The Embodiment of Learning: Jesa Rae Richards, AIE'20

The Intellectual Contribution Award recognizes 13 Ed.M. students (one from each Ed.M. program) whose dedication to scholarship enhanced HGSE’s academic community and positively affected fellow students. Jesa Rae Richards will be honored with the Intellectual Contribution Award for Arts in Education (AIE) at HGSE's Virtual Commencement on May 28.

Senior Lecturer Steve Seidel, faculty director of AIE, comments on Richards' selection: “In the first week of school this year, Jesa Rae shared with the AIE cohort that she hadn't been so exclusively in the company of adults for a very long time. She was much more used to being surrounded by very young children. What we soon learned was that Jesa Rae has profound respect for the brilliance of young children and deep appreciation for all she has learned from being with them. Indeed, I'm not sure she was convinced she could learn as much from us. If all we learned from Jesa Rae was to take children and childhood much more seriously than most of us do, it would have been enough. But she has also taught us the power of humility, curiosity, generosity, and basic honesty in learning. She also reminded us that joy can — and should — be at the heart of teaching.”

We spoke to Richards about her time at HGSE, her future plans, and what the new normal in education might look like:

What are your post-HGSE plans?

Jesa Rae Richards: I am hoping to return to collaborating with young people in an early childhood classroom.

I am dreaming (and scheming) possible paths in doctoral studies.

I intend to continue making art, to continue reading theory that moves me to tears, and to continue working and learning with visionary educators.

I am excited to be back in Durham, North Carolina, and plan to spend as much time as possible hanging out by the river with loved ones.

And I am equally excited to continue cultivating friendships found at HGSE, who knows what we might dream up together?

"I am grateful to be in the company of educators and in solidarity with young children because I believe that the classroom is fertile ground for imagining and creating another world." – Jesa Rae Richards

What is something that you learned at HGSE that you will take with you throughout your career in education?

JRR: I am struggling to answer this question because there is so much to say. Here are three that feel especially resonant at the moment. All are fundamentally about love:

Texts are alive.

Data is stories.

Embodied learning, play, and risk-taking are as valuable in graduate school as they are in preschool.

Is there any professor or class that significantly shaped your experience at the Ed School?

JRR: Overall, I have been astounded by the depth, honesty and creativity my professors have brought to their teaching. Particularly, Dr. Harouni, Dr. Villarreal, Dr. El-Amin, and Dr. Seidel, each in their very unique ways have had a transformational impact my work, my learning and my life.

How has the pandemic shifted your views of education? 

JRR: I was already enraged by the racist inequities and capitalist structures of education in this country, which systemically deny young people agency or voice. For decades I have been disturbed by the ever-increasing pervasiveness of digital mediation in our lives. The idea emerging today, that through technology we can "continue as normal," is a dangerous proposition. A computer screen is not a substitute for learning in community. If my view has been shifted by the pandemic, it is a shift toward urgency. Our current systems must be dismantled now, and new, more just and sustainable systems must be built. I am grateful to be in the company of educators and in solidarity with young children because I believe that the classroom is fertile ground for imagining and creating another world. If we can no longer gather in classrooms, we will need to make our learning spaces in fields, backyards, and empty parking lots.