AACTE & CSU Project UNITE: Urban Teachers Consortium Quarterly Gathering

The Urban Teaching Consortium (UTC) is a quarterly gathering of like-minded educators who are working to advance equity and excellence in urban schools.

The UTC aims to do the following:

• Strengthen teacher knowledge and preparation for urban districts.
• Create a robust teaching network to engage preservice teachers, in-service teachers, faculty, and the wider community.

The Urban Teaching Consortium is developed in partnership with Cleveland State University and is funded by the United States Department of Education SEED Grant.

February 2025 Topic: Whiteness, Racial justice, and Cultivating the Emotional Fortitude of Hope

Speaker:

Cheryl E. Matias, Ph.D.
Professor and Motherscholar
University of San Diego

Cheryl E. Matias, Ph.D., was recently awarded the 2020 Mid-Career Award for her work on racial justice in teacher education by the American Educational Research Association. She is a full professor in the School of Leadership and Education Science at the University of San Diego. Her research focuses on race and ethnic studies in education with a theoretical focus on critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical pedagogy, and feminism of color. Specifically, she uses a feminist of color approach to deconstruct the emotionality of whiteness in urban teacher education and how it impacts urban education. Her other research interest is on motherscholarship and supporting women of color and mother scholars in the academy.

A former K-12 teacher in both South Central, Los Angeles Unified School District and Bed-Stuyvesant, New York City Department of Education, she earned her bachelors in cultural communication from the University of California San Diego, teaching credential at San Diego State University, and her master’s in social and Multicultural Foundations at California State University, Long Beach. She earned her doctorate at UCLA with an emphasis on race and ethnic studies in education. She delivers national talks and workshops on whiteness, racial justice, and diversity. She was awarded the 2014 American Educational Research Association’s Division K (Teacher Education) Innovations in Research on Diversity in Teacher Education Award and the 2015 and 2017 Colorado Rosa Parks Diversity Award.

She is a motherscholar of three, including boy-girl twins, a runner, yogi, an avid Lakers and Dodgers fan, and Bachata ballroom dancer.