Our Story
The seeds for Mai Pedagogy Project emerged out of a desire and dream to re-envision how ideas about teaching and learning are communicated in the field of education, and how these ideas are circulated in the public. Feeling stifled by the compartmentalization of conversations and knowledges that existed within and across community, institutional, and academic settings, Josephine yearned for more intimate yet expansive outlets for painting a fuller picture of humane stories and complex practices related to social justice education. Ongoing collaboration with other creators opened up alternative theories, modalities, languages, and knowledge systems for portraying the beauties and struggles of everyday life and practice in educational settings, while imagining alternative forms of teaching and learning in the face of seemingly impossible conditions. Through Mai Pedagogy Project, we hope to explore new creations, representations, pathways, and disseminations of knowledge and methods of teaching for educational justice.

About Josephine
Josephine H. Pham, Ph.D. (she/her) is an educator, scholar, and creator of Mai Pedagogy Project. Her lived experiences as a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, former K-12 classroom teacher in her own communities, and teacher educator influence her relational and community-engaged approach to teaching, research, and other creative activities. Josephine’s research draws on counternarratives, video ethnography, and the arts to examine the liberatory educational possibilities already inherent in the daily life and practices of youth, teachers, and communities of Color.
Her scholarship has been recognized and supported by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation (2023; 2024), Hellman Fellowship (2023), Institute for Social Transformation at the University of California, Santa Cruz (2022), National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation’s Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color (2020-2022), American Educational Research Association’s Division K (2020), and American Anthropological Association’s Council of Anthropology and Education (2020).
Her broader portfolio of scholarly work can also be found at:
Creators-in-Residence
Esther Sing-Yu Ho (she/her) is an LA-based artist/architect/designer/researcher. She is passionate about shaping equitable and dynamic environments. Her work in illustration, comics, and various built objects in public space, communicates real stories that prompt meaningful connections. She is a fan of her amusing cats, way too many house plants, painting for fun, flamin’ hot snacks, and homemade coffee.

