A Queer Endeavor & the BUENO Center present

CHORDS OF ESPERANZA Learning Collective

A year-long online professional learning experience running from July 2026-April 2027

Announcing a Chords Remix

In our conversations with educators we’ve heard a consistent message: time is limited, travel can be difficult, budgets are stretched, and safety for in person events is a concern. Yet, educators value spaces to connect, learn together and strengthen their capacity to support students.

In response, our team has decided to transform this summer’s two-day, in-person conference into the Chords of Esperanze Collective Learning Series, a year-long virtual community of learning and practice. While we were looking forward to seeing everyone in-person and recognize this could be disappointing for some, we hope to sustain ongoing connection and collaboration in ways that meet the needs of our communities.

We’ll have a kickoff event on July 15th and then offer 8 monthly professional learning experiences across the year where participants can choose from multiple sessions, with opportunities for shared sense-making. With an intersectional focus on creating safe and affirming spaces for marginalized students, we foresee the monthly mini-conferences as providing educators practical and conceptual tools they can apply immediately, while experimenting and working through puzzles of practice in community with one another.

We look forward to the new compositions we’ll create together in the Chords Collective Learning Series and hope you will join us!

A year-long collective learning experiencia of creating sinfonías of solidarity & educational equity.

Across the country, educators, students, and communities are enduring attacks on bilingual education, inclusive curriculum, restrictions on queer and trans visibility, and policies that criminalize trans, genderqueer, immigrant and newcomer students and families. Yet schools remain powerful sites where, everyday, educators cultivate esperanza, build solidarities, center cariño, craft futures, and honor all students for who they are. We know these efforts are currently under threat, but we don’t have to endure them alone. Together, we can rally to orchestrate melodies for solidarity, strength, and perseverance.

The Chords of Esperanza Learning Collective is a gathering for educators, scholars, community leaders, and youth-serving adults. When different movements and traditions come together, we create something stronger, more resonant, and more durable than any single note can strike. Together, we will bridge bilingual education, immigrant and newcomer justice, and queer pedagogy to ask and answer the questions, “How can we orchestrate sinfonías nuevas of solidarity in education? What new chords can we create by coming together?”

A series of professional development opportunities, connection, reflection and action.

The Chords Collective Learning Series will begin with a virtual kickoff gathering on July 15, where participants will meet one another, learn more about the year ahead, and begin building our learning community. Beginning September 9, we will convene for eight monthly professional learning sessions throughout the academic year.

Each 90-minute session will feature multiple presentation options, opportunities for small- and whole-group dialogue, and collaborative sense-making. Centered on intersectionality and the creation of safe and affirming spaces for LGBTQ+, immigrant, multilingual youth, and youth of color, these gatherings will offer educators practical ideas and strategies that can be immediately applied in their work. Participants will have opportunities to experiment with new approaches, reflect on challenges and successes, and engage in ongoing communities of practice throughout the year.

Virtual Series Schedule

Kickoff Session: Wednesday, July 15th, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Session 1: Wednesday, September 9, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 2: Monday, October 5, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 3: Monday, November 9, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 4: Wednesday, January 13, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 5: Monday, February 8, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 6: Wednesday, March 10, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 7: Monday, April 5, 2027, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Session 8: May—Watch a recorded session of your choice.

sponsored by

Why Chords?

We know that now, more than ever, we need each other.

Our goal is come together to create coalitions across lines of difference that cultivate meaningful change in education. Together, we will co-design and -co-create opportunities to foster transformative educational justice for those who need it most right now.

We will gather all educators and youth-serving adults and places to forge solidarity across roles, content areas, and school lines, ensuring that every educator is equipped to challenge oppression and advocate for a future of hope (esperanza).

Who is Chords for?

Teachers and educators from ECE - Higher Education
School staff and support
School leaders
Youth-serving adults
Community organizers and justice-oriented education advocates
University students and pre-service teachers
Researchers

What will I take with me?

Curricular and classroom tools and resources from hands-on workshops on humanizing pedaogies and culturally sustaining teaching, inlcuding translangauging and queer teaching practices
Research-backed insights and frameworks from interactive sessions on queer justice, identity, and community in education
Testimonios and calls to action from youth-led panels and conversations centering student voice and leadership
Artifacts from creative spaces for storytelling, healing, and artistic expression for educator wellbeing
Practical tools for advocacy, policy navigation, and educator agency
Wisdom from community-rooted sessions uplifting immigrant, multilingual, and intersectional experiences

Together, we'll explore questions about:

Reimagining Schools & Learning Spaces

In what ways can schools become spaces that honor the fluidity of language, culture, and gender/sexuality?
What possibilities open up when educators connect transformative pedagogies and critical, queer, bilingual, and/or immigrant-affirming practices to create spaces where our identities and full selves are celebrated as sources of collective strength?
How might queering biliteracy help us challenge rigid binaries (of language, identity, belonging, or family) that marginalize our students and ourselves?

Coalition Building, Solidarity & Collective Action

How can immigrant, newcomer, and queer students’ and educators’ stories, literacies, and leadership inform coalition-building practices that sustain intersectional movements for justice in education?
What does coming together across communities, identities, and issues require of you, me, and us?
How can we remix existing ideas and strengths to find more powerful melodies together? What might that remixing look like in the curriculum?

Resistance, Advocacy & Protection

What is the landscape of policy governing our learning spaces and pedagogical choices?
In what ways can we resisting pressures to conform to monolingual, cisnormative, and heteronormative norms?
How can educators, families, and communities collectively resist policies that attempt to silence languages, restrict queer/trans visibility, or criminalize immigrant students?

Join us!

July 15 2026 -April 5 2027

Let us know if you'll be attending!

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