Rafa Pérez-Segura

Rafa Pérez-Segura  is the Education Director of Mi Casita Preschool in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC, where he gets to learn with and from 2-5 year olds and the important adults in their lives. As the Education Director, Rafa cultivates both individual and collective capacity in aligning our value and practice with children and community. Learning stores are a fundamental philosophy and approach to actualizing alignment of values and practice. Rafa first learned about Learning Stories through taking a schema theory inquiry group with Julia Koumbassa, who encouraged him to apply for the 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand SALSA Intensive Study. Rafa joined the 2023 Intensive Study group and was taken by the strong image of children and community that he witnessed in Aotearoa. In community, Rafa has been refining and defining what Learning Stories can look like at Mi Casita while inviting colleagues from other centers and schools to learn more. Rafa has also brought Learning Stories to Stanford’s Teaching Education Program’s summer program, being a Cooperating Teacher mentoring STEP teaching candidates in the summer of 2024 and will be again a Cooperating Teacher for the summer of 2025. 

Rafa’s pedagogy is cultivated from the engaged pedagogy of bell hooks, the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, embracing emergence in the vein of adrienne maree brown and others, and complexity theory (especially in regards to emergence) as it relates to Reggio inspired practice. 

Previous to joining Mi Casita in August 2020, Rafa had taught Spanish Dual language first grade in New Haven, Connecticut, followed by 2nd grade special education in Newark New Jersey. After teaching in Newark, Rafa pursued his Masters in Elementary Education at Stanford’s Teacher Education Program (STEP). Rafa became a Kindergarten Dual Language teacher at Heketi Community Charter School in Mott Haven, The Bronx, NYC. 

Rafa enjoys reading, coffee, traveling, and dancing (he loves house, disco, reggaeton, and many subgenera) as well as mixing music. He is queer, Mexican, and grew up in eastern Connecticut, going back and forth between Mexico City, Puebla, Hermosillo, and Connecticut. He currently lives in central Brooklyn.