It's Intentional

In this return episode of It's Intentional, Mike discusses the need to approach the challenges of covid-19 through a co-design lens. He argues that current decision making structures tend to produce superficial, technical fixes to deep rooted, specific problems that must be addressed collaboratively. He provides an overview of the co-design process as outlined in the research of Dr. Ann Ishimaru and discusses how such a model could be applied to ensure that all educators, students and families are empowered to develop the equitable, sustainable policies. 

In this episode Mike continues conversations centered on the theme of student empowerment. This podcast poses the question, what would happen if schools explicitly taught students how to set, monitor and adjust goals for academic and personal growth?

In this episode, Mike shares 2 stories about parent empowerment initiatives that he participated in during his career that sought to remove barriers to access for parents who had previously been excluded from school programming. He also shares relevant research and reflects on how gaps in access for parents are mirrored by opportunity gaps for students, emphasizing that if we truly aim to serve "all students," then we must include "all parents."

Mike asks why educators are on board with student empowerment in principle, but have a difficulty enacting it. Have schools become more like places of obedience and less like places fostering free expression? He also questions a past decision when he was a principal in which he coached a valedictorian to revise her graduation speech to limit possible backlash and criticism. At the time he convinced himself that he was supporting intellectual independence, but in retrospect may have just been reinforcing obedience by having her tailor her speech, so that it fit some unwritten standard about what graduation ceremonies are about.

In the first episode of It's Intentional, Mike addresses how schools can use student participation in activities outside the classroom to support connectedness in the classroom, and how positive, supportive and caring relationships are the key to student engagement.