Had another good meeting with George Moses today. George and I have been getting to know each other for a couple of years now and we are finally at the place where we can plan curriculum. I've known for a while that knowledge, learning, literacy, etc. is socially constructed in interaction and that social relationships are what matter in this process, but now I "get" it. George's emphasis on people and knowing them has shown me what this means in the heart.
So we've begun the conversation about how to combine the Freedom School curriculum with what "we" (educational researchers of a certain kind) know about content and pedagogy to move toward Bigum's idea of knowledge producing schools. George has talked for a while about what he calls "community defined evidence" so that's in the mix as well.
This sort of work makes all the other crap I deal with fade away.
So we've begun the conversation about how to combine the Freedom School curriculum with what "we" (educational researchers of a certain kind) know about content and pedagogy to move toward Bigum's idea of knowledge producing schools. George has talked for a while about what he calls "community defined evidence" so that's in the mix as well.
One of our first projects will be to have students address a community problem, in this case the food desert problem in Beechwood. They will do the work to design, build, and manage a transformed "corner" store. Community defined evidence will be gathered using participatory action research. George is pretty keen on the economic independence argument that I'm still trying to get my head around, but the corner store project gets to enough social justice issues I do understand that I'm totally in.
This sort of work makes all the other crap I deal with fade away.