My primary responsibility as an educator is to equip learners with the skills necessary to develop four practices: truth seeking, self-discovery and reflection, re-imagination, and articulation. Throughout our national history, education has been a tool used to sustain the systems that feed our society. As the world continues to change and evolve, so do the needs that our educational systems exist to meet. Today, like many other times in our nation’s history, we are finding it increasingly necessary to prioritize pedagogy and practices that require critical exploration and engagement.
Truth seeking:
How does one seek the truth? Developing a deep understanding of the form and function of any practice is the first step toward its most effective use by the practitioner. Without this knowledge, we are likely to relearn harmful patterns and practices that keep us stuck and unable to move forward. Recognizing and understanding the multiple perspectives and truths that make up an idea is vital to the development of a thorough comprehension. Unfortunately, because of systems of oppression and hierarchy, it is often necessary to dig deeply to uncover the layered truths that are necessary for full understanding.
Self-Discovery and Reflection:
What does one do with the truth that they find? One essential part of truth seeking is locating where that truth rests inside our own experiences. My curriculum values necessitate skill building in self-discovery and awareness so that learners can apply the truth they have uncovered in each lesson to their own lived experience, acknowledging their relationships to power and privilege, recognizing how those relationship effect the world they live in, and thinking critically about how they choose to use their skills and knowledge.
Re-imagination:
Once learners have explored the form and function of an idea and affirmed that knowledge by locating it in their own lived experience, they are then equipped with the tools to be able to reimagine the rules, systems, and structures of the idea in a way that is not confined by the past, rather it is liberated by it. Fear of the unknown often keeps us from pursuing freedom, however, developing a practice of deep discovery and creative reimagination helps us to understand just what we are letting go of so that we might feel grounded and secure even in the unknown.
Articulation:
Finally, I believe a strong curriculum should enable learners to gather all that they have learned and employ the skills necessary to articulate their findings to others. Although many students will not become professional educators, it is our human responsibility to share the knowledge that we hold with others. This often manifests itself as written documentation but can include a witnessing of any kind; a dance, a story, a conversation between friends. A strong curriculum should not only help learners to seek truth, apply it to their own lives, and become transformed by it. It should also empower learners with the skills to share their discoveries.
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