Davis community seeks change through Ethnic Studies Taskforce

CAPTION: The Davis Joint Unified School District Ethnic Studies Taskforce met on Feb. 11 to discuss how to incorporate ethnic studies into the DJUSD curriculum.

By Grace Kishiyama,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Around 70 members of the Davis Joint Unified School District community attended a Zoom call on Feb. 11 to discuss Ethnic Studies in the Davis Joint Unified School District..

The purpose of the DJUSD Ethnic Studies Taskforce is to “listen to voices and experiences of our community to build a foundation for Ethnic Studies in DJUSD.”

The taskforce is made up of around 100 members of the DJUSD community, including staff and students that are helping contribute to the development of an ethnic studies program.

According to the DJUSD website page on ethnic studies, “ethnic studies is the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity in the United States, including curriculum that encompasses multiple points of view that reflect the diversity of all our students.” 

Students from all over the district have the opportunity to join a taskforce which is in parallel with the DJUSD Ethnic Studies Taskforce.

“[The student taskforce] is a space for students to self-organize,” DJUSD climate coordinator Kate Snow said.

The group creates speakers for the main Ethnic Studies meetings that take place every second Thursday of every month.

At this week’s meeting, speakers included Nandu Sundaram, a current sixth grader at Willett Elementary, Juan Muhirwe, a sophomore at Davis High and two others.

This meeting’s student panel moderator was sophomore Astraea Bluecoat. She was the first student to speak and explained the importance of incorporating ethnic studies into the DJUSD curriculum.

“With ethnic studies, this gives us the opportunity to have students’ stories told,” Bluecoat said. “[Ethnic studies] is how we can see the beauty as well as the understanding that we are not alone […] I feel like many students have felt alone before because of their sexuality, because of their race, because of their religion, because of their gender.”  

Each individual called school officials to action and requested they make changes to the DJUSD curriculum.

“I don’t see an abundance of representation,” Sundaram said. “It would be nicer if the curriculum could get more in detail about other cultures.”

“We need to stop teaching American history as a narrative in which America is growing each day,” Muhirwe said. 

He went on to explain how the African American community continues to be oppressed well after slavery has come to an end in the United States.

“We need to work towards having a less whitewashed and colonized history of America and have a better representation of people not only in America but also in the African diaspora,” Muhirwe said. 

The school officials are taking into consideration the opinions of each member of the DJUSD community who has suggestions on how to incorporate ethnic studies into the DJUSD curriculum.

At the end of the final ethnic studies meeting, school officials will be taking the feedback from the DJUSD community to a committee made up of 20 to 30 people which will be called the Ethnic Studies Advisory Board. 

The next Ethnic Studies Taskforce meeting will be held on March 11 via Zoom.