relations in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan. Dimensions in Diversity seminars are an opportunity for faculty, staff and administrators to open a dialogue around diversity, inclusion and equity among colleagues in a collegial forum.