Social Justice Education Symposium: Engaging Youth & Community

 

There is very little research and writing done by urban educators to document effective practices in urban schools. However, Duncan-Andrade has taught and researched effective teaching practices in U.S. urban schools for over 18 years to provide teachers and school leaders on the ground insights into effective program building and educational practices. Drawing from his on-going classroom experiences, this talk develops “The Top 10 Teacher Takeaways” put forth in Duncan-Andrade’s recent book, What a Coach Can Teach a Teacher.  Rejecting the up-by-your-bootstraps theory of success for students, this discussion offers instead a set of concrete strategies to teachers and educational leaders who are committed to fundamentally rethinking the business-as-usual approach which continues to fail many of our school children.

 

 

Currently communities in Chicago and across the globe are faced with serious external challenges (neoliberalism, gentrification, budget ctus, etc.) in meeting the needs of students. If we operate from a perspective of educational justice, we can engage a series of rules and processes that allow students, teachers and community members, to challenge and resist these external challenges.

 

 

I operate on numerous fronts beyond the role of traditional researcher; first as a concerned citizen, second as a researcher responsible for documenting and analyzing the process of creating a neighborhood school, and third as a member of the design team for Lawndale Little Village School for Social Justice in Chicago, Illinois.  Since the inception of the design team, “truth tellin’” includes the continual challenge to engage theory and create praxis – in and beyond the classroom – in the hope of remaining accountable to community members, community organizations, teachers, students, and administrators. In the case of creating liberatory education, the proposal echoes the sentiment of Michael Apple (1994) in that this work must raise Intensely personal questions about ourselves—as raced, gendered, and classed actors—and where we fit into the relations of power, of domination and subordination, in our societies. Education, as the process of making informed decisions to improve the human condition through critical analysis and action, is not confined to the walls of our classroom space, or the gates confining our school building. Instead, it is a political exercise in that it must be able to equip communities to analyze systems of power and utilize their own expertise (coupled with the expertise of those who choose to work in solidarity with them) to address issues and concerns that threaten their existence. In this sense, this classroom and school-based narrative discusses a praxis that is liberatory in the process of “truth tellin.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

      9.30am                 Powhiri

      10.00am               Keynote – Dr Jeff Duncan-Andrade

    11.00am               Morning tea

      11.30am               Keynote – Dr David Stovall

    12.30pm               Lunch

       1.30pm                 Presentation – Sam Chapman

       2.00pm                 Conversation with Dr Jeff Duncan-Andrade/Dr Dave Stovall

       3.00pm                 Closing remarks – Sam Chapman

       3.10                       Karakia