September 18, 2024 • 30 mins
To meet the CREATE teacher residency’s expansive goals, today's episode features Jacob Hackett from Georgia State University and Ayinde Summers from Project South discussing the design and impact of an immersive teacher workshop. This teacher residency workshop uses concepts of place-based education, the Southeast and Atlanta-based movement organizing work of Ella Baker, Lugenia Hope and Septima Clark, and community-based organizations to deepen the critical consciousness of our future teachers.
Executive producers: The CREATE Project, Dr. Jacob Hackett and Ayinde Summers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
At Georgia State University's CREATE project, we know how hard it is to train highly skilled
(00:13):
teachers.
And we know in this climate, it's even harder to keep them.
Our unique teacher residency model gives teacher residents the vital tools, skills, and dispositions
necessary for K-12 education.
We train teachers in research-based practices to support all students with rigorous, culturally
(00:34):
relevant instruction.
The CREATE project is dedicated to nurturing a community of highly skilled and thriving
educators who embody equity-centered practices, trust, collaboration, and remain fiercely
committed to working alongside students and the communities they serve to reimagine Atlanta
(00:57):
public school classrooms as spaces for deep joy, liberation, and flourishing.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent
the views, thoughts, and opinions of Georgia State University.
(01:18):
The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only.
The Georgia State University name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its
owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization,
(01:40):
product, or service.
To meet the CREATE teacher residency's expansive goals, we're here today to discuss the design
and impact of an immersive teacher workshop, a workshop that utilizes concepts of place-based
(02:02):
education, the Southeast and Atlanta-based movement organizing work of Ella Baker, Luginia
Hope, and Septima Clark, and the expertise of community-based organizations, all to deepen
the critical consciousness of our future teachers.
Hi, I'm Jacob Hackett, a clinical associate professor at Georgia State University, and
(02:25):
for the past seven years I've been the director of Georgia State University's middle-level
education teacher preparation program.
And a cornerstone of my teacher preparation philosophy is integrating strong, active,
and progressive community partnerships.
That's why our guest today is Ayinde Summers, the land and freedom project coordinator at
(02:46):
Project South here in Atlanta.
Ayinde is an accomplished outdoor leadership trainer, a popular educator, a historian, and
a literacy specialist.
He's also a well-known community leader here in Atlanta and throughout Georgia, and is
deeply committed to linking African traditions and practices from the Gala-Giichi Georgia
(03:07):
Coast here to community growth and development in Atlanta neighborhoods.
Guests is a very powerful term because there is an art to hosting guests, right?
And I want to say, though, that Ayinde, to me, is even more than a guest.
(03:29):
A thought partner, a co-constructor, a co-conspirator, somebody that I rely on personally and conceptually
and theoretically on so many different levels.
So I just want to thank him so much for being here today.
Absolutely.
Today, we're going to be talking about a project that is very near and dear to our hearts,
(03:53):
which is the Ella Baker, the Ginny Ahope, and Satima Clark Institute.
Now this gives you a little bit of context.
This institute is a summer institute that falls with halfway through the teacher preparation
program here at Georgia State for middle grades preparation.
So we service undergrads here and offer a teacher's certification along with a middle
(04:19):
grades education degree.
And that is a two-year cohort-based degree and certification.
And this particular workshop and institute happens halfway through.
So if you can kind of picture that along the continuum of teacher preparation.
Teacher preparation is super important to the both of us because of how we serve as
(04:41):
schools and where we come from in our worldview.
This is a, you can see all of the people involved in this project.
So here is just a little overview of a lot of the people who are, and agencies who are
involved in this project.
So it pulls a little bit in the way.
(05:02):
But you can see how far it stands.
We've got the Create Project, we've got the Fulham County Remembrance Coalition, we've
got the Learning for Justice Auburn Avenue Research Library, Project South, and EJI,
which is over in Montgomery, Alabama.
We'll talk about the importance of partnering with EJI and Montgomery here in a moment.
(05:23):
So how about as a representative of Project South, I'm going to talk about a little bit
of initiatives that are going on at Project South.
Sure.
Yeah.
One of the things I was thinking about when you were talking is how independent of our
relationships, each one of those entities have their own separate relationships.
(05:47):
So then it just weaves this really strong bond.
And it's like over 30, 40 years of relationships that Georgia State has with Project South
outside of the Air Department and Project South with EJI.
(06:09):
And even the inception of EJI, which is the Equal Justice Initiative, and Brian Stevens,
and Auburn Avenue and Project South.
So what we do at Project South is we definitely pull on our relationships across the region.
So 13 states, including Puerto Rico and Africa, countries throughout Africa, West Africa in
(06:35):
particular, and some East African nations as well.
We have relationships across where we build people power.
So specifically what that means is we do assemblies.
We lean on the tradition that comes from the Black radical tradition that pulls people
(06:59):
together, people who traditionally don't have voices.
And we put them in a room and we get them to connect and create opportunities to give
each other permission to be wrong and then come up with solutions for ourselves as people.
(07:21):
Some of the things that we have done more recently, we just sent a delegation down to
support the Gullah-Giichi festivals that are happening during the season.
So we've been sending delegations down to support them.
Those are nonprofit organizations throughout the Gullah-Giichi community, which is on the
(07:42):
coastline stretching from the southernmost part of North Carolina to the northernmost
part of Florida.
There are 26 islands that we call Saltwater-Giichi and about 20 miles inland from those areas
are also Gichi, but we call that Freshwater-Giichi.
And so there are different festivals and things that organizations and nonprofits have across
(08:09):
the region to bring awareness to some of the plight of the original African families that
came to the Americas and stayed in that area.
Anything ranging from land issues to, again, education issues, environmental issues and
(08:29):
Project South, we find ourselves supporting those communities with the best of our ability
and with all of our energy.
We find ourselves working.
So that's one of the more recent things that we've done.
The other thing that we've done is we participated and were instrumental inside of the organizing
(08:53):
of events across the U.S.
There was a U.S. social forum that happened in 2007 that Project South brought here to
Atlanta.
20,000 people came from Hawaii, Mexico, all 50 states, and then we all met at the Civic
Center.
And so those are some of the things that we've done in the past and again did a similar thing,
(09:19):
convening opportunities for people to work some of their things out.
And we have more recently been pushing back against some of the things that have happened
with the illegal detaining of immigrants here in the state of Georgia and pushing back on
(09:45):
the treatment of folks that have come here to look for asylum, that have come here to
look for work and to progress their communities, and we are again stepping in to support them
the best we can.
And so those are some of the things that we, some of the initiatives that we at Project
South have been working on and involved in.
(10:07):
Nice.
So that is a very high level picture of all the different initiatives and we so appreciate
that because oftentimes when we think about teachers as educators and classroom teachers,
we can talk about preparing them and supporting them in a very clinical aspect.
So we really focus on skills and instructional skills, which are important, right?
(10:30):
But we don't as much talk about how they should be working and could be working in solidarity
with the communities that they serve, right?
So thinking about from an ecological perspective, thinking about all the broader community, that
the community is much more important than it doesn't end at the schoolhouse walls, which
(10:50):
is often the case.
And I come from a teacher preparation program, my own preparation, that was very traditional
and it didn't incorporate necessarily the community vantage.
But I remember all the way back in 08 when we met and I was teaching for APS, being able
to have a community partner as a community educator to question some of the assumptions
(11:14):
that classroom teachers can take into the classroom and expand their view to incorporate
community perspectives.
Yes.
It is something that really jostles a lot of your assumptions that you bring in as a
classroom teacher.
And so that's super important.
And that's where that partnership comes into play.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a little visual of how we're thinking about
(11:42):
preparing teachers here through the Create Teacher Residency and especially focus just
holding in all on this one sliver of the residency, which is the Baker Ella Baker,
Luginia Hope, and Septima Clark Institute.
So maybe you all can see the image there, which is like a rope, right?
(12:03):
These are evolving theoretical frames that ground both the practice and the research
for this particular project, which is very exciting.
I think this is cutting edge.
I know this is cutting edge.
But really what it is, is incorporating a lot of different theoretical and literature
bases that don't often talk to each other.
So if we think about the first thread that's up there, which is around critical theory,
(12:27):
which is sort of the content of Baker Hope Clark, which is really focuses on critical
race theory and movement builders.
So the actual people of Ella Baker, Luginia Hope, and Septima Clark, which we'll talk
about here in a moment, as historic movement builders and how critical race theory and
(12:48):
other critical intersectional theories can allow us to understand inequality and inequity
within the systems around our schools and our curriculum.
So that's a really big component, right?
And then we think about the structure, which is here's a fancy, dancy word onto a systemological
plurality, it's an helpful, but really that is the types of knowledge that we incorporate
(13:12):
into the ways that we prepare teachers.
And if we think about a thread of teacher preparation and teacher education, which is
community based teacher education.
So shout out to Peter Morell and Ken Sikner and others who have been promoting a more
of a community oriented, a community based teacher preparation.
A vantage, which is that structure there.
(13:35):
And then if we think about the pedagogy that happens during the Institute, which is much
more of a placed based and experiential learning nature.
So place based, it's very hyper focused on the Southeast, Atlanta, our local history
and our regional history to understand that from a different perspective, but experience
(13:56):
it right.
Yes.
And that's where that popular education and that's where the different locations come
into play, which is Montgomery and Atlanta.
For now, with other Belagici visions in the future.
And so we'll talk about future visions for that.
But so, and those threads come together to think about how teachers learn to expand their
(14:17):
practice to be a little more critically conscious in nature.
And so I'll offer a couple of things for the audience to look up.
There's a place called Penn Center.
It's in Buford, South Carolina, because it has its own website.
They've been up for quite some time, but going to it, but into the point of around education,
(14:39):
what they did was they use a method of each one teach one as we used to say around Atlanta
area.
When I was a youngster is taking time to have coaching young people, finding those young
people in your classroom that knew how to do the thing that understood how you explained
it, and then coaching them to teach the other children that didn't quite get this concept,
(15:05):
sharing that.
Well, we talk about efficacy into some of these other theories around education.
It allows now for people to take that knowledge, share it.
And then as an educator, you get to kind of sit back and see how well you did in terms
(15:25):
of teaching other people how to teach.
And so now this thing just spreads.
And so then we get to again, take a look at some of the theories.
And we look at the practical application and then the impact.
And so then if we were looking at how will we describe these areas in more layman's terms,
(15:52):
that's how I would describe it.
And it gives us, again, it gives us an opportunity to look at how we're going to implement.
And that the other piece is what we do in popular education is we walk into the conversation
assuming our knowing, which is another piece in there, right, that we would discuss, that
(16:16):
the community already is in possession of the knowing.
Right.
And so then what we need to do is we need to facilitate remembering, right.
You already know how to do this.
You've heard this word before or you've heard these.
You actually have the phonemic awareness.
(16:37):
What we want you to do is now look at my mouth when I'm using the words, right.
And I want you to do what I'm doing.
And so then it gives us an opportunity, you know, to kind of remove some of the barriers
that come when we're trying or attempting to educate people from a position of, we'll
call it SNI line, right, superior and inferior.
(16:59):
Right.
Right.
So we remove that and we say, hey, we're together.
Now our students have a great model.
When they get ready to do their each one teach one, they have a great model to use because
the teacher that was sharing with me doesn't see themselves as superior to me.
(17:20):
And that superiority isn't a goal of mine, but rather democratization of information.
We are together.
We are one, right.
So all you know, I know.
There's a concept in African philosophy and I use that intentionally.
On the continent is Ubuntu.
(17:43):
I am because you are, right.
Instead of the philosophy that is, I think therefore I am.
Right.
So we use that also when we're talking about education.
Right.
That's how do I share this?
What's the best method of allowing you to see this humanity in me?
(18:04):
And then we're just going to feed off of each other.
Right.
So, yeah, I just wanted to know.
That's great.
Put that in there.
It's absolutely, it's great.
And so that's where the foundation of how we're approaching the work and the collaboration
for Baker Hill Clark.
(18:25):
So let's just talk a little bit briefly about why we center for the content of this, why
we can't why we center these three women throughout history.
So we'll just a little briefly, like pretty high overview.
Why do we center them?
So we'll go to Ella Baker, the Virginia Hope and Satima Clark and we'll leave Satima Clark
(18:46):
for the end because of for the educational reasons.
Right.
Experiencing the students are experiencing the origins of what we know now today as citizenship
schools.
The architect of citizenship schools is a woman who is the wife of the fitting president
of the Atlanta University Center.
(19:07):
Her name is Lugini.
A hope so Lugini a hope who was good friends with W. E. B. Du Bois or Du Bois.
And the other piece is to look up the relationship between Lugini a hope and how many different
initiatives that she was in partnership with Du Bois.
Right.
So W. E. B. Du Bois and Lugini a hope their relationship.
(19:32):
They were the teachers for September Clark coming from South Carolina.
All right.
And so of course so many of us know Ella Baker from her work as here in Atlanta at the SCLC
where she worked with Dr. King Dr. Martin Luther King.
(19:55):
And again she was pivotal in the citizenship schools and also if we don't have Ella Baker
we don't have SNCC which is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
So the reason why we chose those three women was not simply because of the accomplishments
(20:19):
but again because of their relationship with each other.
Right.
They worked together as professionals.
They were September Clark is a was an educator.
They continued to work together over time after she matriculated through college and
as she went ahead and became a teacher at Charleston South Carolina school system.
(20:47):
And as she continued on and they fired her I believe in the year was 1957 interesting
relationship between her being fired and the 1954 decision Brown versus Board of Education
you should look that up to.
And what actually was said inside of that because it directly connects to the institution
(21:12):
that September Clark helped to build which was called the Highlander Center in Tennessee.
The Highlander Center in Tennessee was where she would then scale up this project that
she was participating in Atlanta with Luginia Hope.
(21:33):
And so I'll give you the institution that Luginia Hope also helped to build where she
was able to train all of these young students in the summertime and that was called the
Atlanta Neighborhood Union Atlanta Neighborhood Union.
These are all things that you can look up and see the relationship to these women and
(21:59):
the work that they did.
It was absolutely phenomenal and not for us to just look at but for us to use as a road
map for how we might be able to engage our humanity.
And by extension the relationships we build as educators.
(22:22):
And so that's why we selected these women is because of the work that they did of the
institutions that they built.
And again we aren't talking about theoretical institutions.
These are actually brick and mortar institutions and with over five million people impacted.
(22:45):
And I'll give you the last last little numbers.
If you want to and I really encourage you to is to actually look up the numbers that
Septima Clark actually puts up.
When she, after she develops the education department at Highlander Center and they really
(23:07):
build out the citizenship school piece.
The first thing she does is she trains 54,000 people off by a few numbers.
After the 54,000 are trained she then goes out and deploys these people across the South
(23:28):
and they then teach five million people literacy.
The five million people then go and they pass the test and then they become voting citizens.
Now mind you she's a woman and women don't get the right to vote at the same time as
(23:48):
black men.
But it also allows us to examine this idea around black men willing to take the leadership
of black women.
It challenges this idea.
To tune the five million people.
So again, I want us to if you have time, look at that.
(24:10):
Those are all sources you can take a look at and share with each other.
And then if you feel so moved, let us collectively get into a practice of following in the footsteps
of these great women.
To that point also from more of a qualitative perspective here are a couple quotes and we
(24:30):
can react to these.
These are some of the themes that are being pulled out from folks who have participated
in bigger hope in Clark which is a takeaway is the value in struggling with your students.
Having it modeled so there's that experiential education component.
Let me move this box.
(24:53):
Having it modeled was really helpful because it felt like we were really learning together.
It made the lesson feel more real and personable.
I'm going to leave behind the idea that students are supposed to produce answers quickly.
We often honor that speed as the number one marker of intelligence.
(25:14):
It's our kid especially in standardized best.
I think that I have learned a lot about taking your time with the learning and focusing more
on the process than the product.
Yes.
Here's another reference.
I knew about most of the important buildings in downtown since I had lived there for two
(25:36):
years however I was wrong and needed to do more research.
I also thought I knew about good teaching strategies but have had my eyes opened each
day by strategies demonstrated here.
When we talk about traditional teacher preparation we often talk about the theory as we talked
about before and describing strategies.
(26:00):
Oftentimes we don't provide enough opportunities for practice of those strategies.
Here's an example of the importance of facilitators to demonstrate those and model those strategies.
Last but not least one of the big ideas that I continue to see showcased was modeling to
this point around modeling.
(26:21):
They were showing us how information could be hidden from us but it is not only just
the students but the teacher's responsibility of learning as a community, growing as a community
and I think the strategy is prompting us and provoking us to be curious, to be thoughtful
about certain things.
(26:42):
Us being students, them being facilitators, all of us learning and growing as a community
and that is how we lead our classrooms.
We are not naive to the barriers and challenges to implement popular education practices.
(27:04):
Some of the folks talk about the need for more and more practice around time and scale.
How much are schools to become even more hyper standardized?
The curriculum is being a hyper standardized place, conflicts with assessments mandated
from my school and not much opportunity to break the ROTE formula.
(27:29):
Then of course politics and censoring.
Some challenges I can foresee are connected to the new house bill 1084 may limit my ability
to explicitly talk about these subjects.
Next step is what we are thinking about.
We are thinking about even more humanizing measures and outputs so being able to continue
(27:49):
to see and offer these opportunities for our participants to be able to practice.
Observing and co-designing popular education practices in the field while they are student
teaching.
Even more opportunities both within the classroom and within the school but also at projects
of community based organizations to work with youth in those settings.
(28:12):
We know different type of political nature in those settings and redesigning the university
based instruments or the tools for our clinical practice.
Being able to see these things and observe them and measure them from a coach's perspective
and then reimagining scale.
Oftentimes this idea of scale is more and more and more and spread rather than depth.
(28:39):
We are thinking about scale from a depth perspective.
That is really what we are grappling with and what we are excited to move forward in
this project.
And that is a wrap for this episode of Create Ed.
We hope our discussion of Baker Hope Clark Institute has provided valuable insights into
(29:01):
the power of community partnerships and the transformative potential within K-12 education
and teacher residencies.
If you enjoyed today's episode please subscribe, rate and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify.
Your feedback helps us continue to bring meaningful content and connect with more listeners passionate
(29:24):
about education.
You can stay connected with us at the Create Project website, check below for the link
for updates on the Create Project, Create Ed and more.
We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and suggestions for future episodes.
Please reach out to us on Instagram and LinkedIn.
We want to hear from you.
(29:44):
Special thanks to our guest Jacob Hackett and Aayinde Summers.
Thank you all both so much for sharing your expertise and your experiences.
Now join us next time as we explore the journey of a Create Math teacher resident as it goes
from a resident to a full-time teacher and will dive even deeper into creating environments
(30:06):
of joy and thriving for educators and students alike.
Thank you for listening and until next time let's continue to build strong partnerships,
foster thriving educational communities and transform teacher residency into places of
deep joy.
Does that sound good?
At Georgia State University's CREATE project, we know how hard it is to train highly skilled
(00:13):
teachers.
And we know in this climate, it's even harder to keep them.
Our unique teacher residency model gives teacher residents the vital tools, skills, and dispositions
necessary for K-12 education.
We train teachers in research-based practices to support all students with rigorous, culturally
(00:34):
relevant instruction.
The CREATE project is dedicated to nurturing a community of highly skilled and thriving
educators who embody equity-centered practices, trust, collaboration, and remain fiercely
committed to working alongside students and the communities they serve to reimagine Atlanta
(00:57):
public school classrooms as spaces for deep joy, liberation, and flourishing.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent
the views, thoughts, and opinions of Georgia State University.
(01:18):
The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only.
The Georgia State University name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its
owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization,
(01:40):
product, or service.
To meet the CREATE teacher residency's expansive goals, we're here today to discuss the design
and impact of an immersive teacher workshop, a workshop that utilizes concepts of place-based
(02:02):
education, the Southeast and Atlanta-based movement organizing work of Ella Baker, Luginia
Hope, and Septima Clark, and the expertise of community-based organizations, all to deepen
the critical consciousness of our future teachers.
Hi, I'm Jacob Hackett, a clinical associate professor at Georgia State University, and
(02:25):
for the past seven years I've been the director of Georgia State University's middle-level
education teacher preparation program.
And a cornerstone of my teacher preparation philosophy is integrating strong, active,
and progressive community partnerships.
That's why our guest today is Ayinde Summers, the land and freedom project coordinator at
(02:46):
Project South here in Atlanta.
Ayinde is an accomplished outdoor leadership trainer, a popular educator, a historian, and
a literacy specialist.
He's also a well-known community leader here in Atlanta and throughout Georgia, and is
deeply committed to linking African traditions and practices from the Gala-Giichi Georgia
(03:07):
Coast here to community growth and development in Atlanta neighborhoods.
Guests is a very powerful term because there is an art to hosting guests, right?
And I want to say, though, that Ayinde, to me, is even more than a guest.
(03:29):
A thought partner, a co-constructor, a co-conspirator, somebody that I rely on personally and conceptually
and theoretically on so many different levels.
So I just want to thank him so much for being here today.
Absolutely.
Today, we're going to be talking about a project that is very near and dear to our hearts,
(03:53):
which is the Ella Baker, the Ginny Ahope, and Satima Clark Institute.
Now this gives you a little bit of context.
This institute is a summer institute that falls with halfway through the teacher preparation
program here at Georgia State for middle grades preparation.
So we service undergrads here and offer a teacher's certification along with a middle
(04:19):
grades education degree.
And that is a two-year cohort-based degree and certification.
And this particular workshop and institute happens halfway through.
So if you can kind of picture that along the continuum of teacher preparation.
Teacher preparation is super important to the both of us because of how we serve as
(04:41):
schools and where we come from in our worldview.
This is a, you can see all of the people involved in this project.
So here is just a little overview of a lot of the people who are, and agencies who are
involved in this project.
So it pulls a little bit in the way.
(05:02):
But you can see how far it stands.
We've got the Create Project, we've got the Fulham County Remembrance Coalition, we've
got the Learning for Justice Auburn Avenue Research Library, Project South, and EJI,
which is over in Montgomery, Alabama.
We'll talk about the importance of partnering with EJI and Montgomery here in a moment.
(05:23):
So how about as a representative of Project South, I'm going to talk about a little bit
of initiatives that are going on at Project South.
Sure.
Yeah.
One of the things I was thinking about when you were talking is how independent of our
relationships, each one of those entities have their own separate relationships.
(05:47):
So then it just weaves this really strong bond.
And it's like over 30, 40 years of relationships that Georgia State has with Project South
outside of the Air Department and Project South with EJI.
(06:09):
And even the inception of EJI, which is the Equal Justice Initiative, and Brian Stevens,
and Auburn Avenue and Project South.
So what we do at Project South is we definitely pull on our relationships across the region.
So 13 states, including Puerto Rico and Africa, countries throughout Africa, West Africa in
(06:35):
particular, and some East African nations as well.
We have relationships across where we build people power.
So specifically what that means is we do assemblies.
We lean on the tradition that comes from the Black radical tradition that pulls people
(06:59):
together, people who traditionally don't have voices.
And we put them in a room and we get them to connect and create opportunities to give
each other permission to be wrong and then come up with solutions for ourselves as people.
(07:21):
Some of the things that we have done more recently, we just sent a delegation down to
support the Gullah-Giichi festivals that are happening during the season.
So we've been sending delegations down to support them.
Those are nonprofit organizations throughout the Gullah-Giichi community, which is on the
(07:42):
coastline stretching from the southernmost part of North Carolina to the northernmost
part of Florida.
There are 26 islands that we call Saltwater-Giichi and about 20 miles inland from those areas
are also Gichi, but we call that Freshwater-Giichi.
And so there are different festivals and things that organizations and nonprofits have across
(08:09):
the region to bring awareness to some of the plight of the original African families that
came to the Americas and stayed in that area.
Anything ranging from land issues to, again, education issues, environmental issues and
(08:29):
Project South, we find ourselves supporting those communities with the best of our ability
and with all of our energy.
We find ourselves working.
So that's one of the more recent things that we've done.
The other thing that we've done is we participated and were instrumental inside of the organizing
(08:53):
of events across the U.S.
There was a U.S. social forum that happened in 2007 that Project South brought here to
Atlanta.
20,000 people came from Hawaii, Mexico, all 50 states, and then we all met at the Civic
Center.
And so those are some of the things that we've done in the past and again did a similar thing,
(09:19):
convening opportunities for people to work some of their things out.
And we have more recently been pushing back against some of the things that have happened
with the illegal detaining of immigrants here in the state of Georgia and pushing back on
(09:45):
the treatment of folks that have come here to look for asylum, that have come here to
look for work and to progress their communities, and we are again stepping in to support them
the best we can.
And so those are some of the things that we, some of the initiatives that we at Project
South have been working on and involved in.
(10:07):
Nice.
So that is a very high level picture of all the different initiatives and we so appreciate
that because oftentimes when we think about teachers as educators and classroom teachers,
we can talk about preparing them and supporting them in a very clinical aspect.
So we really focus on skills and instructional skills, which are important, right?
(10:30):
But we don't as much talk about how they should be working and could be working in solidarity
with the communities that they serve, right?
So thinking about from an ecological perspective, thinking about all the broader community, that
the community is much more important than it doesn't end at the schoolhouse walls, which
(10:50):
is often the case.
And I come from a teacher preparation program, my own preparation, that was very traditional
and it didn't incorporate necessarily the community vantage.
But I remember all the way back in 08 when we met and I was teaching for APS, being able
to have a community partner as a community educator to question some of the assumptions
(11:14):
that classroom teachers can take into the classroom and expand their view to incorporate
community perspectives.
Yes.
It is something that really jostles a lot of your assumptions that you bring in as a
classroom teacher.
And so that's super important.
And that's where that partnership comes into play.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a little visual of how we're thinking about
(11:42):
preparing teachers here through the Create Teacher Residency and especially focus just
holding in all on this one sliver of the residency, which is the Baker Ella Baker,
Luginia Hope, and Septima Clark Institute.
So maybe you all can see the image there, which is like a rope, right?
(12:03):
These are evolving theoretical frames that ground both the practice and the research
for this particular project, which is very exciting.
I think this is cutting edge.
I know this is cutting edge.
But really what it is, is incorporating a lot of different theoretical and literature
bases that don't often talk to each other.
So if we think about the first thread that's up there, which is around critical theory,
(12:27):
which is sort of the content of Baker Hope Clark, which is really focuses on critical
race theory and movement builders.
So the actual people of Ella Baker, Luginia Hope, and Septima Clark, which we'll talk
about here in a moment, as historic movement builders and how critical race theory and
(12:48):
other critical intersectional theories can allow us to understand inequality and inequity
within the systems around our schools and our curriculum.
So that's a really big component, right?
And then we think about the structure, which is here's a fancy, dancy word onto a systemological
plurality, it's an helpful, but really that is the types of knowledge that we incorporate
(13:12):
into the ways that we prepare teachers.
And if we think about a thread of teacher preparation and teacher education, which is
community based teacher education.
So shout out to Peter Morell and Ken Sikner and others who have been promoting a more
of a community oriented, a community based teacher preparation.
A vantage, which is that structure there.
(13:35):
And then if we think about the pedagogy that happens during the Institute, which is much
more of a placed based and experiential learning nature.
So place based, it's very hyper focused on the Southeast, Atlanta, our local history
and our regional history to understand that from a different perspective, but experience
(13:56):
it right.
Yes.
And that's where that popular education and that's where the different locations come
into play, which is Montgomery and Atlanta.
For now, with other Belagici visions in the future.
And so we'll talk about future visions for that.
But so, and those threads come together to think about how teachers learn to expand their
(14:17):
practice to be a little more critically conscious in nature.
And so I'll offer a couple of things for the audience to look up.
There's a place called Penn Center.
It's in Buford, South Carolina, because it has its own website.
They've been up for quite some time, but going to it, but into the point of around education,
(14:39):
what they did was they use a method of each one teach one as we used to say around Atlanta
area.
When I was a youngster is taking time to have coaching young people, finding those young
people in your classroom that knew how to do the thing that understood how you explained
it, and then coaching them to teach the other children that didn't quite get this concept,
(15:05):
sharing that.
Well, we talk about efficacy into some of these other theories around education.
It allows now for people to take that knowledge, share it.
And then as an educator, you get to kind of sit back and see how well you did in terms
(15:25):
of teaching other people how to teach.
And so now this thing just spreads.
And so then we get to again, take a look at some of the theories.
And we look at the practical application and then the impact.
And so then if we were looking at how will we describe these areas in more layman's terms,
(15:52):
that's how I would describe it.
And it gives us, again, it gives us an opportunity to look at how we're going to implement.
And that the other piece is what we do in popular education is we walk into the conversation
assuming our knowing, which is another piece in there, right, that we would discuss, that
(16:16):
the community already is in possession of the knowing.
Right.
And so then what we need to do is we need to facilitate remembering, right.
You already know how to do this.
You've heard this word before or you've heard these.
You actually have the phonemic awareness.
(16:37):
What we want you to do is now look at my mouth when I'm using the words, right.
And I want you to do what I'm doing.
And so then it gives us an opportunity, you know, to kind of remove some of the barriers
that come when we're trying or attempting to educate people from a position of, we'll
call it SNI line, right, superior and inferior.
(16:59):
Right.
Right.
So we remove that and we say, hey, we're together.
Now our students have a great model.
When they get ready to do their each one teach one, they have a great model to use because
the teacher that was sharing with me doesn't see themselves as superior to me.
(17:20):
And that superiority isn't a goal of mine, but rather democratization of information.
We are together.
We are one, right.
So all you know, I know.
There's a concept in African philosophy and I use that intentionally.
On the continent is Ubuntu.
(17:43):
I am because you are, right.
Instead of the philosophy that is, I think therefore I am.
Right.
So we use that also when we're talking about education.
Right.
That's how do I share this?
What's the best method of allowing you to see this humanity in me?
(18:04):
And then we're just going to feed off of each other.
Right.
So, yeah, I just wanted to know.
That's great.
Put that in there.
It's absolutely, it's great.
And so that's where the foundation of how we're approaching the work and the collaboration
for Baker Hill Clark.
(18:25):
So let's just talk a little bit briefly about why we center for the content of this, why
we can't why we center these three women throughout history.
So we'll just a little briefly, like pretty high overview.
Why do we center them?
So we'll go to Ella Baker, the Virginia Hope and Satima Clark and we'll leave Satima Clark
(18:46):
for the end because of for the educational reasons.
Right.
Experiencing the students are experiencing the origins of what we know now today as citizenship
schools.
The architect of citizenship schools is a woman who is the wife of the fitting president
of the Atlanta University Center.
(19:07):
Her name is Lugini.
A hope so Lugini a hope who was good friends with W. E. B. Du Bois or Du Bois.
And the other piece is to look up the relationship between Lugini a hope and how many different
initiatives that she was in partnership with Du Bois.
Right.
So W. E. B. Du Bois and Lugini a hope their relationship.
(19:32):
They were the teachers for September Clark coming from South Carolina.
All right.
And so of course so many of us know Ella Baker from her work as here in Atlanta at the SCLC
where she worked with Dr. King Dr. Martin Luther King.
(19:55):
And again she was pivotal in the citizenship schools and also if we don't have Ella Baker
we don't have SNCC which is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
So the reason why we chose those three women was not simply because of the accomplishments
(20:19):
but again because of their relationship with each other.
Right.
They worked together as professionals.
They were September Clark is a was an educator.
They continued to work together over time after she matriculated through college and
as she went ahead and became a teacher at Charleston South Carolina school system.
(20:47):
And as she continued on and they fired her I believe in the year was 1957 interesting
relationship between her being fired and the 1954 decision Brown versus Board of Education
you should look that up to.
And what actually was said inside of that because it directly connects to the institution
(21:12):
that September Clark helped to build which was called the Highlander Center in Tennessee.
The Highlander Center in Tennessee was where she would then scale up this project that
she was participating in Atlanta with Luginia Hope.
(21:33):
And so I'll give you the institution that Luginia Hope also helped to build where she
was able to train all of these young students in the summertime and that was called the
Atlanta Neighborhood Union Atlanta Neighborhood Union.
These are all things that you can look up and see the relationship to these women and
(21:59):
the work that they did.
It was absolutely phenomenal and not for us to just look at but for us to use as a road
map for how we might be able to engage our humanity.
And by extension the relationships we build as educators.
(22:22):
And so that's why we selected these women is because of the work that they did of the
institutions that they built.
And again we aren't talking about theoretical institutions.
These are actually brick and mortar institutions and with over five million people impacted.
(22:45):
And I'll give you the last last little numbers.
If you want to and I really encourage you to is to actually look up the numbers that
Septima Clark actually puts up.
When she, after she develops the education department at Highlander Center and they really
(23:07):
build out the citizenship school piece.
The first thing she does is she trains 54,000 people off by a few numbers.
After the 54,000 are trained she then goes out and deploys these people across the South
(23:28):
and they then teach five million people literacy.
The five million people then go and they pass the test and then they become voting citizens.
Now mind you she's a woman and women don't get the right to vote at the same time as
(23:48):
black men.
But it also allows us to examine this idea around black men willing to take the leadership
of black women.
It challenges this idea.
To tune the five million people.
So again, I want us to if you have time, look at that.
(24:10):
Those are all sources you can take a look at and share with each other.
And then if you feel so moved, let us collectively get into a practice of following in the footsteps
of these great women.
To that point also from more of a qualitative perspective here are a couple quotes and we
(24:30):
can react to these.
These are some of the themes that are being pulled out from folks who have participated
in bigger hope in Clark which is a takeaway is the value in struggling with your students.
Having it modeled so there's that experiential education component.
Let me move this box.
(24:53):
Having it modeled was really helpful because it felt like we were really learning together.
It made the lesson feel more real and personable.
I'm going to leave behind the idea that students are supposed to produce answers quickly.
We often honor that speed as the number one marker of intelligence.
(25:14):
It's our kid especially in standardized best.
I think that I have learned a lot about taking your time with the learning and focusing more
on the process than the product.
Yes.
Here's another reference.
I knew about most of the important buildings in downtown since I had lived there for two
(25:36):
years however I was wrong and needed to do more research.
I also thought I knew about good teaching strategies but have had my eyes opened each
day by strategies demonstrated here.
When we talk about traditional teacher preparation we often talk about the theory as we talked
about before and describing strategies.
(26:00):
Oftentimes we don't provide enough opportunities for practice of those strategies.
Here's an example of the importance of facilitators to demonstrate those and model those strategies.
Last but not least one of the big ideas that I continue to see showcased was modeling to
this point around modeling.
(26:21):
They were showing us how information could be hidden from us but it is not only just
the students but the teacher's responsibility of learning as a community, growing as a community
and I think the strategy is prompting us and provoking us to be curious, to be thoughtful
about certain things.
(26:42):
Us being students, them being facilitators, all of us learning and growing as a community
and that is how we lead our classrooms.
We are not naive to the barriers and challenges to implement popular education practices.
(27:04):
Some of the folks talk about the need for more and more practice around time and scale.
How much are schools to become even more hyper standardized?
The curriculum is being a hyper standardized place, conflicts with assessments mandated
from my school and not much opportunity to break the ROTE formula.
(27:29):
Then of course politics and censoring.
Some challenges I can foresee are connected to the new house bill 1084 may limit my ability
to explicitly talk about these subjects.
Next step is what we are thinking about.
We are thinking about even more humanizing measures and outputs so being able to continue
(27:49):
to see and offer these opportunities for our participants to be able to practice.
Observing and co-designing popular education practices in the field while they are student
teaching.
Even more opportunities both within the classroom and within the school but also at projects
of community based organizations to work with youth in those settings.
(28:12):
We know different type of political nature in those settings and redesigning the university
based instruments or the tools for our clinical practice.
Being able to see these things and observe them and measure them from a coach's perspective
and then reimagining scale.
Oftentimes this idea of scale is more and more and more and spread rather than depth.
(28:39):
We are thinking about scale from a depth perspective.
That is really what we are grappling with and what we are excited to move forward in
this project.
And that is a wrap for this episode of Create Ed.
We hope our discussion of Baker Hope Clark Institute has provided valuable insights into
(29:01):
the power of community partnerships and the transformative potential within K-12 education
and teacher residencies.
If you enjoyed today's episode please subscribe, rate and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify.
Your feedback helps us continue to bring meaningful content and connect with more listeners passionate
(29:24):
about education.
You can stay connected with us at the Create Project website, check below for the link
for updates on the Create Project, Create Ed and more.
We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and suggestions for future episodes.
Please reach out to us on Instagram and LinkedIn.
We want to hear from you.
(29:44):
Special thanks to our guest Jacob Hackett and Aayinde Summers.
Thank you all both so much for sharing your expertise and your experiences.
Now join us next time as we explore the journey of a Create Math teacher resident as it goes
from a resident to a full-time teacher and will dive even deeper into creating environments
(30:06):
of joy and thriving for educators and students alike.
Thank you for listening and until next time let's continue to build strong partnerships,
foster thriving educational communities and transform teacher residency into places of
deep joy.
Does that sound good?
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