14. Expanding the Educational Ecosystem Beyond School Walls with Eos Trinidad

transcript: https://tinyurl.com/zmm5jysy

​​In this episode of Equity Leadership Now! Podcast, host Dr. Jabari Mahiri speaks with Dr. Jose Eos Trinidad, Assistant Professor of Education Policy at UC Berkeley, about his scholarship on educational policy, civil society, and institutional change. Trinidad shares more about his background, research, and his new book, Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education.

His research focuses on the roles that organizations, both within and outside schools, play in shaping educational systems, particularly in decentralized contexts like the United States. Trinidad’s research is shaped by his upbringing in the centralized school system of the Philippines, his experience in education nonprofits, and his interdisciplinary PhD in Sociology and Human Development. 

In Subtle Webs Trinidad draws from two decades of data from his research in school systems in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. Trinidad focuses on organizational theory to highlight how the structure of partnerships matters: cities like Chicago feature informal, organic collaborations, whereas Philadelphia’s approach is more formalized and systematic. Both have achieved improvements in graduation rates. 

Subtle Webs explores how cross-sector partnerships can help school leaders navigate complex educational ecosystems. Trinidad emphasizes a shift from deficit-based narratives to strengths-based, anti-racist approaches that recognize the assets in marginalized communities. He explains that while these systems often rely on simple indicators like course failures and credit accumulation, their real power lies in how educators and external organizations collaborate to support students identified as at-risk. 

Despite current political and ideological threats to education, Trinidad remains hopeful. He argues that local organizations, when interconnected and mutually supportive, can produce national impact, fostering systemic change through distributed, grassroots leadership. 

Equity Leadership Now! hosts conversations with equity-conscious leaders from Pre-K through university settings, who transform structures and strategies for educating, particularly for those who are marginalized.