Pam Jones, Founder and Director of the Educators’ Freedom Dreaming Collective
Philosophically, I identify as a decolonial Black feminist abolitionist educator. From this philosophical location, I embrace the fullness of my humanity and identities. I reject static notions of gender. I heed the black feminist call to negotiate the beautiful tension of the visionary and pragmatic. And finally, inspired by abolition, I see world-building as a collective endeavor nourished by hope and love.
But the roots of my philosophical grounding run deep, leading back to seeds planted by my mother—Josephine Landis Jones. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, my revolutionary praxis comes from my mother, pictured in the image below with her arm securing my little body as I closed my eyes and imagined myself free to fly amidst the snowy winter of Cincinnati, Ohio.
I remember hearing story, after story, about how “Mrs. Jones” came to neighbors’ doors in our local community, talking to them, getting to know them. Read more about my mother’s indelible imprint on my lifework, here.
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Mama (Josephine L. Jones) and me in the snowy winter of Cincinnati, Ohio.
THE PERSONAL IS OUR
FOUNDATION
I foreground the personal because the personal is our foundation. But the personal is also political, and teaching is nothing, if not deeply political. I invite any and all who visit this space, and especially those who join this Collective, to engage the personal and embrace the political as these dimensions of our lives inform our work as educators committed to social justice.
I am an unapologetic, life-long learner, who was always destined to work at the intersection of education and politics.
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Read more about my background, here.
THE HERE-AND-NOW OF MY WORK: THE MITOCHONDRIA OF THE FREEDOM DREAMING COLLECTIVE
The here-and-now of my work serves as the mitochondria of the Freedom Dreaming Collective’s cell. As a teacher educator (from studying literacies at NYU to my graduate teaching at Bank Street College), I have coached students in group formations and individually. At New York University (NYU), I have studied the intergenerational language and literacy practices within Black families. Coaching teachers takes many forms, including long-term support with lesson and curriculum planning; behavioral support; decolonizing the classroom library; and navigating relationships with admin and colleagues in schooling spaces. My teacher educator work also features teaching graduate coursework on matters/ subjects including language acquisition, the foundations of modern education, designing classrooms for students in specialized settings, and supporting
students with dis/abilities. There’s a common thread linking all of these engagements: a social justice stance inviting teachers to become interrupters of injustice in their educational settings.