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Our intersectionalities impact our positionalities, how they impact us, and how we react to what is happening around us. Each of our lived experiences is part of a bigger situation that we are all a part of. At times, we need to pause to preserve ourselves. This is not about being selfish or running away, but a necessity to be able to reflect to survive and be able to move forward with intention and with wisdom.

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Michelle Obama On Current Political Climate: ‘Fear Is Not A Proper Motivator’ | TODAY

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You may have to protect yourself from family, which is ok, but can be difficult.

You have to set boundaries and say no and not accept being stepped on. You have to do things like removing yourself from social media and even from talking with family members.

You have to find balance and sometimes remove yourself

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I have to focus on other things. My students give me hope. The terms being used (i.e., registry) cause fears we do not need to experience right now.

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What will happen to our Black men and boys next?

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Turn off the news announcements. The media thrives on conflict, even NPR. The push notifications are pushing us to pay attention. We can resist giving it attention as a way of resistance and survival.

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We have to be selfish and take care of ourselves and our own loved ones right now. This must be temporary, but it is necessary and it is NOT selfish.

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We need to hear one another's voices and strategies to maintain hope. We need to problem-solve the next steps for African American men--together. We need whites to do this, and figure out how to continue fighting because people of color are being forced into self-preservation and survival, and they are weary.

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Even critical optimism is being challenged right now. We need to hear from one another to retain our hope. One salve is journaling and writing. The white people must carry the burden now for the protests because Black people, especially men, have already carried this burden.

We need to figure out the balance of being informed but not overwhelmed or distracted by it.

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I am no poet, and I do not pretend to know much about poetry, but one poet I tend to come to when I feel at a loss for words like I'd like to shut everything out is Mary Oliver. I love to take long walks and look up and down and around, but some days even this is difficult to muster the energy to do - but when I do force myself out to do it, I always feel better after. This poem by Oliver, When I am Among Trees, reminds me why. There is something about communing with nature and those parts of the world that are not human that not only just simply makes me feel better. I think in times of precarity and change a normal impulse to worry about oneself and loved ones, reasonably. But this also atomizes us. Oliver's poems, and this one about trees, attend to the togetherness of things, and this is what I feel when I walk. Incidentally, while at AERA last week, I learned about the WalkingLab. A group of scholars that use walking as a way to think about doing research differently, which folks may be interested in. Here's a bit from the website: WalkingLab studies and advances the theory and practice of critical walking methodologies through interdisciplinary arts practices and public walking events. The various projects and events activated at WalkingLab draw on feminist-queer, anti-racist, anti-ableist, and anti-colonial thought and practice to question who gets to walk where, how we walk, under whose terms, and what kind of publics we can make.

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When I Am Among the Trees: Mary Oliver’s Spare and Stunning Ode to Serenity

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“You too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

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I’ve been studying the intersectionality of two communities, neurodivergent and nonbinary gender. Nick Walker dubbed this neuroqueer. Neurodivergent people are ten times more likely to be nonbinary than the general population.

These communities are under attack by this administration. Both have been deemed mental illnesses. I’m not a fan of the term, it’s judgmental. Besides, everyone has the rights to seek their best life in a society that fosters that growth, rather than limiting it.

I fear for the people affected by these normalization of marginalizing the people I care about. I fear this normalization can become malignant.

I hope the building of communities can reverse the progression of this hate, and start fostering the growth I mentioned earlier.

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These days I find it difficult to find hope in any aspect of the world. A colleague shared an anonymous response to Trump's directive requiring school districts to certify that they are not engaging in DEI practices. I find hope in this response and when I can't take anymore, I read it again to get fired up and find solidarity (it's long...but worth the read!):

Still Not Signing: A Superintendent's Response to the Department of Education's Anti-DEI Ultimatum

The federal government gave us ten days to sign away our values. Here’s our answer.

April  8, 2025

To Whom It May (Unfortunately) Concern at the U.S. Department of Education:

Thank you for your April 3 memorandum, which I read several times — not because it was legally persuasive, but because I kept checking to see if it was satire. Alas, it appears you are serious.

You’ve asked me, as superintendent of a public school district, to sign a "certification" declaring that we are not violating federal civil rights law — by, apparently, acknowledging that civil rights issues still exist. You cite Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, then proceed to argue that offering targeted support to historically marginalized students is somehow discriminatory.

That’s not just legally incoherent — it’s a philosophical Möbius strip of bad faith.

Let me see if I understand your logic:

If we acknowledge racial disparities, that’s racism.

If we help English learners catch up, that’s favoritism.

If we give a disabled child a reading aide, we’re denying someone else the chance to struggle equally.

And if we train teachers to understand bias, we’re indoctrinating them — but if we train them to ignore it, we’re “restoring neutrality”?

How convenient that your sudden concern for “equal treatment” seems to apply only when it’s used to silence conversations about race, identity, or inequality.

Let’s talk about our English learners. Would you like us to stop offering translation services during parent-teacher conferences? Should we cancel bilingual support staff to avoid the appearance of “special treatment”? Or would you prefer we just teach all content in English and hope for the best, since acknowledging linguistic barriers now counts as discrimination?

And while we’re at it — what’s your official stance on IEPs? Because last I checked, individualized education plans intentionally give students with disabilities extra support. Should we start removing accommodations to avoid offending the able-bodied majority? Maybe cancel occupational therapy altogether so no one feels left out?

If a student with a learning disability receives extended time on a test, should we now give everyone extended time, even if they don’t need it? Just to keep the playing field sufficiently flat and unthinking?

Your letter paints equity as a threat. But equity is not the threat. It’s the antidote to decades of failure. Equity is what ensures all students have a fair shot. Equity is what makes it possible for a child with a speech impediment to present at the science fair. It’s what helps the nonverbal kindergartner use an AAC device. It’s what gets the newcomer from Ukraine the ESL support she needs without being left behind.

And let’s not skip past the most insulting part of your directive — the ten-day deadline. A national directive sent to thousands of districts with the subtlety of a ransom note, demanding signatures within a week and a half or else you’ll cut funding that supports... wait for it... low-income students, disabled students, and English learners.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. A moral victory for bullies and bureaucrats everywhere.

So no, we will not be signing your “certification.”

We are not interested in joining your theater of compliance.

We are not interested in gutting equity programs that serve actual children in exchange for your political approval.

We are not interested in abandoning our legal, ethical, and educational responsibilities to satisfy your fear of facts.

We are interested in teaching the truth.

We are interested in honoring our students’ identities.

We are interested in building a school system where no child is invisible, and no teacher is punished for caring too much.

And yes — we are prepared to fight this. In the courts. In the press. In the community. In Congress, if need be.

Because this district will not be remembered as the one that folded under pressure.

We will be remembered as the one that stood its ground — not for politics, but for kids.

Sincerely,

District Superintendent

Still Teaching. Still Caring. Still Not Signing.

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I hope that those who benefit from and choose to remain "unaware" of the systematic racism and inequities still in place/at work today will have life-changing moments when they begin to be negatively affected in the political climate, policies, and outcomes. I hope they look internally, confront their privilege and biases, and humbly find spaces to work in community with those already attempting to make "good trouble" on the ground.

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My spirituality has always been tied to nature. I went hiking in the hills around Galena in March as a means to get grounded amidst the political turmoil. For the five hours that I hiked and did rituals in the woods, the sun wore a halo. This was much like a rainbow, but full circle rather than being cut off at the horizon. This rare and beautiful site brought me comfort and strength. When I get worried about what humans have wrought, I head for the woods, the shore, the mountains...to renew in an environment where there is no strife.

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I fear the removal of DEI funding, curriculum, etc., in lieu of a focus on "all groups" will result in a surface, shallow level considered "equal," but which furthers the gaps of inequity for students and faculty of color. Pretty soon, we will not be able to disaggregate data to see what is really going on for the different groups of students we serve.

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As we navigate in our world & communities, let us walk in God's strength as we walk our miles at any length. We must endeavor to be strong because in our assignments, we must carry on. The Children need us. The Families need us, so our strong stance is a must! In God we trust. When I am afraid, O LORD Almighty, I put my trust in you. (GNT Psalms 56:3)

AMaxwell

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AskMi is an AI chatbot designed to support novice educational researchers at National Louis University. While AskMi doesn't replace the warm, fuzzy, and intellectually stimulating conversations with supportive faculty, you can ask it for ideas and clarifications. For example, you don't know where to start - tell AskMi, and it will help you think through research ideas, advise you about the structure of a methodology chapter, or different kinds of literature reviews. 

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AskMi - An Ed. Research Critical Friend with endless answers

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AskMi - An Ed. Research Critical Friend with endless answers

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Try out AskMi with this simple prompt: "I don't know where to start with my research project." Share your feedback and feature wish-list with Dr. Elkordy, aelkordy@nl.edu. Always openly discuss the use of AI with your faculty advisors. Here's the link: AskMi

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Our team of canvassers, letter writers, phone call makers, and strategists managed to defeat a Musk-bankrolled candidate for the Supreme Court. Instead we elected a highly competent and qualified supreme court justice, Susan Crawford, thus sustaining rule of law and small 'd' democracy in Wisconsin, for at least a while! What I/we do on our 'free time', stay involved, and instead of mourn, organize! And never miss a vote.

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Back in the 90s, when I was knee deep in feminist philosophies, I remember learning about the concept of radical imagination. I remember the importance of imagining a more just world together, and how the muting of such an imagination has real-life implications. One of the many casualties of standardized learning...

I think it is important to employ our radical imagination in the current moment.

Here is an excerpt found at Open Democracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/why-social-movements-need-radical-imagination/ It is from The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity. In this book, they try to better understand how the imagination animates movements for social change today. Based on that understanding, we want to reframe the purpose of social movement research.

Here is a excerpt: At its most superficial, the radical imagination is the ability to imagine the world, life, and social institutions not as they are but as they might otherwise be. It is the courage and the intelligence to recognize that the world can and should be changed. The radical imagination is not just about dreaming of different futures. It’s about bringing those possibilities back from the future to work on the present, to inspire action and new forms of solidarity today.

Likewise, the radical imagination is about drawing on the past, telling different stories about how the world came to be the way it is, remembering the power and importance of yesterday’s struggles, and honouring the way they live on in the present.

The radical imagination also represents our capacity to imagine and make common cause with the experiences of other people. It undergirds our ability to build solidarity across boundaries and borders, real or imagined. In this sense, it is the basis of solidarity and the struggle against oppression, which are key to building of robust, resilient, and powerful movements. Without the radical imagination, we are left only with the residual dreams of the powerful and, for the vast majority, they are experienced not as dreams but as nightmares of insecurity, precarity, violence, and hopelessness. Without the radical imagination, we are lost.

We approach the radical imagination not as a thing that individuals possess in greater or lesser quantities but as a collective process, something that groups do and do together through shared experiences, languages, stories, ideas, art, and theory. Collaborating with those around us, we create multiple, overlapping, contradictory, and coexistent imaginary landscapes, horizons of common possibility and shared understanding. These shared landscapes are shaped by and also shape the imaginations and the actions of those individuals who participate in them.

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Why social movements need the radical imagination

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Book extract: The radical imagination often emerges most brilliantly from those who encounter the greatest or most acute oppression and exploitation, and is often stunted and diluted in those who enjoy the greatest privileges.