Ethical Schools

We continue our conversation with Dr. Edwin Mayorga of Swarthmore College. We discuss the corporatization of schools that reduces students to their test scores. Dr. Mayorga encourages educators to center joy and healing. Schools should be liberatory rather than places that are too often focused on punishment and surveillance. Schools, as “localized nodes of political power,” should adopt democratic processes that cultivate voice, participation, and collaboration. As an organizer, he encourages coalitions of people resisting different aspects of racial capitalism, including those fighting destruction of the planet and exploitation of other species.

Overview

00:00-01:34 Intro

01:34-04:55 Making the shift from a more traditional to a more liberatory school

04:55-08:11 Sustainability after school founder(s) leave

08:11-11:37 Relationships of capital to schools: Now and a century ago

11:37-14:47 Education sovereignty

14:47-18:08 Community land trusts as models for schools

18:08-22:20 Balancing autonomy with accountability

22:20-24:41 Humans’ relationships with other animals: Moving away from anthropocentrism

24:41-28:58 Where the joy is

28:58-34:32 Takeaways: joys, hope, healing, radical possibilities

34:32-35:30 Outro

References

Listen to the first part of this conversation here.

Transcription

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Credits

Soundtrack by Podington Bear

We speak with Swarthmore’s Dr. Edwin Mayorga, who explains how abolitionist classrooms and schools create “freedom as a place” in contrast to racial capitalism. Teachers are the lead inquirers and try to “move at the speed of trust,” helping to create classrooms full of joy. Edwin describes Philadelphia’s Kensington Health Sciences Academy as a school where teaching and learning are based on establishing  relationships of mutual respect.  

Overview

00:00-00:42 Intros
00:42-02:20 Abolitionist education
02:20-04:44 “Freedom as a place”
04:44-08:03 Critical racial ethnic studies; the Sankofa bird
08:03-15:27 Decolonizing education; relationships in the process between colonized and colonizer
15:27-22:21 Intersections of race and class
22:21-26:27 Racial capitalism’s impact in the classroom
26:27-33:20 Kensington Health Sciences Academy (KHSA)
33:20-36:16 Teacher as lead inquirer
36:16-38:25 Moving at the speed of trust
38:25-40:13 Modeling trustworthiness for students
40:13-42:55 How did KHSA become a school focused on trust?
42:55-44:30 Outro

Transcription

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Credits 

Soundtrack by Podington Bear

Photo twitter.com/khsaphila

Dr. Christiana Best, who spent thirty years in the New York City child welfare system before becoming a full-time academic, discusses her personal experience of being left behind in Granada while her mother settled in the US. Dr. Best, now an assistant professor of social work at St. Joseph’s, delves into the difficulties of providing holistic support to immigrant children and families, who are (justifiably) hesitant to trust government agencies. 

Overview

00:00-00:51 Intros

00:51-02:23 Impact on students of being undocumented

02:23-07:00 How separation affects children and parents

07:00-08:42 Supports for students suffering separation effects and aftereffects

08:42-11:38 Support for parents?

11:38-14:37 Collaboration among schools, agencies, CBOs: obstacles and potentialities

14:37-18:59 Issues of mandated reporting; building trust

18:59-20:34 Cultural competence vs. cultural humility

20:34-22:58 School social workers and school counselors

22:58-23:37 School social workers and immigrant families trust

23:37-25:12 Need for more school social workers

25:12-29:58 Microaggressions: what they are; examples; applying a Deweyan framework for anti-microaggression education

29:58-31:54 What the incoming Biden Administration can do to support vulnerable children

Transcription

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Dr. Randy Capps, Director of Research for U.S. Programs at the Migration Policy Institute, surveyed Latinx high school students to see how fear of deportation – of their parents, relatives, friends, or themselves – impacts their mental health. The students, roughly half foreign-born and half US-born, suffered anxiety, depression, and PTSD at significantly higher rates than other students their age. Strong bonds immigrant students formed with one another were a source of mutual support. Students who engaged in public policy activism showed improved mental health.

Overview

00:00-00:44 Intros

00:44-03:44 Study of impact of immigration policies on Latinx students’ mental health; demographics; key findings

03:44-05:41 Differences in number of traumatic experiences between foreign-born and U.S. born students and potential reasons

05:41-06:49 Differences by gender

06:49-09:40 Levels of perceived discrimination

09:40-13:18 Sources and forms of student support, including educators, parents, peers

13:18-14:38 Role of school counselors

14:38-18:30 Links between discipline practices and immigration-related fears; restorative justice; roles of school resource officers

18:30-24:17 Obstacles in accessing mental health resources and ways to reduce them

24:17-26:51 Student participation in public policy advocacy and its effect on students’ mental health 

26:51-27:28 Thanks to collaborators in the study

27:28-28:45 Outro

Transcription

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Soundtrack by Podington Bear

Dr. Mandy Savitz-Romer of Harvard Graduate School of Education sees counselors as schools’  academic conscience, the hub for providing holistic support to students. To be effective, they need a seat at the leadership table. Respondents in Savitz-Romer’s 1000-counselor survey described obstacles and successes in serving students during the pandemic.

Overview

00:00-00:46 Intros
00:46-03:30 School counselors’ roles and how they’ve changed over time
03:30-05:11 A better model for counseling
05:11-08:18 Contracts, guidelines, protections for counselors; caseloads
08:18-10:54 Equity issues and time for neediest students
10:54-13:48 Counselors as “academic conscience of the school”
13:48-17:29 Counselors’ roles, stress, and evaluation
17:29-19:20 Support resources for counselors
19:20-23:28 Helping students with the “why” of college and career
23:28-27:15 1000-counselor pandemic survey results
27:15-30:30 Helping students with college and careers in context of family expectations and needs, especially during pandemic
30:30-34:59 Lessons learned from experience during pandemic
34:59-36:30 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Soundtrack by Podington Bear