Dr. dinorah sánchez loza is an Assistant Professor, Dept of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State, as well as an OPEEP faculty member.
What prompted you to become an OPEEP instructor?
I believe strongly in social justice education, in theory and in practice, and that education, at its best, is the practice of freedom. I wanted to become an OPEEP instructor as I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn with incarcerated students and together (re)examine our relationship to schooling and education, learn about how schools perpetuate inequality, but also examine and theorize how education can/should be a place that makes us and the world better.
What courses have you taught for OPEEP, and have there been any challenges?
I am looking forward to teaching EDU5005: Equity, Diversity and Justice in Education this fall!
What takeaways would you like students to leave your class with?
It would be an honor for students to leave my class and feel like they better understand their past relationships to school, how school shapes society, and that they matter and are not only capable but a necessary part in the struggle for justice.
What is the one thing you wish more people knew about prison abolition and transformative justice?
I wish people who have never had connection to the prison industrial complex could expand their capacities for dreaming and re-imagining. I think, often, it is our own lack of knowledge of how systems work (or fail to work) coupled WITH limitations to our imagination that prevent us from rethinking and seeing as possible a new kind of world.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I like to rest, take walks, and watch my kids do the things they love like soccer and ballet.