Antonia Darder (born 1952) is a Puerto Rican and American scholar, artist, poet and activist. She holds the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Leadership in the School of Education at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

. She also is Professor Emerita of Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

Education

Darder was born in Puerto Rico in 1952. She attended Pasadena City College, where she earned a degree in nursing. She later attended

Cal State Los Angeles Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

for her bachelor's in

Rehabilitation Counseling Rehabilitation counseling is focused on helping people who have disabilities achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals through a counseling process. Rehabilitation Counselors can be found in private practice, in rehabilitation ...

and received a master's degree from

Pacific Oaks College Pacific Oaks College is a private college with its main campus in Pasadena, California and online degree options. The college draws on Quaker principles and focuses on social justice. It offers full and part-time undergraduate and graduate cours ...

Human Development Human development may refer to: * Development of the human body * Developmental psychology * Human development (economics) * Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development * Human evolution Human evoluti ...

. In 1989, she received her doctorate in Education from Claremont Graduate University.

Early life

When Darder was three, her mother brought her to the mainland during the

Operation Bootstrap Operation Bootstrap ( es, Operación Manos a la Obra) is the name given to a series of projects which transformed the economy of Puerto Rico into an industrial and developed one. The federal government of the United States together with what i ...

post-war migration when more than 500,000 Puerto Ricans emigrated to the United States between 1949 and 1959. Raised in poverty in East

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, Darder was a young mother with three children when she began her studies at Pasadena City College in 1972. While at PCC, she began exploring the realm of cultural differences in U.S. society, as a bilingual peer counselor. Upon completing nursing school, she worked as a pediatric nurse in a hospital and then for the

Head Start Program Head Start is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families. The program's s ...

. Her work included developing programs for parents, and providing health education for children and their families. She attended

California State University Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

and then

, where she earned a master's degree in

with a specialization in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling. From 1982 to 1986, Darder began teaching college seminars that focused on sociopolitical issues and questions of culture, human development, and parenting. In 1986, she joined the faculty at Pacific Oaks where she developed a graduate program in Bicultural Development that was discussed in her first book, ''Culture and Power in the Classroom''. In the late 80s and early 90s, Darder studied and worked with renowned Brazilian educator,

Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work '' Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the found ...

, whose ideas profoundly influenced the direction of her life's work. Her book ''Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love'' focused on Freire's important contributions to education, particularly from the standpoint of oppressed communities. From 1993 to 1996, as a recipient of a

Kellogg Foundation The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in June 1930 as the W. K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg. In 1934, Kellogg donated more than $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments t ...

fellowship and participant in the Kellogg International Leadership Program, her research took her to

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, where she studied the education and culture of indigenous children in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

Recent work

Darder has taught at California Polytechnic University and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and was recognized as a Distinguished Professor at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. In 2005, working with graduate students and community members, she established the ''Liberacion! Radio Collective'', a public affairs radio program on WEFT 90.1 Champaign that examines politics, art, and struggle through the nexus of local/global connections. In 2011, Darder was recognized as Professor Emerita at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, where she taught in the Department of Educational Policy Studies from 2003 to 2011. Today she serves as Presidential Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Leadership in the School of Education at

Honors and awards

In addition to her recognition as a distinguished professor and endowed chair of ethics and moral leadership at Loyola Marymount, Darder has received numerous awards and honors for both her scholarly and community contributions. In 2015, Darder was inducted as an American Educational Research Association Fellow and was one of nine internationally recognized educators nominated for the Brock Prize in Education. In 2016, she was awarded the

Alpha Sigma Nu Alpha Sigma Nu () is the honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities. ΑΣΝ is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies. Founded in 1915 at Marquette University as Alpha Sigma Tau, it adopted the current name in 1930. The s ...

Outstanding Book of the Year award for the ''International Critical Pedagogy Reader'', co-edited with Peter Mayo & João Paraskeva. She was then honored for her scholarship and community activism by CADRE, a parent community organization working with families in South Central Los Angeles. Later that year, she was also awarded the Paulo Freire Democratic Project award, given to individuals who embody the life and legacy of Paulo Freire and who are characterized by intellectual excellence, ethical concern and deep commitment to the creation, nurturing, and sustainability of fair and just communities. In 2017, she was awarded the Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award by the American Education Research Association. Other honors have included the Eminent Scholar Award from Southern Queensland University, Toowoomba, Australia; a Thinker in Residence Distinguished Faculty Fellowship from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia; and a Rains Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work. She has also been the recipient of a Distinguished International Research Fellow Award from New Castle University, Callaghan, Australia; and a Heroes Award from the Sisters of Saint Joseph for Reconciliation and Justice awarded to individuals who exemplify justice and reconciliation in their lives. Along with a national

Fellowship, she has also received the Social Justice in Education Award from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, an Outstanding Book of the Year honor from the

American Educational Research Association The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and p ...

for her book ''Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love'', and recognition for her Outstanding Service to the Latino Community from El Centro de Acción Social. Darder was one of 72 women chosen to appear in Victoria Alvarado's book, ''Mujeres de Consciencia/Women of Conscience.'' (Floricanto Press, 2009), a tribute to U.S. Latinas who have made a definite and long standing contribution to the Latino community and the nation at large.

Artistic endeavors

Poet

In 1983, Darder's first book of poetry, ''Each Day I Feel More Free'' was published. For the next six years, she frequently presented her poetry at cultural events. Over the years, her poetry has been published in a variety of venues, including the '' Boston Journal of Education''. Although somewhat unorthodox, she often includes poetry in her academic speeches and texts. In her last book, ''A Dissident Voice: Essays on Culture, Pedagogy, and Power'', each of the seven sections in the book begins with one of her poems.

Visual artist

In 1984, Darder traveled to visit a friend in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City and there discovered the museum La Casa Azul (the Blue House) which was the residence of renowned painters Frida Kahlo and

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

. Darder experienced such inspiration from her daily afternoon sojourns to the Blue House that she began painting immediately after returning home from Mexico City. Since then, she has exhibited her work in a variety of venues including ''Self-Help Graphics'' and

Plaza de la Raza The Plaza de la Raza (Place of the People) is a multidisciplinary cultural arts and educational center located in Lincoln Park in East Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1970 by actress Margo Albert and trade union activist Frank S. Lóp ...

in Los Angeles, and continues to create new works.

Songwriter

Darder first performed and wrote songs in the mid-1980s for Canto Jibaro, a Los Angeles community musical ensemble of

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

and Puerto Rican activists, whose music carried a revolutionary message. Later she began learning to play the guitar. With Guido Nuñez del Prado, a Peruvian folk musician, she co-edited an anthology of articles on music of the

, ''Seminario de Musica de la Region''. Writing and performing in English and Spanish, Darder has penned over 20 folksongs of love, struggle, and freedom.

Bibliography

Books

Darder's first book, ''Culture and Power in the Classroom'' (Bergin & Garvey), was released in 1991. The book was recognized by ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' in 1992 as "a significant tool for democratic schooling in the 20th century." As a scholar of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute she wrote ''The Policies and the Promise: The Public Schooling of Latino Children'' (1993). Her follow-up book, ''Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love'' (Westview, 2001), was named one of the outstanding books in curriculum for 2001-2002 by the

. In 2011, ''A Dissident Voice, Essays on Culture, Pedagogy and Power'' was released by Peter Lang books. The book is a compilation of 21 essays and seven poems published from 1991 to 2011. In 2012, the 20th anniversary edition of ''Culture and Power in the Classroom'' was published by Paradigm Press. Darder co-authored with Rodolfo Torres the book ''After Race: Racism After Multiculturalism'', and was editor of ''Culture and Difference'' (Bergin & Garvey, 1995). She also co-edited ''Latinos and Education'' (Routledge, 1996/2013), ''The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy and Society'' (Blackwell, 1997), ''The Critical Pedagogy Reader'' (Routledge, 2002/2008) and ''International Critical Pedagogy Reader''. Continuing to provide ongoing perspective in the field, Darder served as an Associate Editor and Advisory Board Member for the journal ''Latino Studies''.

Film

In 2009, Darder's documentary, ''Breaking Silence: The Pervasiveness of Oppression'', was awarded the second place prize at the Central Illinois Women's Film Festival. The film was produced with a team of graduate students and community members involved in the Diversity and Technology for Engaging Communities research team, a study examining issues of power, privilege, and racism on the

UIUC The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

campus.

News editorials and columns

* Darder, A. (2015). Racism in a Medically Segregated World. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2015). Facing the Complexities of the Charter School Debate. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2015). Childhood Trauma and the Struggle for Liberation. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2015). From One Never Meant to Survive in ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2015). Countering the “Chega Freire” Campaign in Brazil: Our Emancipatory Struggle Continues. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2014). Racism and the Charter School Movement: Unveiling the Myths. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. and P. Mayo (2013). Response to Syria a Duplicitous Affair. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A, (2012). Disparity in Schools is Just One Symptom in ''New York Times''. * Mayo, P., A. Darder, A, Hickling-Hudson (2012). From 9/11 to 9/12: The Onset of Neoliberalism in Turkey, 32 Years On. ''Truthout''. * Darder, A. (2009). Kurdish Educators Arrested in ''Public I'', Urbana, IL. *Darder, A. (2008) "1968/2008: Making Power for Change" ''Public I'', Urbana, ILUrbana-Champaign Independent Media Center's ''Public I'' http://publici.ucimc.org *Darder, A. (2008) "Pedagogy of the Oppressed Revisited" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2008) "Making Sense of the Iraq War with Boricua Eyes" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2007) "Vernon Bellecourt: A Life of Struggle for Indian Rights" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2007) "UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2007) "Imagining Justice: Politics, Love, and Dissent" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2007) "Elvira Arellano:Inspiring the Immigrant Rights Struggle" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (2006) "Colonized Wombs: Politics of Sterilization" ''Public I'', Urbana, IL *Darder, A. (1993) "Reflections on El Centro de Accion Social" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA *Darder, A. (1987) "Hunger: A Legacy of Colonial System" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA *Darder, A. (1987) "Schools Lag Behind People They Serve" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA *Darder, A. (1987) "Looking Deep to Find the Roots of Racism" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA *Darder, A. (1986) "Minorities and Family Planning" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA *Darder, A. (1986) "When Drugs Entered in the Mainstream" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA. *Darder, A. (1986) "Freeway Destruction to Minority Communities" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA. *Darder, A. (1986) "Minority Leadership" ''Star News'', Pasadena, California. *Darder, A. (1986) "Bilingual Education: An Old Tradition" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA. *Darder, A. (1983) "Fair Community Representation" ''Star News'', Pasadena, CA.

Literary publications

* Darder. A. (2011). You say you've got a program? in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York: Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). The Great Mother Wails in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York: Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). The unexpected reappearance of don quixote in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York: Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). Cafe Contemplation in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York:Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). Of struggle and reflection in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York: Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). Rican woman Madness is just another word for love in ''A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power''. New York: Peter Lang. * Darder. A. (2011). A bicultural riddle in A Dissident Voice: Essays in Culture, Pedagogy and Power. New York: Peter Lang. *Darder, A. (2008) "The Great Mother Wails" ''Public I'' (November) *Darder, A. (2007) "Al Amanecer/At Dawn" ''Multicultural Education Journal'' (Spring) *Darder, A. (1996) "Sobreviviendo: Notes on Poetry and Grief" ''Women Who Don’t Sell Out'' L. Fulani (ed.) New York: Carrillo International *Darder, A. (1993) "rican-woman-madness is just another word for love" ''The California Sociologist: Culture and Conflict in the Academy'' G. Romero and L. Arguelles (eds.). Vol. 26. *Darder, A. (1992) "desenterandote" ''Si Se Puede'' M. Baca, et al. (eds.) ''Special Edition: Dia de la Raza'' Santa Barbara, California, October *Darder, A. (1991) "The unexpected reappearance of don quixote" ''Journal of Education: Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: Bilingualism in the 90’s'' D. Macedo (ed.). Boston U. Press *Darder, A. (1991) "of struggle and reflection" ''Journal of Education, Crossing Borders, Bridging Worlds: Bilingualism in the 90’s'' (special issue). D. Macedo (ed.). Boston University Press *Darder, A. (1991) "a bicultural riddle" ''Journal of Education, Crossing Borders, Bridging Worlds:Bilingualism in the 90’s'' (special issue), D. Macedo (ed.). Boston University Press *Darder, A. (1989) "the woman with many hearts" Canto Jibaro Press *Darder, A. (1985) "i want to feel good" ''The Southern California Anthology'' M. McLaughlin and C.Westphal (eds.). Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California *Darder, A. (1984) "when she reads this i hope she feels the love" ''The Southern California Anthology'' J. Woetzel, et al. (eds.) Santa Barbara, CA: Ross-Erickson Publishers *Darder, A. (1983) "you say you’ve got a program?" ''Chismearte'' M. Gamboa and L. Rodriguez (eds.) Los Angeles, CA: Concilio Arte Popular

References

External links

Antonia Darder's official website

Faculty page, School of Education at LMU
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darder, Antonia 1952 births Living people People from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican academics Puerto Rican painters Puerto Rican women painters Puerto Rican women artists Puerto Rican poets Spanish-language poets Critical pedagogy Development specialists Education writers Puerto Rican educational theorists University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Pacific Oaks College alumni Pasadena City College alumni California State University, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American women artists American Spanish-language writers