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I'm taking a mini-course with @AlexSVenet and Ellen Fox called "ReTURN to School: Restorative and Trauma Understandings for Right Now." To wrap up the first module, we each are generating and then sharing writing about questions. Mine is...
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"How can we eliminate school hierarchies standing in the way of student and teacher power?" It's a question that combines their prompt and a framing question for my summer work asked earlier by @DulceFlecha.
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You'll note the question is "how," not "why." I hope the "why" is self-evident - when power-over relationships are prioritized, voice is restricted and thinking is narrowed which weakens an institution; worse, respect for basic humanity is lost and trauma inflicted.
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But understanding the "why" may be the first step to the "how" - recognizing the massive benefit (to the institution and our collective humanity) and being willing to face up to the need to act generates the desire to work on the "how."
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What drives power-over relationships is policies, deriving from the institution, and practices, deriving from the people. And so, to move to power-with relationships, we would have to look at both those factors.
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So often you see that equity work has to begin with internal work, and so it is here. We need to commit to understanding how racism (and other oppressions) shapes our thinking, unlearn, and relearn.
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In parallel, a deep dive into policies. Ensure a diversity of voices (race, gender, sexuality, abledness, age,...) are at the table. Which policies inflict harm? Which policies look neutral but may lead to harm? Which policies react to harm, and how?
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One possible guiding question might be, "How do we best support all members of our community in making this school safe for everyone?" This also gets into relationship-building (and repair), and building a culture based on (looking at @AlexSVenet's writing here)...
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... predictability, flexibility, connection, and empowerment. When true student agency becomes a driving principle of a school, trauma is minimized, and development (identity, skills, intellectuality, and criticality - credit @GholdyM here) is maximized.
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Building in accountability is key to this working, as @DulceFlecha said earlier this summer. So... how *do* you build in accountability without creating a "power-over" relationship? <stares at the ceiling, taps feet, leaves to make another decaf...>
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Normally, when I think of accountability, I think of a feedback-and-reflection loop, like I do with my students and they do with me. So... maybe that mutuality is key to reducing an inherently power-over relationship? Hmmm.
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I'm also getting stuck on, what if there's no growth or even desire to grow What if harm is actively & repeatedly being done? The Sudbury model, as I understand it, builds in accountability through annual agreements on staffing renewed by community-wide vote. That's one way.
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Maybe the community itself agrees on what mechanisms of accountability work best for itself? I'll keep thinking on this.
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Meanwhile, even though I am supervised in different ways by... eight people, I can be looking at how to implement all this where I already have the ability. My classroom, for sure. The middle school team, probably. In both cases, building on existing practices.
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This thread itself is accountability, to show I'm taking serious time to reflect on the intersections of @DulceFlecha's question and on @AlexSVenet and Ellen Fox's prompt. Thanks to everyone who stuck it out to the end. And as always, I welcome feedback.
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