Step 1: Choose a Text
While I intend to use a fair number of the concepts and topics that we've covered in class, I intend to use The Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpitt and One Room Schoolhouse - Chapter 2 by Sal Khan as my main two texts. I think both of these texts challenge conventional ideas of education by examining how our educational system is largely designed not as an effective education tool, but rather a system with more complex and less-lofty goals.
Step 2: Choose an Audience
In 2023 and 2024, I was the Mayoral Designee on a Legislative Commission created to provide recommendations on labor-management standards for the Providence Public School District. The robustly named "Special Legislative Commission to Review and Provide Recommendations for Professional and Labor-Managment Standards that Provide School-based Flexibility and Accountability for Employees of Providence Public Schools" never actually issued our final report, as the two members of the commission representing the two teacher unions quit in protest when the final draft of the report was written. That report can be found here.
For my teach-out, I intend to hold several meetings. I intend to meet separately with: (1) former Commission Chair Senator Samuel Zurier; (2) My former boss and replacement at the Providence Mayor's Office, and (3) hopefully the members of the Unions, though I think that is my most uncertain meeting.
Step 3: Choose a Format
I think for a structure I will use 1:1 or 1:2/3 meetings that I record. What I would like to do is talk through the top-level recommendations of the report, and how I now see this report through a new lens as a teacher. I want to use the Khan and Delpitt texts to really unpack with Senator Zurier and Chief of Policy Sheila Dormody some of the inherent and flawed assumptions we make about what needs to stay the same in education, and make an appeal for boldness when we think about education policy. I also want to bring some of my personal experiences into the framework for talking specifically about student behaviors and management within a structure that (as Kahn describes) is not designed with their well-being in mind. I would like to emerge from these meetings with recorded audio, and some interesting notes or questions raised by these two phenomenally intelligent policy minds.
Tom, this is honestly a really powerful direction for your teach-out. What stood out to me the most is that you are not just talking about theory but actually going back to a real policy space that you were part of and re-examining it with a new lens. That feels like exactly what this project is supposed to do. The commission's failure to release the final report, especially with union members stepping away, speaks volumes about the complexity and contestation of these systems.
ReplyDeleteI also think your choice of The Silenced Dialogue and Sal Khan’s work is really strong together. Delpit’s argument about power and whose voices get heard connects directly to policy spaces like the one you were in. It makes me wonder how much of that report reflected dominant perspectives versus the lived experiences of teachers and students. At the same time, Khan’s idea that the system itself is flawed adds another layer, because it pushes the conversation beyond just improving policy to questioning the structure itself.
What I find especially interesting is your decision to have 1:1 conversations with people who were actually involved. That takes this beyond a typical project and turns it into something real. I am curious how those conversations will go, especially with people who may still stand by the original report. I also wonder how your perspective as a teacher now might challenge or shift the way they think about student behavior and school systems.
This made me think about how often decisions about schools are made by people who are not currently in classrooms, and how that impacts the outcomes for students. Your project feels like it is trying to bridge that gap, which is really important. I would be interested to see what patterns or tensions come up in those conversations, especially around what we say education should be versus what it actually functions as.
Hi Tom, This is great! I believe the knowledge you have gained from your previous experience will be invaluable when you have these conversations. As an educator, you now have a different perspective to share along with an understanding from the other side. I am hopeful the professional connections you have established in your former position will be an asset in making a case and that your recommendations will be met with respect. I see you as a very strong advocate who is determined to go the distance to challenge the system and make a difference!
ReplyDeleteAs I have noted before, this project will likley have several setps and you don't have to do all of them for FNED 502. Preparing some kind of framework for discussion that you might have to give Zurier and Dormody could be part one. Setting up meetings, part two. Preparing for the meeting, part three. That might be as far as you get for FNED 502. But I hope that you will be able to sit with them and talk through these important issues. Keep me posted!
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