In honor of Women’s History Month, I want to dedicate this piece to the phenomenal women educators and activists who have played a major role in the fight for liberation and justice throughout history. There are so many influential women whom I could have mentioned in this piece, but I want to particularly focus on educators who don’t always get the recognition they deserve. Here are six of those women:
Hana Te Hemara is one of the founding members of Ngā Tamatoa, a Māori activist group in New Zealand that played a significant role in advocating for the rights of the Māori people, particularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through her community organizing and activism, Hana Te Hemara was a champion for the rights of the Māori people, which included fighting for the preservation and teaching of the Māori language in schools, fighting against racial discrimination, and combating other injustices that violated the Treaty of Waitangi.
Susie King Taylor’s resume is one with many firsts. At 13 years old, she founded the first free Black school for children. She was also the first Black woman to self-published her memoirs. She was the first Black nurse to serve during the Civil War and the first Black woman to openly teach in a school for formerly enslaved people in Georgia! If that’s not the resume of a trailblazer, I don’t know what is.
Growing up in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai advocated for the right of girls to receive an education in a region where the Taliban had banned girls from attending school. She co-founded the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization, with her father Ziauddin. The Malala Fund works to advocate for the education rights of girls internationally. At the age of seventeen, Malala became the youngest-ever person to win the Nobel Prize. Malala continues to serve as a global symbol for the rights of girls and women to receive an education and is actively involved in promoting education and advocating for social justice.
When we talk about the most influential figures in the history of education, Marva Collins’ name gets left out way too often! A living legend in Chicago, she not only founded Westside Prep School with her own teacher retirement money, but she would go on to transform the way teachers teach Black children. Her impact was so great that she was nominated TWICE to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Education during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Even Prince featured her in his music video for “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and donated $500,000 to the Westside Prep Teacher Training Institute. Marva Collins was a trailblazer in the education field and her work still lives on well beyond her passing in 2015.
Born in Chile, Gabriela Mistral was a poet, educator, diplomat, and the first Latin American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. One of the great literary figures of our time, Gabriela Mistral’s work transcends the literary space. She was an education pioneer who advocated for women’s rights and transformed the education system in Chile, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America.
Haunani Kay-Trask was a revolutionary figure and leader of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, and was a vocal supporter of the Black Panther Party during her time as an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. As a faculty member of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she played a crucial role in the development and promotion of Indigenous studies. She was a professor of Hawaiian Studies and played a significant part in establishing the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the university.
Each of these women made significant strides in shaping education policies, promoting inclusivity, and advocating for justice within the K-12 education system.
Their efforts and overall legacies continue to inspire educators and activists in the ongoing fight for a more equitable and just education for all.
It’s more than fitting that we launch Women’s History Month by giving them their flowers.
Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, LLC., an independent educational consulting firm that provides professional development and consulting services globally to educators who desire to enhance their instructional practices and reach their utmost potential in the classroom. He is the author of two books, "Shaping the Teacher Identity: 8 Lessons That Will Help Define the Teacher in You" and his latest, "From Inaction to 'In Action': Creating a New Normal for Urban Educators". Throughout his 14-year career as a middle school math educator, author, and entrepreneur, Kwame has been on a personal mission to uplift and empower educators who are committed to reversing the ills of the public education system in America and around the world. As a staunch ambassador and advocate for teacher empowerment, Kwame has spoken at numerous national education conferences and worked diligently to support the recruitment and retention of teachers of color in the education system. In January 2019, he was one of 35 Massachusetts teachers of color chosen by Commissioner Jeff Riley to be in the inaugural cohort of the InSPIRED (In-Service Professionals Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity) Fellowship, an initiative organized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for veteran teachers of color to recruit students of color at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels to teach in targeted districts within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As an InSPIRED Teaching Fellow, Kwame facilitated professional development workshops for aspiring teachers at universities such as Boston College, UMass Boston, and Worcester State University and has served as a guest speaker for non-profit teacher pipeline programs such as Generation Teach and Worcester Public Schools’ Future Teachers Academy. A proud graduate of Temple University, Kwame holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in education. He was honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. for his unwavering commitment to the advancement of the teacher profession.
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