Transforming Education Conference
Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference
Bridging, Belonging & Civic Engagement
The last conference took place on March 29, 2025, at Easthampton High School.
The conference theme, “Bridging and Belonging without Othering: Youth Civic Engagement,” was designed to meet the needs and challenges of our current political moment. We believe it is imperative to create a space for school communities to navigate the polarization and fragmentation that is present in our communities and schools. The conference is a recurring regional conference that brings together educators, administrators, students, and community members to learn from, challenge, and support one another.
During this conference, we frame and explore tensions across social differences and ideologies that are present in our schools as we seek to find ways for all students and staff to feel a sense of true belonging.
How the Conference Benefitted Communities
- Build connections: The conference is designed to bring together people interested in equity and belonging, to network, share, and learn. This is an experience that so many of us need right now and is a gift that you can give your educators and students.
- Address anxiety and polarization: The conference seeks to address the anxiety and polarization that can be present in communities and schools.
- Focus on shared values: The conference will focus on finding shared values and building connections through stories.
- Youth-led and intergenerational collaboration: Young people are central to the conference and shape the experience through presentations, planning, and creating the overall environment. There will be opportunities for both youth-led and intergenerational collaboration.
- Practical strategies: Participants will gain practical ideas, materials, and methods that they can take back to their classrooms and communities.
- Emphasis on belonging: The conference is designed to help participants examine the challenges young people are facing in our education system and look to each other for practices that guide work towards transforming schools into sites of deep belonging for all.
- Alignment with DESE’s Educational Vision and Programs: The conference aligns with topics and practices that support students to explore and affirm their value of self, others, and the world. The conference also connects with practices and resources from DESE’s programs, such as their Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ students.
- Alignment with MA law: The conference is aligned with Massachusetts’ legal mandate under M.G.L. Ch. 76 §5, which prohibits discrimination based on “race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin or sexual orientation,” and includes content relevant to the new Educator Diversity Act.
2025 Illuminary Award
The Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference proudly presents the first-ever Illuminary Award this year. This recognition celebrates visionaries whose work in education sheds light on liberatory practices that center students, joy, justice, and healing in schools. The Illuminary Award honors educators, researchers, and thought leaders of all ages who have made exceptional contributions to illuminating transformative pedagogies and fostering environments where all students can flourish. Recipients of this award embody the conference’s dedication to reimagining education as a powerful catalyst for social change and equity. This year, we are excited to be recognizing the esteemed Dr. Barbara J. Love for her lifetime commitment to sharing deeply loving and transformative liberation work in education and beyond.
2025 Keynote Speaker: Tiffany Jewell
Tiffany Jewell is a Black biracial writer, twin sister, first generation American, cisgender mama, anti-bias antiracist (ABAR) educator. She is the author of the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie Best Seller, This Book Is Anti-Racist, a book for young folks [and everyone] to support waking up, taking action, and doing the work of becoming antiracist.
She has been working with children and families for nearly two decades and worked as a Montessori educator for fifteen years. She enjoys exploring social justice with young folks, especially the history of racism and resistance, economic justice, and socially and personally constructed identities. Tiffany also likes working with educators and supporting them building strong, authentic communities in which every child can be seen and valued.
Tiffany lives on the homeland of the Pocumtuc, Nonotuck, and the Nipmuck with her two young storytellers, husband, a small dog with a big personality, and a turtle she’s had since she was nine years old.
2025 Conference Sponsors
Past Conferences
2016 Conference
Creating Equity, Strengthening Community, and Engaging Identity
The first Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference was held on October 15, 2016, at Holyoke Community College.
Following the 2016 Conference, CES continued with efforts toward transformational work across the region through the Transforming Education for Social Justice Regional Initiative.
Keynote: Pa’lante
Towards Transformative Justice
At Holyoke High School young people have created a model program that seeks to engage youth and adults in practices such as community building, support, and accountability circles and through their work with circle practice, they are challenging traditional paradigms of power that often leave youth voice out of the decision-making process around discipline and whole-school climate and culture.
2018 Conference
Centering Youth Voice, Experience, and Power
The second Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference was held on March 10, 2018, at Easthampton High School. The conference was sponsored by GLSEN.
Keynote: Cyphers for Justice Youth and Dr. Jamila Lyiscott
Pedagogy on Fire! Centering Youth Voices for Social Justice
On the other side of this national struggle, how will students remember the state of our classrooms? This talk, led by Cyphers for Justice youth researchers and Dr. Jamila Lyiscott calls for all educators to set their pedagogies on fire! It is a call to uproot the Eurocentric pedagogical approaches that not only under-prepare students for the realities of our increasingly multiethnic, multilingual, globalized society, but are also rooted in colonial and racist ideologies that stifle the voices, identities, and realities of students.
2023 Conference
Build Knowledge, Raise Consciousness, and Take Action
The third Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference was held on March 11, 2023, at the Integrative Learning Center at UMass Amherst.
Keynote: Tem Blessed and Evelin Aquino
Tem Blessed is a socially conscious Hip Hop Artist who has been making relevant music with a message for over a decade. His music and message are about social justice and sustainability and are designed to inspire the audience toward positive change and global responsibility.
Evelin Aquino is a graduate of UMass Amherst and has worked with hundreds of youth and communities across the country as an educator, trainer, mentor, and facilitator. Evelin has dedicated her life to social justice, utilizing the arts as a vehicle for empowerment and education toward liberation.
Click here to watch Keynote video.
Closing Performance: First Generation Ensemble
We were so excited to welcome the First Generation Ensemble (a youth, theater performance group in Springfield) to perform their piece called “Mother Tongue”.
Click here to watch Closing Performance video.