Democracy

What teens deserve: A creative out-of-school program

Amanda Denti 00:43:35 Comments Off

Jon speaks with Dr. David Penberg, who ran the Liberty Partnership Program at Bank Street College in the 1990s, and two of the participants, Madelyn Baez, and Tara Crichlow. Three decades later, Madelyn, Tara, and David explain how the program changed the trajectory of their lives. The Liberty Partnership was created as a college prep intervention for underserved and marginalized middle school students. For the participants, it was a safe place of “uncomfortable empowerment” where their opinions were taken seriously in a simultaneously supportive and challenging environment.

Educating for The World We Want: Learning to Citizen with Green School Bali

Jon Moscow 00:40:56 Comments Off

We share brief presentations from the fourth “Global Saturday Salons” that Ethical Schools is sponsoring with three international partners. Dr. Benjamin Freud is the Strategic Lead for Regenerative Education at the Green School Bali, Manon Tiange is a Grade 12 student mapping labor invisibility and systemic inequality in Bali, and Scarlett Gonella is a Grade 12 student investigating plastic pollution and advocating for clean water access in Indonesia. They talked about an educational culture rooted in contribution to community. Learners are trusted to ask difficult questions, collaborate across generations, and imagine reform at the highest levels.

This salon series is called Learning to Citizen: Tales of Youth Voices, Agency, and Care. Our goal is to honor learners and teachers who are already doing the work practicing care, enacting citizenship, and learning how to regenerate their worlds. Discover more and join us on May 30th to learn with members of The Brotherhood Sister Sol: edfortheworldwewant.net

Upskilling teachers: Elements of social justice-focused teaching

Jon Moscow 00:35:46 Comments Off

We welcome back Dr. Anthony Johnston to speak about his new book, “Introduction to Secondary Teaching: Blending Wisdom, Research, and Social Justice.” Dr. Johnston explores teacher wisdom of practice, social justice pedagogy, evidence-based practices, and adolescent brain research. He identifies the foundation of all classroom teaching as teacher identity, teacher presence, teacher passion, and teacher stance.

School Choice: Who Does the Choosing?

Jon Moscow 00:34:01 Comments Off

We welcome back Dr. Ujju Aggarwal, assistant professor at The New School, to speak about her book, Unsettling Choice: Race, Rights, and the Partitioning of Public Education. In Unsettling Choice, Dr. Aggarwal focuses on the intersection of public education and gentrification. The book is based on her work with mothers at a Head Start center in NYC. We discuss the race and class discrimination the parents faced and whether exclusion is inherent in school choice programs.

Trump cutbacks and policies: stripping minority student protections

Jon Moscow 00:41:18 Comments Off

We speak with Derek Black, Constitutional law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, about the impact of Trump administration’s policies on students’ civil rights. Department of Education offices meant to ensure students are not subject to discrimination have been decimated. The Department of Justice has switched from protecting minority students’ rights to focusing on so-called “discrimination” against whites and attacking transgender students. Professor Black also says the need for “circuit breakers” on executive power transcends this administration.

Pop culture literacies: Engaging students in critical analysis

Jon Moscow 00:36:41 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Mia Hood, author of Pop Culture Literacies: Teaching Interpretation, Response, and Composition in a Digital World, about analyzing popular music and films along with more traditional literature. Dr. Hood talks about helping students to think about their ethical perspectives while engaging with “entertainment,” and the importance of educators’ resisting the temptation to impose their own “expert” interpretations in favor of modeling the process. We also discuss how teachers can resist imposing their views while teaching for democracy and social justice.