Healing Centered Racial Affinity Groups: Toward Holistic Approaches of Support for Future K-12 Teachers and Teacher Educators

Authors

  • Farima Pour-Khorshid University of San Francisco
  • Sarah Ann Capitelli University of San Francisco
  • Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton Stanford University https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6189-6418
  • T. Gertrude Jenkins University of the Pacific
  • Gloria Muñoz University of San Francisco
  • Kanako Wong Reach University
  • Cady Sitkin University of San Francisco
  • Rebecca Ruff Anderson University of San Francisco

Keywords:

racial affinity group, racial healing, healing centered engagement, racial justice, teacher education, Healing, Social Justice Education

Abstract

Given the racialized harm within pre-K-16+ schools, educators are urged to engage culturally sustaining, trauma-informed, and humanizing approaches to teaching/learning. However, the field often fails to provide holistic approaches to critical professional development, particularly for educators committed to racial justice. In response to neoliberal, color-evasive, and apolitical approaches to teacher support, we describe our efforts to pilot a holistic and healing centered racial affinity group initiative into a teacher education program.  Implications from this two-year ethnographic snapshot demonstrate how racial justice efforts depend on the intentionality and investment in holistic development for teachers and the educators that support them. 

Peer Reviewed Submission

Author Biographies

Sarah Ann Capitelli, University of San Francisco

Sarah Capitelli came to USF from Stanford where she completed her PhD in Educational Linguistics. Before her work at Stanford, Dr. Capitelli taught elementary school for seven years, two in Venezuela and five in East Oakland in a Spanish-bilingual classroom. She is particularly interested in better understanding and improving conditions for learning and teaching in linguistically segregated schools. She is an Associate Professor with USF's Teacher Education program.

 

Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton, Stanford University

Dr. Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton is a first-generation Nigerian and Clinical Associate in Stanford’s Teacher Education Program (STEP). Co-founding editor of the Black Educology Mixtape (Journal) and co-founder of Making Us Matter, her work seeks collective liberation and visibility for the most historically excluded and is dedicated to transformative education. Her scholarship focuses on the construction of interlocking identities, with a particular emphasis on Black hair and teacher pedagogy. Her scholarship investigates the intersection of race, identity, and education and has been published in Harvard Educational Review, Equity & Excellence in Education, and Race Ethnicity and Education. Her current work centers on Black methodologies, critical pedagogy, Black identity, and racial affinity spaces. With over 16 years of experience in education—her writing, teaching, and research meet at the intersections.

 

T. Gertrude Jenkins, University of the Pacific

T. Gertrude Jenkins is an Assistant Professor at the University of the PAcific. As a 15-year educator, she specialized in grades 9-12 Language Arts. Over the course of her career, she’s taught in Orlando, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Redwood City, CA. Jenkins achieved her doctorate at the University of San Francisco in the International & Multicultural Education program within the School of Education. Her research focuses on anti-Blackness in K-12 school systems both in the U.S and abroad. As a co-founder of Making Us Matter, an education activism non-profit, Jenkins works to provide an education space that is safe from White normativity and deficit-centered pedagogy. Her work is motivated by her desire to provide alternative options for schooling that are free of the many systemic messages of anti-Blackness that are constantly transmitted in our current school systems

Gloria Muñoz, University of San Francisco

Gloria Muñoz is a bilingual educator who seeks to nurture the growth of bilingual and biliterate scholars as they develop into their fullest potential, while recognizing, celebrating, and respecting the gifts they already have. She partners with her students’ first teachers, their caregivers/parents, and views families as a valuable asset to a child’s educational journey. Born and raised in the Bay, she attended SFSU for both undergrad and graduate school, and received her teaching credential at CSU, East Bay. She is a 1st generation graduate student, a 3rd year doctoral student at University of San Francisco, dually entered as both a Transformational School Leader and the Department of Organization & Leadership. Simultaneously she is a 2nd/3rd generation Chicana/Indigena (Yaqui) with raíces from Sonora, Tucson, Colima, and Jalisco,  and is the proud mami of a beautifully brilliant and spirited 12 year old.

Kanako Wong, Reach University

Dr. Kanako (Kana) Wong is the Dean of Graduate Studies at Reach Teachers College within Reach University. She began her time at Reach as a Faculty Member in the Teacher Intern Program, supporting novice teachers in the attainment of their preliminary teaching credential. She has also held the roles of Director of Teacher Induction and Associate Dean prior to assuming the role as Dean. Before her work at Reach, she worked as an elementary school teacher in both public and charter schools. She began her career in education through Teach for America, where she was placed in a 4th grade classroom in Las Vegas, NV in 2004. She credits all that she knows about being a great teacher to all the students she has had the privilege to serve throughout the years, especially during her decade at Ruby Thomas Elementary School. In her free time, you can find her with her three kids and husband, her happy place.

 

Cady Sitkin, University of San Francisco

Cady Sitkin (they/ she) is a parent, educator and organizer. Born and raised on Miwok and Yokuts lands (in and around Stockton, California), Cady has been working in public schools since 2007. In San Francisco Unified School District, they have taught 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders in both dual immersion and general education classrooms and also served as a literacy interventionist, teacher coach, and high school teacher. At the University of San Francisco, Cady has worked as an adjunct instructor, racial affinity group facilitator, and student teaching supervisor. She is the proud parent of six-year-old twins and is continuously amazed by their creativity, sense of justice and humor. She is committed to making schools places where young people are safe, liberated and empowered. Cady is nourished by spending time in nature, with loved ones, and organizing–especially with teacher-led groups like Teachers 4 Social Justice.

Rebecca Ruff Anderson, University of San Francisco

Rebecca Ruff Anderson has been in the education sector for twenty years— as an after school program coordinator, teacher, and an administrator. Currently she is a Literacy Coordinator in the Oakland Unified School District. She keeps anti-racist work at the center In her instructional coaching and professional development. Rebecca is also a proud mother scholar as she is currently pursuing her doctorate in the Organization and Leadership program at the University of San Francisco.  

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Published

2025-07-08

How to Cite

Farima Pour-Khorshid, Sarah Ann Capitelli, Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton, T. Gertrude Jenkins, Gloria Muñoz, Kanako Wong, … Rebecca Ruff Anderson. (2025). Healing Centered Racial Affinity Groups: Toward Holistic Approaches of Support for Future K-12 Teachers and Teacher Educators . Holistic Education Review, 5(1). Retrieved from https://her.journals.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/her/article/view/3358

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2025): Social Justice and Equity in Holistic Education

Section

Holistic Education as a Tool or Structural Transformation