Shifting Perspectives in Education
Contributor: E3: Education, Excellence & Equity
This module is for teachers, administrators, youth workers, social activists, and problem solvers who would like to create a new paradigm of collaboration. The focus of this learning module is shifting the perspective of what constitutes education evaluation. This module questions ideas around success, what skills are needed, and how success transfers from culture to culture.
The module is divided into sections that are ideally implemented in sequential order, with Conocimiento/Community Building first and the main lesson plan in the middle, bookended by artistic exploration or cultural stories and next steps.
Materials: PowerPoint, journals or paper, pen, large sticky pads, markers
Time: 4.5 hours, for a 2-hour workshop, please do sections 1 3 & 4.
Section 1: Conocimiento: Two Ears, Heart, and Eyes
The Conocimiento stems from the Chicano movement, collectivizing experiences and building bridges between personal perspectives. The word conocimiento means “having knowledge of,“ and in the context of Racial Equity Learning (REL) it means to validate each person as a wisdom holder and, as such, valuable to the group in terms of learning and actions. Before doing anything else, you acknowledge the value of knowing the strengths of the community and where the connections are.
Section 2: What Do You See?
Using visual literacy to look at and interpret art, the participants are invited to examine different ways of seeing.
Section 3: Perspectives in Education: Clips from Cracking the Codes and The Way Home
People in different cultures have strikingly different ideas of the self, of others, and of how the two relate. Perspective determines how things are experienced. As an example, many Asian cultures have very distinct ideas of individuality that see the individual as part of the collective whole. They emphasize attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence. American culture does not assume or value this kind of connectedness. In fact, Americans often maintain independence from others by developing the sense of self and by expressing their unique characters. Our system of education is only one place where this cultural perspective shows up.
Section 4: E3: Education, Excellence & Equity
The markers of cultural resiliency can be seen in a number of experiences that our youth have, both in and out of school. Learning how to translate them, for students, allows them to understand that they are developing skills that support them in job and higher education readiness. Learning to recognize them takes time and a change in perspective.
Section 5: Tatanka Hunkesi, The Wisdom of Experience
Introduction: Viewpoint creates our experience of the world, whether we work cooperatively or individually, and how we interact with our world, whether we believe information on faith or require a lengthy, fact-based explanation. In this section we will explore how a change in information allows a change in perspective.