Artnelson Concordia
EDUCATOR, ETHNIC STUDIES CURRICULUM WRITER,
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
Artnelson Concordia has been an educator for over 20 years in California public schools with a significant part of his career in San Francisco Unified School District. He is currently an Ethnic Studies Coordinator at Santa Barbara Unified School District and pursuing his Doctorate in Education at UCLA.
Photo Credit: MarKing Photography
Artnelson was born and raised in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The son of working-class, Filipino immigrants, he earned a BA in Political Science and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has served over 26 years as a public school educator, and was a founding teacher of the San Francisco Unified School District's Ethnic Studies program that was the focus of a 2014 Stanford study that highlighted the academic benefits of the district’s 9th grade ethnic studies course. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate with the Education Leadership Program at UCLA. Artnelson coordinates Santa Barbara Unified School District's ethnic studies program. Artnelson is the father of four brown boys and is in cahoots with his wife to raise them to have deep knowledge & love of self / community, as well as to be active disruptors of the white supremacist, patriarchal, hetero-normative, imperialist hegemony. He and his family have the great privilege to live in the beautiful town of Oxnard, CA (Unceded Chumash Territory).
Artnelson Concordia brings 27 years of dedicated experience in education, specializing in the institutionalization of ethnic studies in K-12 public schools across California. A doctoral candidate in the Education Leadership program at UCLA, he is a second-generation Filipino American whose parents hail from the provinces of Batangas and Laguna in the Philippines. As a pioneering educator in the field, Artnelson played an instrumental role in developing San Francisco Unified School District's groundbreaking ethnic studies program, helping to establish one of the most influential models for ethnic studies education in the nation. Currently serving as the coordinator of Santa Barbara Unified School District's ethnic studies program, he continues to lead efforts in developing culturally responsive curricula that centers the experiences and contributions of historically marginalized communities. Through his work, Artnelson has been at the forefront of transforming public education to be more inclusive, equitable, and reflective of California's diverse student population, building programs that not only educate but empower young people to both understand their histories and equip them to actively participate in our multi-racial democracy.
ARTICLES:
Convergence Magazine - “Fight for Ethnic Studies Moves to K-12 Classrooms”
Journal of Asian American Studies - “Ethnic Studies as Social Movement: Resistance in the Face of Public Reaction”
AAPI Nexus - “Policy isn’t Enough: Learning from Ethnic Studies K-12 Teachers”
EdSurge - “This District Tapped Students’ Histories to Create an Ethnic Studies Curriculum”
Rethinking Ethnic Studies, 2019 - “We Don't Want to Just Study the World, We Want to Change It”
Artnelson’s
Speaking topics include:
Ethnic Studies Secondary (Junior High/High School) Curriculum Development
Institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in K-12
Teacher Organizing
Filipino American History
Teacher resource, featuring Cynthia Bonta and Artnelson Concordia.
Santa Barbara Unified show off importance of Ethnic Studies.
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