Enacting Transformative Education
9 likes1,718 views
This document discusses transformative education, emphasizing divergent thinking and community engagement as vital components of learning. It outlines various pedagogical approaches and highlights the importance of critical inquiry in challenging power structures through education. The Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School is presented as a case study for implementing ecojustice and critical literacy through community involvement and interdisciplinary curricula.
Enacting Transformative Education
- 1. Enacting Transformative Education Kurt Love, Ph.D. Central Connecticut State University Annual Meeting of the Conference for Equity and Social Justice March 26, 2011 - Richard Stockton College of New Jersey lovekua@ccsu.edu
- 2. Thinking Convergent Thinking - All paths lead to a single destination. This is rooted in a belief that there is only one “Truth.” Traditional Liberal/Progressive scaf Truth Thought fold New Truth scaffol d Thought Thought Thought
- 3. Thinking Divergent Thinking - Explore many paths in authentic settings with questions that have no predetermined answer. Transformative New New Thought Thought Relationship Critical Communities Info Questioning New New Thought Thought Relationship
- 4. Divergent Thinking & Transformative Learning Divergent thinking contextualized in community provides students to not only learn “basic” skills, but also opportunities for democratic discourse, participation and contributions to the world in which they live.
- 5. What is Transformative Learning? Learning is a process of changing one’s relationships with her/his community, which consist of interconnections with nature and society.
- 6. What is Transformative Learning? Assumptions: • Information is diverse, culturally grounded, and a representation of a value system (knowledge/power relationship). • Learners are constantly investigating their own locations (positionalities) in relationship to culture, ideology, power structures, technology, and nature. • Learners are constantly investigating processes in community (via the content areas) that perpetuate hegemonic relationships
- 7. Transformative Education ❖ An umbrella term that includes various pedagogies (i.e. critical, feminist, ecojustice, queer, aesthetic, indigenous, etc.) ❖ Fully transformative education exists at the intersection of human rights, sustainability, and imagination
- 8. Transformative Pedagogies ❖ Critical pedagogy ❖ Red Pedagogy ❖ Feminist pedagogy ❖ Peace education ❖ Queer pedagogy ❖ Holistic education ❖ Ecojustice pedagogy ❖ Aesthetic education ❖ Indigenous education ❖ Place-based education
- 9. Power & Education Power-Over Power Power-With Domination Nature Ecological over nature, sustainability, social injustice, human-nature docile & connection, oppressed Education social justice, student students engaged in creating social Community and ecological justice
- 10. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR Main target is not a predetermined answer Students are not facilitated or scaffolded to the “right” answer Students are not discovering what the teacher already knows and calls “truth”
- 11. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR Main target: Divergent thinking in a context of community of diverse voices Students critically question information in curriculum using various lenses of analysis Examples: critical social theory, critical race theory, feminism, ecojustice, queer theory, indigenous theory) Students investigate authentic and/or unresolved issues, knowledges, histories, and practices in community (local through global) Teacher mediates so that students can do authentic research based in communities
- 12. “Thick Description” Superficial Mainstream Message These two might set up a binary Null Message These two Relationships generally show a complexity not Tensions binary “packaged” Deep info
- 13. Community Involvement Stage 1 Researching the Community ❖ Interviews ❖ Ethnography (family, friends, members of (cultural thick description) organizations, leaders, veterans, artists, scientists, lawyers) ❖ Participatory Research (reporting on their experiences) ❖ Observations (the mall, school, sporting event, ❖ Demographic Research (census, state school dance, playground, on the dept websites) internet via social network sites, environment) ❖ Literature Research (local newspapers, internet) ❖ Case Study (focus on one person, group, location, ❖ Field Trips as sites for all of these ecology)
- 14. Community Involvement Stage 2 Action in the Community ❖ Art Exhibits ❖ Theatre of the Oppressed (Art show, public art, instillations, (Forum theater, rainbow of desire, eco-art, murals, street art, “guerrilla image theater, legislative theater) art”) ❖ Reports & Publications ❖ Poetry Slams (Writing to local newspaper, having a journalist present, BOE meetings, ❖ Critical Performances community groups, WWW) (Plays, musicals, choir pieces that rework and recontextualize texts or ❖ Documentary Film existing pieces) (Local issues, local attitudes, local projects, film festival) ❖ Video Game (Social or Eco-themed) ❖ Habitat for Humanity House
- 15. Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School ❖ PK - 8, 400+ students (currently), 600+ students (max) ❖ Students from Hartford, East Hartford and surrounding suburbs ❖ Theme-based, interdisciplinary learning experiences ❖ $1.2 million Magnet School Assistance Program federal grant (3 years) ❖ Currently redesigning curriculum, professional development, supporting teachers directly in classroom ❖ Critical literacy and ecojustice primarily
- 16. Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School ❖ Overall approach taken to-date: ❖ Applied for grant (administrators and professors) ❖ Started with a core theoretical lens: ecojustice (professors) ❖ Reexamined themes through ecojustice theory & presented to administrators (professors) ❖ Presented new themes and core theoretical tenets to administrators (professors) ❖ Teachers provide feedback of their experiences, frustrations, and desires in faculty meetings with administrators
- 17. Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School ❖ Professors: Kurt Love (co-director), J. Joss French (co-director), Helen Abadiano (literacy)
- 18. Aloha & Haole
- 19. Aloha & Haole Aloha “Together, we breathe the sacred breath” A consciousness that we are inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth. What we do to each other and the earth, we do to ourselves.
- 20. Aloha & Haole Haole “One who is without sacred breath” A consciousness that does not include an awareness that we are inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth. A consciousness only of self and an ignorance of one’s energetic and spiritual impact. Often comes with little or no understanding of spirituality or the purpose of one’s soul (soul loss).
- 21. Mary M. Hooker Environmental Studies Magnet School ❖ Major goals (April 2011 - Oct 2013): ❖ Meet teachers individually to understand their vision (April 2011) ❖ Integrate teachers’ visions with ecojustice and critical literacy: workshops and professional development (April 2011 - Oct 2013) ❖ Redesign curricula from all subject areas to fit themes and theoretical framework (April - Sep 2011) ❖ Make strong community-based partnerships to support authentic learning experiences for each subject area and grade level (April 2011 - Oct 2013)