Courses & Events | Agency by Design

Courses + Events

summer institute

Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute

Join researchers associated with the many different Agency by Design initiatives and their Project Zero colleagues at the annual Project Zero Classroom summer institute in Cambridge, MA. The annual institute will feature dozens of workshops and plenary sessions, supported by a host of study groups activities and additional professional

July 22 - 26, 2019 | Learn More

summer institute

Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute

Join researchers associated with the many different Agency by Design initiatives and their Project Zero colleagues at the annual Project Zero Classroom summer institute in Cambridge, MA. The annual institute will feature dozens of workshops and plenary sessions, supported by a host of study groups activities and additional professional

July 22 - 26, 2019 | Learn More

conference

WISSIT 2019

Agency by Design researchers Edward Clapp and Sarah Sheya will be presenting plenary talks and workshop sessions along with several other Project Zero researchers during the annual Washington International School Summer Institute for Teachers (WISSIT) at the Washington International School in Washington, DC.

July 29 - 02, 2019 | Learn More

conference

WISSIT 2019

Agency by Design researchers Edward Clapp and Sarah Sheya will be presenting plenary talks and workshop sessions along with several other Project Zero researchers during the annual Washington International School Summer Institute for Teachers (WISSIT) at the Washington International School in Washington, DC.

July 29 - 02, 2019 | Learn More

Resources

thinking routinesParts, People, Interactions

pictures of practiceT-Stool Project

Field NoteTaking Apart to Build Stories of Change

Taking Apart to Build Stories of Change

This piece is based on a workshop titled “Taking Apart Racism: Using Maker-Centered Practices to Break Down Systems of Oppression,” led by Jaime Chao Mignano and Mark Perkins at the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (PoCC).

Like a lot of educators, I want my students to be empowered to impact the world around them. I want them to have social and political agency in a sense that is perfectly aligned with what Agency by Design means by agency—that is, skills and tools in combination with intention and impulse to action. When I task my students with dismantling systems of oppression, how do they know what that means? Do they feel ready to enact it? And how can I be a support?

This was the seed of a workshop for this year’s National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (PoCC), a gathering of thousands of educators from around the United States to explore ideas and share experiences around equity and justice in our schools and lives. My colleague, Mark Perkins (Media and Theater Coordinator), and I wondered what insights we could offer by putting Take Apart practice in service to racial justice education. I was nervous to try to build under the conference throughline “Anti-Racist Teaching Tools” - the stakes felt so high. We had an inkling, though, that combining the enthusiastic engine of taking stuff apart with the resonant act of creating stories that reimagine existing narratives of power could be an important experiment.

Mark and I built a workshop we call “Taking Apart Racism: Using Maker-Centered Practices to Break Down Systems of Oppression.” The heart of the workshop is the idea that looking closely and exploring the complexity of an object can create a bridge of metaphor that helps us understand a system of racial oppression. If we build the connection between these two systems—the system of the object and the system of oppression—then we can see the oppressive system in a new light and probe new possibilities.

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thinking routinesPARTES, PERSPECTIVAS, E EU

Field NoteFrom Maker Space to Maker Campus

Field NoteTinkering Towards a Definition of Tinkering

thinking routinesParts, Perspectives, Me

activities and practicesMapping Systems