The Summer 2021 Professional Development Think Tank: Using the Social Justice Standards for Anti-Bias Curricular Redesign
Dates: July 12, 14,19 & 21, 2021
Time: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM Hawaii Standard Time (with a 1 hour mid-morning break)
11:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific / 1:00 to 6:00 PM Central / 2:00 to 7:00 PM Eastern
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: $450 per person / $375 per person for groups of 2+
Scholarships are available. Please inquire at www.hanahauoli.org/pdc.
This summer program will support individual educators and school teams as they work to promote social justice education in their schools. Guided by an expert instructor, the program will function as a professional community of inquiry, or Think Tank, in which participants will have the opportunity to examine current research and best practices, engage in an anti-bias curricular inquiry and revision process, reflect and dialogue with peers, and apply learning to integrate the Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) Social Justice Standards into beloved curriculum and units of study.
Think Tank participants should be actively planning and delivering instruction in their role and have the professional freedom to make changes to the curriculum they teach. They will begin the program with an inquiry protocol whereby we’ll collaborate to identify gaps and areas for improvement in our curricula. Then, they will choose a unit to redesign and will be given time, receive support and learn techniques to revise that unit, intentionally embedding the goals of anti-bias education into the curriculum. Elements of instruction involved in this “redesign” process will include thematic framing, essential questions, text selection, discussion strategies and authentic assessment.
In summary, the program will take participants through the process of identifying an existing unit of study from their curriculum, and redesigning that unit in four key areas:
1) Purpose for Learning
2) Diversity, Representation and Inclusion
3) Critical Conversations
4) Meaning Making
This program is designed for both individual educators and school teams that are looking to create social justice curriculum for their school community. School communities can range from pre-school to higher education, or non-traditional forms or schooling such as museums or outdoor education programs. Teams can be made up of 2-5 members of a school community who want to engage in the program together.
Participants will meet with the instructor on four different days, four hours per day, over the course of two weeks. This will allow time for individuals and school teams to meet on their own (or perhaps with other members of their school community) in between sessions to further develop the plans they are working on. It will also ensure that instructors can support participants as they uncover new questions and problems of practice as they emerge over the course of the summer.