Parker Professional Development: Revealing Designed Injustices

Parker faculty and staff started the new year with a focus on making injustices visible as part of a professional development workshop through JusticexDesign. This workshop is part of Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that investigates the development of learning processes in children, adults and organizations. The TIDES Committee facilitated this experience and brought together faculty and staff across the school for learning and conversation about encouraging young people to have a sensitivity to designed injustices and exploring the complexity of power and participation.
 
The workshop took participants through the JusticexDesign framework through hands-on applications and redistributing voice and authority in a learning space. Faculty members engaged in several activities, including a physical art project and verbal algebra, to make connections between the content from the workshop and their own teaching. Breakout sessions led to stimulating brainstorming with educators across all grades providing questions and feedback about the workshop’s content. 
 
Two of the event’s organizers, Educational Technology Integration Specialist Sarah Beebe and Library and Information Services Specialist Mary Catherine Coleman, believed the event was a great success. “It was wonderful to see so many staff and faculty members involved in the JusticexDesign process on Monday. The JusticexDesign framework is the intersection of so much of the work happening at Parker: DEI, social justice, maker empowerment and design thinking. We’re hopeful participants will use some of the thinking routines from the presentation to empower themselves, colleagues and students of all ages to think about the designed systems of injustice around them and look for opportunities to change them. Our goal is to continue expanding our relationship with Project Zero and offer more opportunities for the Parker community to engage with JusticexDesign work.”
 
These professional development opportunities allow Parker educators to continue bringing new ideas and activities to the classroom to further engage students in new ways of thinking and acting with confidence and agency.
Back
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.