Movement Building

Lasting change happens when people come together around a shared purpose. Movement building involves developing the political and critical consciousness needed for educational activism. This stream is about building a movement to respond directly to educational inequities and imagine otherwise. It brings together educators, students, families, community members, and educational organizations to build strong relationships and work toward common goals. By sharing knowledge, supporting one another, and speaking with a collective voice, we strengthen our ability to create meaningful and lasting improvements in education. 

Guiding Question: How do we build collective power and solidarity to advance educational and social transformation? 

The Movement Building Stream recognizes that liberatory education cannot be sustained through isolated individual efforts or the efforts of individual institutions. Drawing on traditions of collective struggle and community organizing, this stream focuses on developing the necessary political and critical consciousness for educational activism, cultivating relationships, networks, and solidarities capable of resisting oppressive systems and generating new possibilities for educational futures. We examine how coalitions are built across differences, how trust and reciprocity are cultivated, and how communities mobilize toward shared visions of justice. This stream emphasizes that transformation requires collective capacity: educators, students, families, and communities working together to challenge systemic inequities, respond to educational crises, and create conditions for belonging, flourishing, self-determination, and imagining otherwise.