Transforming Education for Social Justice: Conference Day Details

The purpose of this workshop is to highlight how one mostly White-rural school district has navigated their Anti-Racism journey on a cross-generational Equity Team from understanding, to activism, to transformative change. This workshop will be mostly facilitated by youth on the Equity Team with some adult voice. This workshop will explore tools for Anti-Racism, the power of youth voice, the power of liberatory solidarity, and the power of authentic youth and adult collaboration. 

Goal/Objectives

The goal of this workshop is to highlight how the cross-generational Equity Team used Tiffany Jewell’s (the keynote speaker) This Book is Anti-Racist to foster new learning and action on the Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) Equity Team.

The objectives of this workshop include listening to one SU’s journey, participating in several Anti-Racism activities that the team has, and to leave with ideas for how one might start a cross-generational team or an Anti-Racism journey.

Facilitator: Lindsay Turgeon-Brown, Dakota Wood, Denny Bills

Morning.

Deep-rooted capitalism breeds trauma, disconnection, and generational harm. In this workshop, we will come together to share how restorative practices (RP) can help us navigate, process, and make strides toward healing the trauma from existing within an oppressive system. The utilization of RP does this by encouraging communities to speak from the heart, intentionally listening, making space for all emotions, and being their whole selves with one another. Capitalism doesn’t allow for this to happen naturally. For financial gain, corporations offer alternative “solutions” to trauma that don’t address the root harm and can worsen the initial harm. We will ground ourselves in what it means to be well and experience the healing power of authentic connection. We welcome intergenerational connection, all are welcome!

Facilitators:

Alix Coran (Public Health Student at UMass Amherst, YEA), Zoe Zizi Phillips Santiago (NHS Student & YEA), Giselle Ohm (NHS Student & YEA), Ruby Donelly (Education Student at UMass Amherst & YEA)

Afternoon.

TLDR: Let’s talk about identity! Let’s Dance! Let’s Move! Let’s Express! Let’s Share!

This workshop will entail a series of culminating activities suitable for a preschool/early elementary environment.

In addition to using visual art, literature, and affirmations discussed in last year’s iteration of Me, Myself and Us, this workshop dives more in depth to how we connect with each other in a classroom community and with ourselves through food, music, and dance/movement. Implementing these things into curriculum provides enriching experiences that support the whole child’s development as well as promote cultural exchange and appreciation, respect for diversity, positive self-perception, identity formation, and a deeper sense of community. Consider this workshop an accelerated preschool day with opportunity for reflection and discussion! By the end of the workshop, participants will hopefully leave with a sense of empowerment in fostering connection through activities, songs, and games, a suggested recipe guide for cooking projects, and a deeper understanding of identity-based curriculum and its importance now more than ever.

Facilitator: Lyric D. Wray

Afternoon.

In this interactive workshop, we will present and practice using a pedagogical tool we created called The Power Rainbow. The Power Rainbow is designed to support 3rd-5th grade students in analyzing systems of power (e.g., adultism, racism, capitalism). After an art-based introductory activity, we will provide an overview of how elementary school-aged students understand and relate to systems of power, drawing on our doctoral research and our experience as educators and facilitators of Youth Participatory Action Research. We will introduce and explore The Power Rainbow through a story-walk before leaving space for questions and discussion. Finally, we will transition into small groups; participants will share injustices they have seen within their own contexts and practice using The Power Rainbow to analyze those issues and plan for action. We will share physical and digital resources for using The Power Rainbow, as well as related resources and zines from our initiative ‘Imagining More Just Futures.’ We welcome folx interested in Youth Participatory Action Research, organizing, and critical pedagogy with elementary school-aged youth!

Facilitators: Hania Mariën, Anna Deloia

Practicing culturally sustaining, relational and contemplative strategies to re-awaken humanity in the experience of teaching, learning and belonging in schools.

Facilitators: Members of Our Fire Collective, including teachers and school leaders who have practiced with us in past retreats.

Participants in a healing-centered retreat will share their experience about this unique and immersive PD. They spent 2 days and 1 night practicing culturally sustaining, relational and contemplative strategies to re-awaken humanity in the experience of teaching, learning and belonging in schools. Reflection from participants on a “panel” will offer others a glimpse into the PD and its outcomes, and an embodied activity and dialogue will connect workshop attendees with each other to further a conversation of healing praxis and its impact on belonging.

Facilitators: Members of Our Fire Collective, including teachers and school leaders who have practiced with us in past retreats.

Members of Our Fire Collective are New England-based educators who have experienced the depth of relational, contemplative and culturally rooted practices of a retreat(s) and ongoing community-building to center healing in learning spaces out loud, on purpose, and in public.

Afternoon.

In this session, participants will engage deeply with the important topics of AI and equity as we consider the ways that AI is interacting with and impacting education. We will explore ways AI contributes to othering, as well as its potential for bridging and belonging.

Participants will engage with some AI tools and share their experiences as educators and students. They will also build an understanding of how AI works, and learn about how bias and discrimination show up in AI tools and in their deployment, particularly in educational contexts. Finally, they will explore ways to use AI in ways that support equity and belonging. Participants will leave with a set of approaches for interrupting bias and othering with AI, as well as supporting equity and belonging in school communities.

Facilitators: Mariah Lapiroff, Sahara Pradhan, Suzanne Judson-Whitehouse

Morning.

In this workshop we will identify barriers for neurodivergent youth being included in their community. We will list what has gone well in schools and review some expert resources, we will identify what some concrete solutions are, identify key players who can support this change and outline doable action steps to advocate for this work. Come prepared to do movement, hands on and dialogue around this work. Having a device with you will help, but is not required.

Facilitator: Jess Terry

Afternoon.

Kids do well if they can, according to Ross Greene. This workshop posits that teachers also do well if they can. We will apply a multi-tiered system of support to the mental health of educators in public schools. Through a guided slideshow and storytelling, we will look at resources and share anecdotes about centering the mental health of adults who work in public schools by applying many of the strategies we use for students (including trauma-informed practices, intentional equity and inclusion work, and intensive interventions). The theory of action we are applying to this work is, if we adopt practices in schools that promote self-regulation for adults, then the adults will be better prepared to meet the needs of all students.

Facilitator: Julie Anne Levin

Explore how educators and school leaders can equip students with the confidence, skills, and agency to address real-world issues in their own communities through inquiry-to-action learning. Designing and creating actionable solutions that better their schools and communities can transform students’ attitudes and behaviors, teach compassion and multiple perspective-taking, and deepen content knowledge across all academic areas. Through participatory activities and dialogue, attendees will gain insight into how solutionary projects enable young people to become active, impactful contributors to their local communities.

The purpose of this workshop is to offer educators a starting point for exploring how to bring the Solutionary Framework into their schools and classrooms. This session provides a foundation for understanding how student-led, place-based projects can foster critical thinking, empathy, and actionable solutions for social justice, climate change, and other pressing global and local challenges.

Facilitators: Rene Neuner, Betsy Farrell-Messenger