The Freedom Dreaming for Educational Justice project begins from the premise that in order to change inequitable schooling systems, we must first imagine a better reality.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, a diverse collective of K-12 educators, UAlbany students, authors, artists, and K-12 students engaged in arts-based inquiries into educational justice. We asked: How do we critique harmful educational practices, but also construct new possibilities for transformation? How can we draw on the arts to dream beyond our current constraints and design new educational futures?

As we invited students to take up their pens, paintbrushes, and phones, we were taken by the creativity, the depth of insight, and the great diversity in how they created their education freedom dreams. Many young people chose to create layered and compelling self-portraits to express the parts of themselves they often feel compelled to hide in school. While some students chose to create visions of more equitable school spaces and more culturally responsive curricula, others took up the opportunity to advocate for a better, more peaceful, and more just world outside of school.

In response to the theme of this month’s CASDA newsletter, we have selected 10 pieces of art made by K-12 students from the more than 150 submissions for our on-campus exhibition in June of 2022. We invite you to consider the dreams, visions, hopes, and desires emergent in this artwork. What do you notice? What are the students asking of us, of you? What education freedom dreams do you have?

The Freedom Dreaming for Educational Justice is an initiative of the School of Education’s Capital District Writing Project and the Touhey Family Fellows program. Questions? Please email the project director, Dr. Kelly Wissman at kwissman@albany.edu or visit https://sites.google.com/view/freedomdreaming/.