- If you're an aspiring educator, this program is for you.
- If you're interested in developing a community-based learning opportunity for the coming year, this program is for you.
What can work in communities illuminate about the purposes of education? What kinds of habits of mind, knowledge, and skills are worth developing?
We begin this two quarter inquiry by taking stock of ideas we each carry into the program, asking: “How do I currently think about the purposes of education? How have I come to this way of thinking? What aspirations, values, and tensions do I hold? What do I wonder?” We’ll examine and inform our ideas by (i) drawing on insights from philosophy, history and sociology; and (ii) using socio-cultural, situated, and Indigenous paradigms. We’ll learn from the labor and aspirations of our respective cultural communities, as well as from local community based organizations. Along the way, we will develop and practice ethical and relationally accountable principles for engaging with communities.
In the winter quarter, we turn our attention outward — considering what stories of community organizing and work illuminate about things worth learning and practicing at this moment in time. Why stories? Drawing from Miriam Kaba’s (2021) insight that transformative work is multigenerational work, we’ll learn from “mentor” stories - both current and historical – about some ways folks have worked for a just, sustainable and humane world. These stories can help us consider the kinds of knowledge, skills and habits of mind folks had to learn and use in order to do their work (Napolitan & Bowman, 2018).
Folks participating in one quarter of the program will engage a menu of community-based actions. Folks engaging in both quarters will also develop a plan for either (i) a small internship; or (ii) a project on a local issue.
To document your work and learning, you’ll (i) engage in weekly writing to examine and explain the ideas that clarify, complicate, and challenge what you understand about the inquiry; (ii) learn and practice some qualitative research skills; (iii) work on a collaborative arts-based syntheses capturing what we heard from communities who have shared their ideas and aspirations for education; and (iv) synthesize insights from the quarter’s work in a final essay.
Homework will include reading, written and visual sense making, and experiential activities. Field trips will include community based events and the opportunity to go to the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice conference in Seattle.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
Fall [8 credits only]:
2 - Foundations of Education
2 - Community-Based Learning
2 - Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
2 - Synthesis through Writing and the Arts
Winter [8 credits. Note: 12 credit opportunity by signature]
3 - Foundations of Education
2 to 6 Community-Based Learning
3 - Synthesis through Writing and the Arts