Human Restoration Project

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org.Today we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Berkshire and Dr. Jack Schneider. Dr. Berkshire is a journalist and educator who focuses on podcasting and labor organizing at Boston College and Umass Amherst respectively, and Dr. Schneider is an education historian focused on reform and school accountability. Jennifer and Jack co-host the wonderful Have You Heard Podcast, which is focused on hot button issues in educational policy and current events, and both Chris and I highly recommend checking it out if you aren’t listening already.Our discussion today is going to cover a lot of ground but center on education reform, innovation, labor rights, unions, and change. There’s an odd dichotomy between progressive education and the assault on public education: a cognitive dissonance between the necessity for systemic reform while ensuring a free and accessible public education for the future and recognizing the need for organized labor as a path to a strong working class, that teacher unions are among the largest and most powerful in the country. Yet, there is a narrative - real or not - that unions are resistant to the change that many progressive educators want, and more recently, the notion that they have become the major roadblock to school reopenings in 2020.GUESTSDr. Jennifer Berkshire, journalist and educator focused on podcasting and labor organizing at Boston College & UMass AmherstDr. Jack Schneider, education historian centered on reform and school accountabilityRESOURCESA Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Dr. Berkshire & Dr. SchneiderReview: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Nick CovingtonHave You Heard Blog/PodcastFURTHER LISTENING80: Pandemic Pods, School Choice, and Combating Inequity w/ Dr. Jon HaleThis Podcast Will Kill You: COVID-19 Chapter 10: SchoolsThis is Hell!: 1263: The end of public school / Jack Schneider + Jennifer Berkshire

Transcripts can be found via our website, humanrestorationproject.org.Our conversation today will center on teaching organization and collective activism. Essentially, we find ourselves at an important crossroads, as the administration shifts to new policies - teachers will be at the whim of new federal (and likely, state) policies that will have massive ramifications on classrooms, especially during COVID-19. And I hope out of this conversation, we’ll be able to address - what should I be concerned about? What problems may exist? And then, okay...what can I do to actually mitigate these problems and demand an equitable education system?GUESTSDr. Kevin Gannon, the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a Professor of History at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, and author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto. Further, Gannon actively writes and teaches on the science of learning, racism and race in education, and building inclusivity online and offline. You can learn more on his website, TheTattooedProf.com and on Twitter @TheTattooedProf.RESOURCESThe Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Jack Schneider and Jennifer BerkshirePedagogy of Hope by Paulo FreireRadical Hope by Kevin GannonHRP Book Review: Radical HopeFURTHER LISTENINGThinkUDL with Kevin Gannon: Radical Hope for Online Teaching

This is a recording of our Teacher Powered Schools Virtual Conference 2020 presentation: Sharing Power with Students: Reframing Systems Toward a Liberatory Pedagogy. This session dives into why reform doesn't work, how teachers can use collective action to change systems, and what really, is the point of us working against inhumane structures if not much is actually changing?RESOURCESOne Teacher Can't Save the World by Nick Covington and Chris McNuttFURTHER LISTENINGIntroduction: Human Restoration Project