CU Boulder's Ed Talks

Often, educators lead young learners in imagining their future based on a career in a specific discipline. This talk will explore how youth develop present and future narratives-of-self that are both playful and rigorous in their enactment of disciplinary knowledge. By centering the playful imagination as a leading activity in learning and development, youth are able to imagine a Not Yet Here that is simultaneously fantastical while offering openings for equitable and just futures.

In 1756 the Oxford English Dictionary defined slang as “the language of the low and disreputable,” later prohibiting its appearance in the volume. This represents a trend across Western language arts institutions of devaluing and suppressing the language and the arts of those existing on the low (those in the lower classes, the Global South and the undercommons) dismissing their intellectual contributions as primitive. What happens to the futures of language arts education when RAP, the Rhythm And Poetry of those on the low, is seen as a linguistic archetype?

Making sense of news and applying it to life is challenging. Some politicians and organizations deliberately promulgate disinformation and accuse journalists of “fake news.” Relatedly, public trust in traditional expertise, for instance about science, is eroding. What is an educator to do? I will share a project-based approach in which youth research issues they care about, then craft “infographics” for online publication and to inform publics. Example topics include environmental and health issues affecting people students know. This fosters critical learning for engagement in future civic life.

Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist who risked her life to ensure that hundreds of enslaved people were able to experience freedom. Her last words, “I go to prepare a place for you,” suggest that even on her deathbed, she was formulating a plan for future freedoms. She and so many other Black people dreamed the Black present into being. Considering this, Toliver honors the legacy of Black ancestry by presenting her dream of educational Afrofutures, a dream that uplifts Black youth, Black imaginations, and Black joy.

Our experiences have shaped us, who we are. I am talking about the time you felt guilty, ashamed and embarrassed. The time where you found out that guilt is good and when it was no longer helpful. As a first generation, DACA, woman of color, I have been through a lot. Having high standards to the point that it turned into guilt. I soon realized that my experience has allowed me to be an example for others and most importantly to create a space for empathy for my students. 

Our children will inherit a world full of problems nearing the 11th hour. I believe they will need to create magic. To create magic, they need to lead like an artist.

There are a lot of things that make this country, and specifically education in this country, that make me feel hopeless. But one of the things that is long overdue is looking straight at the curriculum we are teaching students and how we are teaching that curriculum. In the moment we are in right now we have the re-think our curriculum. If we aren’t rethinking what we are teaching in this moment in particular, then our students will never reach their full potential to be the leaders they can actually be. The curriculum we teach has and always will have implications on society. We can choose to keep teaching white-centered curricula, but it won’t get us very far. We can see this as the way the system was meant to be. We can question, critique, and redesign curriculum and in every single reading we teach, image we show, and lesson we plan — how are we centering or de-centering whiteness?

Everyone has felt the impacts of a triple crisis caused by COVID-19, the subsequent economic recession and the enduring repercussions of racism. However, the effects of the triple crisis have not landed on groups of people equally. This talk reflects on the collective and individual loss many people have experienced in 2020 while unpacking how privilege mediates outcomes. In doing so, it calls attention to persistent inequities students face inside and outside of school and envisions design elements to renovate systems in response to challenges highlighted by the triple crisis.

I now teach in an unfamiliar landscape, characterized by an empty classroom, silent halls, and talking into the tiny lens of a webcam to connect with my students. I recognize none of this. But the important work toward humanizing and liberating classrooms must continue even so. Perhaps we can see more clearly the work we need to do because of the disruption of the pandemic. When we look back on 2020, what story will we tell of what we learned during this time?

Do we complicate our lens on what it means to learn, and especially what it means to learn about privilege, oppression, and justice? This type of learning and unlearning is disruptive and often discomforting as it interferes with what we know and challenges our senses of self. Bethy Leonardi will share personal stories of transformative learning and explore courage and humility as necessary for learning in this way.

Some say that the education system is broken. What if education as a system of schooling is doing exactly what it was intended to do—reproduce social inequalities by keeping certain groups at social and economic positions? What would an alternative approach to education look like? This talk presents Professor Lopez’s work in a rehumanizing summer program for high school Chicana/o and Latina/o youth, known as Aquetza, that strives to stretch the imaginations and aspirations of socially stigmatized youth.

This talk will explore the power of listening in learning — the teacher listening to the students, students and teachers listening to the texts, and listening to each other. Let’s listen to the challenges, discomfort, and beauty that can arise.

Where is the humanity in education...for educators? What would it look and feel like to be seen and known by our students? Join in bearing witness to one teacher’s untold stories and experiences revealing (or not revealing) truths in the classroom. Together, let’s envision a future where educators navigate the complexities of vulnerability as we claim our collective humanity.

School administrators and policymakers are committed to supporting teachers in listening, attending, and responding to their students to support their learning — that is, engaging in everyday assessment. However, decades of research have illustrated that this type of assessment presents challenges for teachers. Surprisingly, models of how to conduct this type of assessment abound in some reality TV shows. We’ll examine examples of how programs like Project Runway, Top Chef, and The Great British Baking Show illustrate features of ongoing assessment that provide key insights for classroom practice.

Trauma has rapidly become a central concern in education. But what counts as “trauma,” and who is most likely to be deemed traumatized? Children’s difficult experiences demand compassionate, nuanced, and responsive policies and pedagogies. Simultaneously, educators must be vigilant about how attention to trauma fuels damaging narratives about students and communities. Exploring the perils and promises of trauma, this talk argues that if we are going to use that term in relation to children’s lives and learning, we have to mindfully heed and navigate its consequences.

A study of how kindergarteners spend a typical day in a large urban school district indicates that almost all instructional time is focused on reading and mathematics, with little time devoted to other academic or social activities. Further, much of the kindergarten day – two and a half hours, on average – involves downtime, primarily transitions.We will discuss factors that result in extensive downtime and recommendations for providing kindergartners with more time for physical activity and a broader array of learning experiences.

It has been estimated that more than half of the world's population is bilingual. For many, the bilingual journey begins in early childhood. In spite of its ubiquity, questions abound about the challenges and benefits of early bilingualism and how to best support language acquisition in young children. Attitudes and ‘professional recommendations’ against early bilingualism are often based on myths and misinterpretations, rather than findings from bilingual research. We will separate prevalent myths from scientific findings to answer common questions about early bilingual development.

Teenager," and its more clinical cousin, "adolescent," have become laden with meanings that disparage and stigmatize young people in their second decade of life. Common negative narratives are a problem not just because they are scientifically unsupported, but also because they are used to justify counterproductive policies and practices, especially when intersected with race, class, gender, and sexuality. What is the alternative? We need new narratives and new opportunities for young people to act as political agents who have a right to participate in decisions about policies and systems that affect their lives.

I now teach in an unfamiliar landscape, characterized by an empty classroom, silent halls, and talking into the tiny lens of a webcam to connect with my students. I recognize none of this. But the important work toward humanizing and liberating classrooms must continue even so. Perhaps we can see more clearly the work we need to do because of the disruption of the pandemic. When we look back on 2020, what story will we tell of what we learned during this time?

Magnolia explores the importance of culture, vulnerability, deep listening and holding space for students and educators throughout our collective educational journeys. Discover the values and principles that guide the learning that takes place at the powerful Aquetza Summer Program through the interwoven stories of students and staff. By sharing the spirit and essence of the Aquetza Program, we aim to inspire Lak’ech, a Mayan principle of oneness..

 With support from Charla Agnoletti, Program Director for Public Achievement, high school student Enihs Medrano explores the change that young people can enact when they use personal experiences as the drive to make a difference for themselves and others. Enihs shares her personal journey within CU Boulder’s Public Achievement program at Centaurus High School and how it molded her desire to use her voice for social change. Her story is only one piece of a collective effort by a group of high school students who are working to diversify the AP and IB classes at their high school. “When young people of color refuse to accept the stereotypes placed on us by teachers, administration, white peers and white parents, we are able to access the education we deserve while changing the perception of students of color.”

A (well) translated website, interpreters at parent-teacher conferences, bilingual staff and teachers all contribute to making a school more welcoming for monolingual Spanish-speaking parents in schools. But experience has shown us it is not enough. What other language-access practices can we use to better integrate all parents?

It is not uncommon for teachers to move within their schools, what’s known as teacher churn. What happens to kids and student achievement when teachers are new to their jobs, districts, grade level or even subject area?

It feels like every day there is a new higher education controversy reported in the media, whether it’s students blocking certain speakers or protests about free speech or hate speech. White nationalist speakers, for example, have promoted violent, discriminatory views on campus. When such incidents happen, university leaders need to respond, to act, to reaffirm the institution’s guiding values and educational mission. How should leaders handle the public airing of views and perspectives that may be wrong or untrue?

We live in a moment saturated with distrust—of people, motivations, actions, ideas and institutions. It shapes our feelings about teachers, schools and educational decisions and policies. At this time in the United States, there is also great dissatisfaction with education reform across the political spectrum. Distrust—and the failure to recognize and address it—plays a significant role in the failure of school reform. The strategies our country has chosen to enact reform create distrust and in so doing undermine precisely the conditions that enable successful educational change.

In a time when public schools across the country are under attack, the National Education Policy Center based at CU Boulder is recognizing high schools that use evidence-based approaches to close opportunity gaps. Learn about this Schools of Opportunity project and how our work is changing the conversation on education—from testing to opportunities to learn.

We are experiencing a teacher movement like we’ve never seen before, with statewide walkouts, social media campaigns and protests at state capitols in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado. And this may only be the beginning. What can we learn from the recent demonstrations about how to support public schools and public school teachers?