Ethical Schools

We speak with high school science teachers and trans men, Sam Long and Lewis Maday-Travis, who have developed resources and trainings to help biology teachers develop gender-inclusive curricula. Science tells us that sexual and gender diversity is both normal and positive.  

To know more about Lewis and Sam’s projects, please go to sam-long.weebly.com, fishyteaching.com and transeducators.com. 

00:00:54 Introductions

00:56-03:19 Experiences as LGBTQ high school students

03:20-06:15 As teachers, coming out as trans men to colleagues and students

06:16-11:13 Key elements of a gender-inclusive biology curriculum

11:14-16:26 Working to help make other teachers’ instruction more accurate and inclusive

16:27-19:38 How teachers respond to trans students’ lied experience

19:39-21:42 Relevance of Dewey’s ethical framework

21:43-29:21 Success stories in demarginalizing students

29:22-30:51 How teachers can develop this work

30:52 Outro

Click here to see the full transcript of this episode. 

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

We continue our conversation with Dr. David Osher of the American Institutes for Research, delving deeper into the CBAM approach to school culture change. Dr Osher describes a study he and colleagues conducted, following every student who had been suspended in New York City over ten years. The study confirmed that exclusionary suspension has damaging impacts throughout a student’s academic career and beyond and has damaging impact on other students in the student’s classes as well.

Overview

00:00-00:47 Intro

00:47-10:13 CBAM (Concerns Based Adoption Model)

10:13- 20:34 Impacts of exclusionary discipline on suspended students

20:34-24:17 Need to systematically create alternatives

24:17-29:11 Impact of exclusionary discipline on other students

29:11-30:18 Meaning-making

30:18- Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.

References

Listen to the first part of this interview: “The right to thrive: Expanding our definition of equity”

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Image from the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education YouTube channel

We speak with Dr. David Osher of the American Institutes for Research. Dr. Osher explains his view of robust equity, that all people deserve to thrive, and that thriving occurs holistically over the course of a lifetime, and even intergenerationally. People thrive in concert with others.  We discuss the conditions in a school that foster both individual and group thriving, and those that don’t, in particular, exclusionary discipline. This is Part One of a two part interview.

Overview

00:00-00:48 Intros

00:48-06:00 Thinking about thriving

06:00-14:45 How schools can create conditions where everyone thrives 

14:45-17:40 Schools and children’s identities

17:40-24:21 Trauma sensitive schools; distinctions between trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed

24:21-32:21 Strengths and limitations of SEL as practiced in many schools

32:21-42:39 Equity-focused programs in Austin Independent School District; developing alternatives to exclusionary discipline; Concerns Based Adoption Model

42:39 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Photo by Patricia Prudente/Unsplash

We speak with Anna Allanbrook, longtime principal of Brooklyn New School (BNS). Learning at BNS is inquiry-based and cross-disciplinary. As well, BNS is known as the “opt-out school” because 95% of families opt out of standardized testing. The school offers no test preparation.

References

Find more about the Brooklyn New School on bns146.org

Overview

00:05-01:11 Intros

01:12- 01:58 Key principles of Brooklyn New School

01:59-04:05 Relationships

04:06-06:05 Who seeks the school out and why

06:06-07:30 Why the special needs population is relatively high (30%)

07:31-09:15 English Language Learners

09:16-11:29 Making parents comfortable who are used to a more traditional teaching style

11:30-13:28 Differentiating reading instruction

13:29-21:12 Standardized testing and opt-out

21:13-22:38 Performance-based assessment

22:39-25:18 Social emotional learning (SEL)

25:19-27:04 Relationship between SEL and opt-out

27:05-28:52 “Trust is at the heart of everything”

28:53-30:30 Outro

Transcription

Click here to see the transcription of the episode. 

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

We continue our conversation with Dr. Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and Founding Director of the Paulo Freire Institute. Dr. Torres speaks about Freire’s contention that communities should define the work that goes on in schools. He explains Freire’s emphasis on dialogue as integral to education. Whereas Dewey focused on children and the tools to instill democratic values and critical thinking, Freire was most interested in education as political deliberation. And, at this point, the stakes are not only democracy but sustainability of the planet.

Overview

00:00-00:45 Intros

00:45-10:21 Popular education in public schools—how to resolve contradictions

10:21-16:27 Concepts of community

16-27-26:16 Freire and Dewey

26:16-32:30 “People are not born democrats.”; global citizenship and sustainability

32:30-34:18 Sustainability in daily life

34:18-39:58 Decoloniality

39:58-41:14 Reading recommendations

41:14-43:40 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Image: globalsocialtheory.com

We speak with Carlos Alberto Torres, Distinguished Professor at UCLA. Dr. Torres worked closely with Paulo Freire and now directs the UCLA Paulo Freire Institute. He argues that we need to create a model of ethics education that combines social justice and natural justice, or sustainability. Freire viewed the planet as an oppressed entity. We talk about creating a political culture in our schools that centers peace and the global commons, what in other places is called civic culture. Part one of a two-part interview.

Overview 

00:00-00:42 Intros

00:42-04:07 Global citizenship education

04:07-13:41 Principles of global citizenship education; global ethic of the global commons 

13:41-17:12 Democracy under threat

17:12-23:44 Integrating the global commons into schools; civic culture

23:44-28:49 What this looks like in classrooms

28:49-30:52 How can public schools become sites of social justice?

30:52-33:00 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Book Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Critical Global Citizenship Education by Carlos Alberto Torres. New York and London, Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2017.

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Image: peoplesworld.org

Dr. Don Siler, a researcher and inservice teacher educator, himself a former high school dropout, discusses how art classrooms invite students to be themselves, to explore their lived experiences, and to work on projects that mean something to them. Student engagement in the art classroom can be leveraged across subject areas by incorporating both the arts and art-based pedagogy throughout the curriculum. Student outcomes improve when we broaden the ways in which students get information, process the information, and demonstrate their understanding of the information.

Overview

00:00-00:34 Intros

00:35-9:34 Don Siler’s experiences and their influence on his areas of interest

9:35-11:03 “Game of school”

11:04-18:03 A phenomenological study of several young Black men in an 8th grade art class

18:04-20:24 Kinds of engagement: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral

20:25-23:38 Studio thinking

23:39-32:48 Arts funding/cuts; fundamental value of the arts as “basic expression of human experience”; “upside down to make arts subservient to ELA even though they do improve test scores

32:49-37:36 Arts-based pedagogy across the curriculum

37:37-46:33 Neuro-education; Multiple intelligences; examples; David Sousa; Howard Gardner

46:34-49:13 Experience-based culturally responsive education; Sousa, Ladson-Billings; Paris

49:14-53:06 Teacher training for culturally responsive classrooms

53:07-56:50 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of the episode.

References

We continue our conversation with Dr. Terri Bucci of the Mathematics Literacy Initiative at OSU’s Mansfield campus. Dr. Bucci observes that we rarely ask children how they learn best. MLI’s implementation of the Algebra Project changes the classroom culture, giving agency to even the youngest students. “We have to get rid of  ‘sharecropper education.'” Dr. Bucci talks about the constitutional amendment that Bob Moses envisioned, guaranteeing a quality education to every child. 

Overview

00:00-00:25 Intros

00:25-03:56 Preparing students for standardized tests

03:56-06:30 Mathematics Literacy Initiative’ influence in Ohio and elsewhere

06:30-14:10 Ending “sharecropper education”

14:10-17:58 Fighting for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a quality education

17:58-26:34 “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and working with teachers in Haiti

26:34-28:45 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.

References

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Image from mansfield.osu.edu/initiatives/math-literacy-initiative

We speak with Dr. Terri Bucci of the Mathematics Literacy Initiative at Ohio State University, Mansfield. Beginning in kindergarten, the MLI builds on Bob Moses’s Algebra Project. Like reading and writing literacies, students need to understand the language of math to succeed in today’s world. Through shared experiences and reflections, the MLI makes math accessible and fun.  This is Part One of a two-part interview.

Overview

00:00-00:41 Intros

00:41-05:20 The Math Literacy Initiative (MLI)—what it is

05:20-18:56 The Algebra Project’s 5-Step Curricular Process

18:56-21:42 The MLI’s students

21:42-24:16 “All people should see themselves as mathematicians.”

24:16-27:16 Thinking of “everyone seeing themselves as mathematicians” as an ethical issue

27:16-31:12 Defining what it means to “be good at math?”

31:12-39:14 “Abuse” of students in traditional math classes; power and control in classes and in statewide governance of schools

39:14-41:49 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Mathematics Literacy Initiative (website)

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

We welcome back Stephanie Carnes, a school social worker who has worked extensively with Central American immigrant students and their families. School systems are designed for homogenous student populations, rather than the diverse reality.  Despite new immigrants’ high motivation levels, they often fail for lack of support. School social workers could help design asset-based programs but often aren’t given a seat at the table.

Overview

00:00-00:48 Intros
00:48-02:34 Pandemic magnified structural inequities of American school system
02:34-09:05 Education system fails Central American immigrant students
09:05-13:08 What school districts can do
13:08-16:30 Collaborative system redesign needed
16:30-17:46 Collaborative vs. siloed school environments
17:46-19:31 What individual teachers can do
19:31-21:35 In a survey, BIPOC school social workers reported lower burnout levels than white social workers
21:35-23:00 Monocultural and bicultural identities
23:00-25:40 Confusion and conflict in schools about role of social worker
25:40-27:30 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.

References

Click here to listen to our first interview with Stephanie Carnes “Post-traumatic growth and resilience: Creating safe environments for Central American immigrant children”.