Module 6 — York College

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  Posted by Sara Vogel, PhD. (she/her) on June 7, 2023 at 4:07 pm

  Background

  The CITE Equity Working group has put together some resources to support faculty to think about equity in the context of designing CITE Artifacts

  • Equitable CITE Pedagogy: Putting it into Praxis – Long document on Manifold
  • Interactive version of our goals, approaches, design principles and moves

  Task

  • Feel free to annotate our document on Manifold with any noticings, wonderings, resources, and ideas you have as you review it! You will need to go to this site and create an account: https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/

  Then, come back here and share your responses to any number of these prompts:

  • What are some noticings / wonderings you have about how we’ve framed equity in CITE? Any feedback for us?
  • Where do you see connections between the spotlights you read last week and the ideas shared about equity in this week’s resources?
  • What are some of the inequities that you are interested in tackling as you design and roll out CITE artifacts?
  • After reading this, where do you think you might challenge yourself to go next?

• Casandra Silva Sibilin (she/her/hers)

  Member

  June 15, 2023 at 2:46 pm

  I went “deep dive” with this document – there was so much there to unpack indeed and I feel I just scraped the surface. Overall, this document helped me to see that “equity” is not one of many values but absolutely central to CITE work. It was also very insightful to see how differently faculty participants from last summer interpreted the term.

  Given my philosophy background, I’m always eager to define abstract concepts, so I appreciated that this was the starting point. I also was glad to see that the document was not limited to surveying different definitions, but went on to set out very detailed related goals, approaches and design systems.

  I put some annotations in the manifold document itself.

  One of my “noticings” was on the topic of liberatory collaboration. This is a new term to me and I’m specially interested in learning more about it.

  Another “noticing” – just a technical point – two of the google docs links were not showing as accessible. One of them was a spreadsheet listing various pedagogies and how some of them could be problematic, which I’m very curious about.
  Sara Vogel, PhD. (she/her)

  Member

  June 15, 2023 at 3:37 pm

  I appreciate reading your reflections and annotations! Also, good catch, I updated the link so you should be able to click on it now!
  Dr. Natasha Cox-Magno (She/Her)

  Member

  June 17, 2023 at 1:50 pm

  • What are some noticings / wonderings you have about how we’ve framed equity in CITE? Any feedback for us?
    • I noticed the CITE Equity Praxis gives people a voice by identifying learning needs and providing a collaborative atmosphere with a culturally responsive lens.
    • I am wondering whether identifying oppression increasing determining how to create technology tools to suppress oppression or increases the oppressive ideologies.

   

  • Where do you see connections between the spotlights you read last week and the ideas shared about equity in this week’s resources?
    • I explored Drs. Povezenglensa and Noble’s spotlight.  The connection between planning and the CITE Equity Praxis framework was found in the planning stage of their CITE project. The CITE Equity Praxis Elements of the framework and the planning stage were aligned with the following:
      • Affirming, learner-centered design processes
      • Cultivating equity-focused mindsets
      • Co-learning and co-constructing knowledge in communities
  • What are some of the inequities that you are interested in tackling as you design and roll out CITE artifacts?
    • Apply principles of universal design for learning, like using technology to support multiple means of engagement, choice, assessment, representation, action and expression.
  Casandra Silva Sibilin (she/her/hers)

  Member

  June 20, 2023 at 4:36 am

  Hello Sara and All!

  I was mulling this more and added another annotation on Manifold that I wanted to share here.  This is also in response to the prompt about what challenges we are facing as we think about our artifact.

  Quote from “Equitable CITE Pedagogy”:

  Ultimately, we resonated most with culturally sustaining and relevant visions for equitable pedagogy that promoted cultural and linguistic pluralism, the empowerment and agency of learners traditionally marginalized in education, the fostering of critical consciousness, and the capacity to learn, participate in communities, and take action to transform institutions towards justice. Important to note is that these more transformative views of equity live on a continuum with access-based approaches (Grapin et al., 2023). They are not mutually exclusive, though there are tensions between them that educators and students may have to negotiate.

  My annotation:

  I appreciate the critical approach in this section and admit it caused some “tension” within me as a new summer ’23 participant thinking about an artifact…but I’m getting from all this that acknowledging tension is an important step. 🙂 In this quote, the tension mentioned is between “more transformative views of equity” vs. “access-based approaches.” However, there is also another tension I perceived at a higher level: the earlier “there is no right way to think about equity” vs. some approaches are better than others and more in line with CITE values. How can we embrace both… feel free to explore and also recognize the criticisms of different equity approaches? I wonder if other new summer ’23 participants are also grappling with this.

   
  Leslie Keiler (she/her)

  Member

  June 25, 2023 at 10:53 am

  I did some annotating of the document in Manifold. I like that tool and would like to learn more about how I might be able to use it with my students to collaboratively annotate readings for class.

  My annotations reflect my wonderings and plans:

  Related to the quote: “Conceptualizing equity collaboratively made us aware that we also had to unlearn stereotypical views and understandings about who participates in technology and STEM, which may perpetuate harm in an already challenging space.” 

  I am thinking about asking as set of reflections to unpack pre-existing notions about who can/should/does participate in CS, building on the seminal “draw a scientist” research. Reflection prompts might include:

  In order to be good at CS I need to be…

  Computer programers are…

  My feelings about engaging with CS are…

  A possible road block for my success with CS is…

  I think the principle of: “working with fear and discomfort” is vital and challenging to foster:

  I think it is important for educators to create space for students to express their fear and anxiety in the classroom and to share their own. One of the most destructive descriptors of a task is that it is “easy,” since that is so dependent on past experience and skill level. I know I turn off immediately when someone starts an explanation with “you just” because I know that person has no cognitive empathy for the challenge I am facing!

  A set of quotes and ideas relate to my emerging idea for my artefact:

  “liberatory social justice projects”

  “educators should be “responsive to the social and political times” and teach students to respond to oppression (Muhammad, 2020, p. 52).”

  “When we think about equity as making sure every student reaches their intellectual capacity so they can carry a heavier cognitive load—so that they can take part in deep learning that is rigorous, for example—then we see how critical it is to create the kind of intellectual curiosity and engagement that allows us to kick-start students’ information processing and meaning making.” (Hammond, as quoted in Rebora, 2021, p. 14-15)”

  and

  “Others interpreted equity as affirming learners and diversity by making learning relevant to teacher candidates’ lives, identities and communities, and modeling how they might do the same for K-12 learners.”

  I believe that enabling students to engage in work that is relevant to their lives and communities is essential for sparking the passion for students to pursue that heavy cognitive load. Being passionate makes the load lighter; being bored makes even a trivial task heavy!

  I elected to participate in the Modeling summer camp because using and thinking through models is one of the most challenging themes for teachers to implement in NGSS.  My current thinking about my artifact is:

  Rationale:

  Having lost points on a practice Living Environment Regents exam because she did not know what an opossum ate, a student complained, “Why aren’t there more questions about rats and pigeons on these tests?!” This student had unwittingly asked a question that revealed a social justice gap in the power structure around creating exam questions for students in different environments. This artifact seeks to empower urban students to see that biological processes are operating in their own streets, parks, and sewers. The challenges that students are asked to explore here are playing out in real urban battlefields as mayors appoint ‘Rat Czars,” and cities work to control vermin while keeping the community safe for other living things.

  Task: Designing a Model for Rat or Pigeon Population Control to be Used in a Lab in the Environmental Systems Unit
  Danielle Krawec (She/Her)

  Member

  June 25, 2023 at 4:56 pm

  The Manifold document was very extensive, so I appreciated the interactive version as an additional support. I added a note on an annotation about the complexities of ensuring that there is equity in a learning environment. I noticed that the concepts and theories behind the work we’ll be doing sound great, especially those that are centered around creating an equitable experience, and I can’t think of anything that I would say is missing. I always crave a little more specificity, (my comment was about exactly how we can promote an equitable experience) but in this field, where there are so many different perspectives and possibilities, I’m sure that wouldn’t really be possible. I think what I’m most looking forward to at this point is seeing it all come together. I’ve enjoyed reading about the plans, goals, and achievements of those who worked last summer, and getting to tinker with what they created, but I’m looking forward to diving in myself, working collaboratively, and getting a more hands-on experience. I definitely saw some of the values reflected in the spotlights from the previous module, and I enjoyed reading about the passion that individual people were able to put into their projects. I find that I typically learn best by doing and working things out with my peers, so I think that is the next challenge that I have in mind: finding my passion and using it to create an artifact of my own that will allow people to learn and grow when they use it.
  Regina Misir (She/Her)

  Member

  June 29, 2023 at 10:16 pm

  In reading CITE Equitable Pedagogy  I noticed that the equity pedagogy served multiple purposes, and the one that stood out to me, was to promote joyful and meaningful learning. When I personally think about equitable learning, not only am I trying to empower students through their learning, but I want to ensure that it is authentic and joyful for my learners.

  A connection I noticed between the spotlights I read last week and the resources shared this week focus on the importance of reflecting on students’ learning and digital lives that is being explored.  There is a specific emphasis in the pedagogical reading this week, regarding digital literacy. Last week’s spotlights granted access to various digital literacy that we can embed in our classroom as educators.  This week’s reading allows us to understand and be more intentional with which resource we may want to use in our class. It’s also explicitly clear that when we have these digital tools for our students it’s  to provide opportunities for them to take risks with their learning, as well as to continue building a community that will support them with their learning.

  One of the assignments that I do in my class is the Analytical Autobiography which requires students to practice self-awareness by reflecting on their experience as learners, and to take time to understand how different factors impacted who they are currently and how that will inevitably contribute to who they are as a teachers.

  Furthermore, another assignment that I do in my class is the Contextual Analysis. For this assignment students are asked to explore the teaching and learning context of a school in which they are conducting their fieldwork.   They’re also require compare their past experiences as it relate to what they learned in their exploration.
  <p dir=”auto”>While looking at the designs and implementation approaches, and the reading I was drawn towards the following excerpt, “supporting learner agency to tinker with, modify and create tools”.  This is an area I would like to challenge myself to implement more in my class by allowing students to have more time to tinker and revise their work and ideas. This is a great way to provide students with equitable learning opportunities.  One way that I plan to do this is to plan for a “struggle time” with in my class in addition to allowing students to collaborate so that they’re able to obtain learning in a collaborative learning environment.