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In this episode, Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey joins Lindsay Lyons to discuss the P.O.W.E.R. framework, a guiding tool for implementing justice-centered curriculum in social studies education. The conversation dives deep into this framework's essential components: Presence and Personhood, Oppression and Opposition, Wisdom and Wit, Entanglements and Empowerment, and Relevance and Responsibility.
Dr. Erker Caffrey uses this framework to provide guidance around initiating justice-oriented curricula. Because it’s such a big and complex topic, it can feel overwhelming and many educators don’t know where to start. This framework helps bring some clarity and coherence to the conversation. The Big Dream Dr. Erker Caffrey envisions that every child experiences a dynamic and justice-centred education, especially across the social studies disciplines. This means that there needs to be a transformed educational landscape where every teacher feels equipped and confident to deliver this kind of curriculum in their contexts. Mindset Shifts Required There are some key mindset shifts required to embrace a justice-centered approach to curriculum design. Teachers are often overwhelmed and worry they don’t know enough in this area — this is a valid and common barrier to implementing justice-oriented curricula. One way to address this is to embrace a clear vision of their roles in achieving equity-oriented education. Teachers need a framework, a guiding tool, that is transferable across identities, topics, and disciplines. Action Steps The P.O.W.E.R. framework is something that helps educators decrease their overwhelm and move forward with confidence. It stands for:
The framework can be applied to a single lesson, longer curriculum, year-long strategy and other components of curricula. Here’s some tips to get started: Step 1: Analyze your current curriculum through a critical lens. Consider the presence of identity and humanity in your materials and the timing of introducing topics of oppression. Step 2: Ensure your curriculum balances stories of oppression with those of resistance. Incorporate narratives that highlight both adversity and counteractions. Step 3: Foster joy and creativity in learning by integrating diverse cultural expressions and forms of wisdom. Finally, encourage student-led inquiry that reflects on these complexities. Challenges? The biggest challenge educators face is not that they don’t want to implement justice-oriented curricula, but that they are overwhelmed or unsure on how to get started. This is where an impactful framework can really help. One Step to Get Started Dr. Caffrey suggests that educators begin by examining their own curriculum to identify whether it includes elements that affirm students' personhood before delving into oppressive narratives. Small shifts in the order of content and the inclusion of diverse perspectives can make a significant difference. Stay Connected You can learn more and stay connected with Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey in the following ways:
To help you implement today’s takeaways, our guest is sharing The P.O.W.E.R. Framework and the LETS ACT Framework with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 268 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below. Quotes:
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:
TRANSCRIPT
Lindsay Lyons: Dr. Genevieve Erker-Caffrey, welcome to the Time for Teachership podcast. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Thank you so much for having me. I am very excited to be here. Lindsay Lyons: I also am super excited, and so I love that before we hit record you said that you are, like, a frameworks expert. I'm also, like, a nerd of frameworks, and so I'm really excited. You- historically, people should totally listen to, and I think we should link this in the, uh, show notes as well, um, your episode on Visions of Education around the Let's Act framework was brilliant, and I loved it. Um- Thank you ... and now today we're talking about the POWER framework, which is so, so cool, and so situated in my mind in the context of, like, student leadership and awesome curriculum design and doing school differently and transformatively. Like, this is really rich, and I'm excited to get into the conversation. I'd love to know if there are things that you want the audience to kind of be thinking about or have in their mind as we go through today. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Sure, yeah. Well, I think that if teachers, coach- you know, I know that your audience is, um, varied, but I think the thing that I would try to think about is when you, when, when you are planning curriculum and trying to make it, quote unquote, equity-oriented or justice-oriented, um, you know, what exactly are you thinking about, and what are those components? And where do you feel like you do a really good job of which components do you feel like you do a really good job, um, and where do you feel like you get a little lost? Like, when, what exact topics or identity groups are you feeling like, "You know, I don't know how to make this equity-oriented." And I'm hoping that my, this conversation and the POWER framework can provide a little bit of guidance for specifying what it is we're actually talking about when we say justice-oriented curriculum, especially justice-oriented social studies curriculum, which is my area of expertise. Um, and then once we identify those components, what do those really, truly look like in curriculum and instruction? Um, because oftentimes it can just feel kind of elusive. Like, what are we talking about here? Like, okay, we're talking about diversity, we're talking about making the world a better place, we're talking about, you know. So I, it's something that I craved as a teacher, um, to help with that guidance. But, um, I'm hoping that the POWER framework provides a little bit more guidance, um, not to simplify the ideas, because it is complex. This is a complex endeavor. But to, um, to help provide a little bit of clarity and, and coherence so that we can dig deeper into complexity. Lindsay Lyons: I love that framing. Well, very well said. I wanna start, as I start all episodes, kind of with this idea of freedom dreaming. So Dr. Bettina Love describes these as dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. And so curious what your big dream is. Maybe this is a bit of kind of a, a why behind the framework. Maybe this is a bit of a, a lot of things, but curious what the dream is for you Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Well, my dream is that every single child experiences a phenomenal justice-centered dynamic, engaging social education, social studies education, or education in general, but specifically when talking about history and civics and geography and, and economics, and these concepts that are so, um, so consequential for the ways that we live our lives and the decisions that we make. Um, I hope, my, my dream is that every student receives that kind of, of education, because some have. You know, there are some phenomenal teachers and cur- some amazing curricula out there that we... that, that certain children are lucky enough to experience. Um, usually it's piecemeal. It depends on the teacher, it depends on the unit. They get, not a lot of kids get, get it K through 12. But my dream would be that every child gets it K through 12, which means every teacher would need to feel equipped, confident with, uh, with, with delivering that kind of, that kind of curriculum. And that is easier said than done. And something that I've found in my work is that I've, I've spent, a lot of my research has been with teachers who have a critical equity-oriented mindset or commitments, and they're... actually, even administrators are supportive. Even the districts that I've worked in are not restrictive. But still, there is this struggle to figure it out, and I've kind of realized that a lot of the problems are organizational. Um, they are, there's a big fragmentation of the infrastructure, the curricular infrastructure of specifically elementary social studies education. There's so much great stuff out there, but it's all over the place, and it's a mess, and it's fr- it's fragmented, and that is dizzying for teachers. Um, and then there are so many frameworks, justice-oriented frameworks that are fantastic, phenomenal, and needed, but teachers get overwhelmed by them. So my dream is now, like now on a more practical level for myself, is to provide, um, both services that can guide districts, schools, um, or publishing companies, teams of educators of any kind, to finding the, or to, I, I would like to train these teachers, these educators in understanding, um, the overarching arc of what it means to do social studies education in a justice-oriented way, and then equip them with the, not just the resources, but the, the theories and the thinking tools, um, and then eventually the students having those thinking tools that, so that they are able to think with theory. I think a lot of times, you know, we think, "Oh, teachers just want the stuff," and they do, and we should give them the stuff. And th- that is another dream of mine to- my dream is to have my own publishing company where I'm really creating this coherent curriculum f- that, or c- taking curriculum and making it more coherent in a justice-oriented way. But, um, also tra- uh, always training teachers on what it means to think with critical theory. And I think people think that that's should be saved for the curriculum writers, the researchers, the scholars, but I think not only teachers can think with critical theory, but so can students. But w- we just have to try. We have to do it. We have to um, it's, it is again, it's easier said than done. Lindsay Lyons: I love all of those dreams. Those are great. I also recognize that you and your research and experience have worked with so many educators, and I, I'm curious about kind of the mindset shift of, I, whether it's going from, like, overwhelmed to, like, clear on how exactly to design curriculum that is justice-centered in social studies, or if it's, "I'm not sure about this," or if it's the kind of leader mindset shift around, like, how do we structurally support- Yeah this work? Like, what's a key mindset shift you've noticed in, in actually bringing to life some justice-centered curriculum in social studies? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Fantastic question, because you are right. There are numerous barriers to, um, to doing this comprehensively, to doing justice-oriented social studies curriculum. To do it sustainably c- uh, there, the, the barriers are plenty. Teachers are worried about, "Do I know enough?" I- they don't feel like their social studies curriculum was good enough, so they feel like, they often say, "How do I teach what I don't know? I know I need to teach counter-narratives, but how do I do that?" Um, and the, uh, the barriers of, yes, then of course there are many restrictive con- restrictive contexts, especially in our sociopolitical current state, that, um, people are really scared to even say the word equity or justice in some spaces. Um, then there's the organizational fragmentation. You know, okay, so I could go on and on about all... It- I just wanna validate that those are real challenges, and it's, I don't want teachers to feel like, "I'm not doing this, so there's must be a problem with me," or, "I'm not committed enough," or, you know, I, I don't actually think that this is a, um, teacher commitment issue. It's a, um, I mean, it can be in some, but most teachers really do want their students to make, to, to, they want to provide a, a responsible, engaging, and comprehensive multiple perspectives type of, of social studies curriculum, but they just are, like, really scattered on how to do it. Um, so a mindset shift in term- in terms of, um, well, with the teachers that I worked with- They had this commitment to justice and equity and, um, and diversity and inclusion and everything. But what they were saying was they needed, they, they... When they expressed their scatteredness, their, their insecurities, their challenges, and then I said, "Okay, what would it take? What would it take to make you feel confident?" Um, and they, these were teachers, this was like a small team of teachers who were, um, writing, they were preparing to write, re- overhaul the elementary social studies curriculum in their, in their district, and they felt ill-equipped in the beginning. Um, they felt like, you know, emotionally ready and... Except, but they just felt ill-equipped on a more practical level. So, um, you know, I said, "What, what would, what would it take?" And they kind of identified four things. That's, they identified four things that it would take to, like, get them to actually put it into action. They needed a framework. They needed a guiding tool, some kind of guiding tool, uh, that, number one, was actually guided, which was actually grounded in critical theory, that was truly equity-oriented, and not really, 'cause there's a lot... Like, like, again, like what does that mean? Um, number two, it had to be transferable across identities, topics, and disciplines. So even though they, I was, had, I had previously been introducing a lot of identity-specific frameworks for, like, how to teach Black history, how to teach indigenous history, how to teach, um, like, uh, something specific within civics or geography. You know, they, they were like, "These are all great, but, like, our standards and our resources, they don't just teach everything in isolation with these topics or identities." I mean, some standards literally say, "What is the, you know, what was the interaction between this group, this group, and this group?" You know? So you can't just... So there were a lot of questions like, "Does this Black history framework transfer to the Asian American history?" You know, like, it's, like, it was, um... So they n- they, uh, desired some sort of, um, overarching framework that was iden- was transferable across identities. Um, number two, uh, number three was, um, they wanted it to be sequence sensitive. They felt as if a lot of, um, I don't know, uh, leaders and administrators would kind of, like, um, like, kind of put down their desire for s- scopes and sequences, um, for be- 'cause it sounded like when they were saying, "We want a scope and sequence," I think they thought the administrators were hearing, "We want scripts. We just wanna be told what to do." But they were like, "No, it's not that we just wanna be told what to do, but we also- What we are doing here with history education is filled with trauma and depressing topics and, um, very, the, the topics that could traumatize students in our classroom. If we don't do this right, if we don't think about the order in which we are discussing these topics, we could cause a lot of trauma. So, we don't need a step-by-step checklist, we don't need scripted curriculum, but we do want this framework, this guiding framework, to be sensitive to sequencing and help us understand what comes first generally, what comes second, what comes third, what is important, um, when discussing especially really hard histories, um, or, or really any histories. Um, and then fourth, the fourth thing that they said this, this guiding framework would need was it would need to be emotionally balanced. So often they felt as if their social studies curriculum was either really depressing, so if they were talking about something depressing, they felt like bad that they could be causing some trauma for kids in the room. It was just, you know, that's not a good feeling to, you know. But they also felt like as soon as they got out of the more, quote-unquote, again, depressing or the oppression stuff, they felt as if they were maybe like whitewashing things. Like, they c- they, they couldn't-- They felt like they know joy is important, so they would go into the joy stuff. But then as soon as they were in the joy stuff, they felt like, "Oh, no, we're like, uh, are we- am I becoming one of those teachers that doesn't like, you know, really confront and interrogate the oppression involved here? Like, is this too joyous?" So, they just felt back and forth like they couldn't find. So, they said, "We would really appreciate some emotional balance across this guiding framework." Um, so yeah. So, those are the four things that I set out to, um, to accompli- to, to, to, to implement into this guiding framework. And, you know, fast-forward a year later or say months and months later, we, uh, together with the teachers, but me going back and forth between scholarship and working im- implementing the POWER framework with the teachers, um, we came up with, with, with the POWER framework. It, um, stands for different words. Um, but each, in each letter, each word, each word started with a different word at the beginning of the year with me implementing it with the teachers, and then over the course of a year, it sort of evolved, and some of the words changed. Um, because sometimes when you plan s- when you plan a framework with just scholarship, it doesn't necessarily work exactly As, as you would think it would when you put it into implementation, or the way teachers interpret different critical concepts might be different when you actually... So the words matter. The words matter a lot, and they shifted over time, but I- we ended up coming up with the, um, five dimensions that we felt, um, pretty good about in terms of this sequence sensitive, transferable, emotionally balanced, critically grounded framework. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, okay. I'm really excited to dive into this. Quickly- Okay ... I just wanna say, I think for anyone who feels like they're not quite at the space where your educators were, the ones you were working with who were thinking all these great thoughts- Yeah ... that is such a beautiful cue to be like, "Here are the important considerations." Like, all of these things you listed, right? The fact that it should be grounded in critical theory. It should be, like, kind of content agnostic, and, like, a f- the vertical alignment possibilities there is really cool. Uh, like, it, it should sequence to decrease traumatic impact, right? And it should be em- emotionally balanced with oppression and joy, and, and considering the whole spectrum of, of human emotion. Like, I just- Yeah ... it's so good. Like, just, just that. Thank you. That's amazing. I- So I would love to, to actually get into the POWER framework, if you wanna just take us there- Yeah ... and tell us- I Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: would love to ... Lindsay Lyons: what it's part... Okay, great. Go for it. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Okay. So the POWER framework, um, stands for... The P stands for presence and personhood, the O stands for oppression and opposition, the W stands for wisdom and wit, the E stands for entanglements and empowerment, and the R stands for relevance and responsibility. And one of the most common questions I get is, like, "Okay, does this framework, does this guide, like, one unit, one lesson, one, like, the whole entire year?" And the answer is yes, yes, yes, it can do any of those things. Um, the way that I tend to use it is I take, you know, any piece of curriculum, whether it is year-long overview or a one children's book or one unit. I am just sort of searching for those pieces. These, so, you know, there are five dimensions, but then two components within each dimension kind of that are intricately cannot be separated sort of. Um, and so I am, yeah, looking for those pieces. And, and the way that I use it is not, like, to, um, necessarily, again, script something, but to search for what's missing. And then say, "Oh, well, okay, you know, you have r- r- you're really strong with these components, but then one component, you know, let's say wisdom and wit, we're missing, so let's what, what can we add in there?" Um, but not every single lesson or every single unit- Can cover all five. Some do. Some, um, you know, some children's books can cover all five. Some children's books are really heavy on the P or the O or the R. Okay, so let's get into what these all mean. Okay, so the, the, the P, um, presence and personhood. Presence and personhood dimension acknowledges the presence and explores the personhood of students and those in the curriculum with dignified asset-oriented origin stories. So one of the most common pitfalls, especially in elementary social studies education, is the first time that children see Black and brown people in the official curriculum is through slavery, is they are in slave- they are in chains. We know through research, we know through all of the experience, we know that this is a bad, this is a traumatic thing for students. It's also just providing a very inaccurate, uh, picture of history, of human history, that as if, like, this is where Black history began. So, um, one of the most important things to do is, um, to, uh, the P is... I almost made the P just the word positive, but that doesn't really work. But it's we have to affirm humanity, identity, culture, lived experience, joy, genius before harm and oppression. We need to center, um, the voices of marginalized people the way that they want to be introduced. Um, stories of, um- It, we, we want, we, you know, we want the curriculum to not begin with harm or deficiency, disruption, um, but we want to affirm that communities have always existed, created, and sustained life beyond domination, and that children enter classrooms as full people already possessing dignity, complexity, agency. Um, so it's about really grounding all of our curriculum in humanity before critique. And it's hard, especially for really justice-oriented teachers. They have actually a really hard time getting away from the oppression stuff. Yeah, I, I can't tell you how many times where I'm like, "This book is great. It's beautiful. But look, there are like three pages all about oppression, and this is the first week of school, like, or the third week of school." Like, it's too early. It's, it, it's, it's... You know, so let's, let's, let's read this book, or even just read part of the book. Read the parts that you want. But, um, we really need to make sure that it doesn't seep in. And I think that's really... So presence of person, what I'm really talking about is identity, you know? Identity exploration. And oftentimes we think, oh, identity exploration, we, espe- uh, justice centr- justice-centered educators want to get into intersectional identity. And by definition, intersectionality is really about intersection with oppression. And so we have to put on some brakes, and we have to really, um, think deeper about, um- What can, how can we s- how can we get into students' identities and the identities of people that we're going to see in the curriculum without bringing oppression in, in, um, in an explicit way? So examples of that are, like, you know, for little guys K through 2, um, like, um, identity poems, um, sharing, um, like, their name stories, um, maybe, um, mapping important places in students' lives. Um, and you know, like, if they go deep, they're gonna go deep, that's fine. But we don't need to push that. Like, "Tell me about your racial history," like, right away, you know, right in the beginning of the school year. Um, yeah, so but just, like, celebrate, you know, the showing, making su- bringing families into the classroom, talking about their language, their culture. Um, and yeah, there's a lot of ways to explore the students' his- identities without centering oppression. And then with spec- since I brought up the example of slavery, you know, really starting with ancient Afri- starting before enslavement happened. And there are some phenomenal story, books out there, um, that... There's one set, one author, um, her work can be found on, um, ourancestries.com and they're these beautiful children's books that tell stories about ancient, um, ancient African leaders, mostly, um, kings and queens, but also just, um, different leaders. But they, they're told, uh, the stories are told about when they're, when they're little children, and so, um, and they're just experiencing life. It's just a, it's a story about, that any kid could relate to. Um, like, "My dad wouldn't let me do this, and so I did that." And, and so- And then, so a lot of the cur- units that I wrote with teachers to start out, um, was with these kinds of books, and it was cool because the students could see their own identities in the stories, but and then all of a sudden they're like, "Oh my gosh, like my identity has something to do with ancient history?" Like, like this is... Yeah, so it, um, I really like those, those stories. But there's obviously a lot of ways to, um, explore official historical or social studies education without oppression first. But that's... Do you have any questions about the presence and personhood, um, Lindsay Lyons: dimension? No questions. Okay. Just like- Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Let's- Lindsay Lyons: like incredible awe and like gratitude- ... I guess for you- Aw ... taking all of this theory and, and, and recognizing what happens in practice often as like something that shouldn't happen in practice, and we know we wanna do differently, and here's how to do it, and here's concrete examples. It's just- Yeah amazing. Thank you. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: That is one of the things in critical theory, and that's how I came up with this framework, was I studied all of the critical theories and synthesized them, coded them, and like hundreds and hundreds of them, of components within all these critical theories and, um, and synthesized them into these, you know, five themes. Theme, um, but I do- didn't find a lot of like components of critical theories that said, "Don't start with oppression." You know, they, that, that's a, a pedagogical thing that I had to bring in. Um, they just, there isn't a lot of order that is attended to, so, um, thank you for, for recognizing that. We, it's, yeah, it's, um, again, like just n- sometimes it's assumed, I think, but also sometimes I think, um, it's just not where the scholars' brains are. That's just not... Yeah. Um, okay, so you ready for the O? Lindsay Lyons: Yes, let's do Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: it. Okay. So the O, uh, stands for oppression and opposition. Originally, I had O standing for just oppression, and then the W was like, um, willpower or something that meant like resistance. And then I realized over time that in practice- If you're, it- when teachers started thinking, "Okay, I have to read this book up and just center on oppression," that's when we got into that really icky place where we're trying to separate emotion, and it's really impossible. Like, because there has never been oppression without resistance, and so we need to really teach those together. Um, there are, like the Teaching Hard History standards say that, you know, very explicitly. Um, but the theories about teaching about oppr- about oppression itself and interrogating power don't talk about that importance of teaching oppression and resistance together. So it was really about, you know, bringing the theory and the curricular pedagogical work together. So that's why oppression and opposition, they... So we examine systems of oppression and resistance together. It means investigating how oppression operates through institutions, policies, ideologies, cultural norms, and at the same time, centering resistance, refusal, critique, counter-narratives alongside that harm, and reiterating over and over that oppression has never gone unchallenged. Um, I think that, uh, yeah, I think it's easy to just get stuck into one or the other, but w- the reality is, is that they're intertwined. Um, but, and then I have a lot of things that I could say that I talk about when doing workshops with teachers about, you know, age-appropriateness with the oppression pieces especially. Um, but I think, I think what I've found is teachers feel a little bit more comfortable doing the oppression part knowing that the opposition is right there with them, and, like, th- then it doesn't feel as, like when, when, if you're just expected to just teach this, like to really let's, let's, let's examine this, you know, white dominance, um, or the, you know, it's like very sticky. But if you're talking about it as resist- with resistance, it's okay. But also, we don't wanna just talk about resistance We need to also examine the oppressors. So it's a balance, um, definitely. Do you have any specific questions about that? I, I, I mean, there's a lot of examples of what you can do. You know, with the little guys starting out, you can talk about, like, you can ask them about rules and if they think that there are any unfair rules, and, um, notice whose voices are included or excluded in stories. And, um, you know, they do understand. They can understand bias and stereotypes and those kinds of things. Um, and then, like, um, you know, for older students, older elementary students, you can really get a little deeper into analyzing unfair laws or just policies over time and, um, and how schools have... Uh, I, I often talk about it within the context of schools because it's so, you know, uh, familiar to them. But, um, yeah, like how language, EDL, uh, lang- lang- certain languages were excluded and then how they have been welcomed. And, you know, there's a lot of different ways and a lot of, lot of different books. I have lots of book lists of, like- Books that, um, can teach about oppression within these different identity groups. Um, I have books for every dimension of the power framework at different grade levels, in other words. But, um, but yes, so, um, oppression, opposition is, I think most people know that if you're gonna talk, do justice-oriented curriculum, you can't, like it cannot exist without discussing oppression. And, um, that's, that, that is not discussing oppression, that would be turning a major blind eye to reality and history and yes. Lindsay Lyons: Yeah. Thank you for elaborating the age appropriateness. I feel like I get that question a lot from educators. Mm-hmm. And I have also seen, I think in some of your resources on your site, just the acknowledgement that like, yes, we can talk about oppression when kids are young, it just might look different. And so- Oh, yeah ... I love that you just named for us some clear examples. So I think that will alleviate some of the questions the audience might be having. So I really- Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Yes, yes, yes ... value that I have so many things I'd love to share. I love starting-- I have some preventive da- like some, the, the biggest fear a lot of teachers have is that, um, well, one of the biggest fears when they're concerned about the students in the room. I mean, yes, there's the fear of backlash and la-la. But the teachers who, you know, really most teachers have a big heart, and they just wanna take care of their students. And they might have, in, in least the, the context that I've worked in, there's usually like the, there's a majority of white students in the room, and then there are a handful, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven teacher, s- students who are Black or brown or come from some kind of marginalized, historically marginalized community. And teachers are so terrified that the first, that, that they will say something about the oppressive history, and all the students in the room will, their heads will turn and look at that one to four students. And they'll say things like, "So wait a minute, then, like so and so wouldn't be able to go to school with us?" You know, say these off- these things that are just really, um- Hard to respond to and could be traumatizing and stuff. So, um, I, I, I want to validate that concern and be thankful that people are concerned thinking about those, those students. That is who we should be thinking about. But, um, I do have a lot of ideas and ways, strategies on how to prevent that from happening. Um, specifically practicing it with dolls, but, but about... So, so bringing in a doll that maybe if, if you... that has an identity from a historically marginalized group, but that isn't in the room. So like maybe, um, a doll, if you don't have any children with hijabs or Mu- Muslim, then you bring in a doll with a hijab. Or you bring in a doll with, that, if you don't have any students who have Down syndrome, then you bring in a doll with Down syndrome. And then you say, like, and then you practice, like, "Okay, we're gonna about to read this book about this. How might we treat this doll, like this, if this was a student in the room?" And, um, that's just one little idea. I could talk about the age appropriateness thing for a very long time. So I don't wanna get too sidetracked. But I mean, it makes sense that it comes up in the oppression dimension of the power framework, 'cause that is, that's the hardest and Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely. I also wanna recognize your time. Do you have time- Yeah ... to continue? We can make this- I do ... into a two-part episode if you want. Okay. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Absolutely, yes. No, I, I have plenty of time. Lindsay Lyons: Okay, perfect. Let's do that, and then let's aim for, like, uh, 1:45 at the latest. Does that work? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: I... Yes, yes. At the very latest, yes. I do have to... I have a train to catch at 3:15, um- Ooh, yeah, okay I'm going to Kansas City, but I'm- it's fine. I just, uh... Yes, 1... Maybe 1:30? I don't know. Yeah. Lindsay Lyons: Let's do it. Okay. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Okay, yes. I'll write it down. No, but I'm thrilled that you want to hear all of this. That's very Lindsay Lyons: exciting. I do. I- it's amazing. Thank you. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Aw. Lindsay Lyons: Okay, so do you wanna tell us about the W? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Yes, I do. Okay. So the W stands for wisdom and wit, and it's hard to say that I have any favorites, but it might be my favorite because it is a place where we... It, it's not just about joy. It certainly does generate a lot of joy, and we celebrate a lot of joy, but it's about affirming diverse ways of knowing. It's about bringing, um, ex- it's about centering the experiential wisdom and wit from communities represented in the curriculum and the students themselves. So it's, um, treating typical- treating marginalized music, art, stories, humor, dance, language, creativity as historically grounded knowledge, and that is a lot of fun. And so it's exploring how cultural expression sparks joy, but also can expose injustice, and that is fun to just, like... So it's a lot of, like, comparing and contrasting song lyric, or l- uh, studying song lyrics, um, like This Land Is Your Land, this is my land, this is my... Like, looking at what do you got, like, the, the original s- songs and how they evolved over time, and how there's a lot of wit. There's a lot of, um, um... What's the word? Satire in, in a lot of songs and art, and kids get a kick out of it. Um, so yeah. It's, um... And then, like, in terms of activities, you know, so it's for little guys, it's using storytelling, drawing, song, and movement to explore social studies ideas, creating class books from family stories and community memories. Kind of teaching them, like, sharing oral stories, oral traditions, and validating that as history. You know, it's historically gra- like, history of their families, and, um, comparing stories from different cultures and discussing, like, what they teach, making art, um, showing what students know about identity and place and belong. So, um, using multiple languages, you know, tr- using translanguaging and, um, so yeah. And then, like, older students might, um, compare textbooks. That's kind of fun with, um... And looking at the different ways that, um, poetry and music and visual art are used to, um, tell truth and express joy. Um, students might, um Just create, um, like use children's literature. I mean, there's so much children's literature out there that tells, um, these stories about the wisdom and wi-... I mean, there's, so like there's the ch- the books about how, um, enslaved people used to create, um, the, their cornrows in their hair would create maps for, uh, to lead to the Underground Railroad. You know, that, those are, that's wisdom and it's brilliant. You know, it's brilliant witty. Um, a lot of Goldie Muhammad's work comes to life through this dimension, you know, her focus on cultivating genius, unearthing joy. Um, but again, it can, it can certainly, um, dig up w- oppression again, that is, that is part of it. Um, but, um, yeah, it's a, it's a really fun one where we get into Harlem Renaissance and, um, disability arts and indigenous literacy resurgence as like, you know, like what is the literacy of, of nature, the literacy of nature. And, and by the way, like I, when I think of identity, e- nature, um, and environment and, um, those are all-- I consider that a, a historically marginalized identity group in and of itself. So, um, that is, I think, important. But, um, but yeah, so I could talk for a long time about wisdom and wit. A lot of, I have a lot of, um, children's books that I think are really fun. I mean, I have children's books that fit into all of these things, but, um, these are just really fun. Lindsay Lyons: These are incredible. And I just wanna name for the audience that we will link to the page that has a, a really cool images of children's books and how they map onto this framework. So thank you for putting that together. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Yes. Yes. Yes. There's something about children's books that, that's the ling- it's like speaking the language for teachers to, like, they see the covers of certain familiar children's books and they're like, "Oh, okay, now I know what you're talking about." Yeah, so I, I do have visuals of those picture, of picture books and how they might fit across, um, each of these dimensions. Lindsay Lyons: Do you wanna tell us about E? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: I would love to. Yes. Okay, so E stands for entanglements and empowerment. So I think entanglements is all about leaning into complexity and nuance, what- no matter what the topic is. Because I think that is the, um, something that we have a tendency to do, especially for little kids, we wanna make it clear and, um, we want, we want them to understand something, we wanna put it on assessment, and we wanna know if they learn it or not. But we really do them a disfavor when we, um, pretend like anything about social life is simple. And so, uh, anything about history, anything about contemporary issues, we, um, need to lean into the complexity. Even the stories about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, some of those stories that have been so deeply simplified, um, we need to make sure that like, so Dr. LeGarrette King has, uh, the Black historical consciousness framework, and one of his dimensions, one of his principles is, um, con- historical contention, whi- which meaning historical contention within the Black community because so often the Black community gets, um, represented as a monolith that, uh, all, everybody, you know, believed the same thing about, um, about how we get our rights and, uh, and, and he, and like for example, the Brown versus Board of Education, you know, there, there are really great children's books and stories about how, um, there was contention around that, that Brown, that, that, that schools should not be integrated. And, um, there's always, I mean, it is, kinder- I've seen kindergarten teachers just read a book about Martin Luther King and then read a book about Malcolm X and talk about the entanglements of the civil rights movement within the Black community. So the entanglements don't always have to be, you know, across identity groups. Um, they are often, they always have been within as well. So, um, yeah. So it's about prompting Student-led inquiry into the connections, tensions, contradictions, and unfinished change. We have to prompt them with the, you know, these, these stories that are like, "Oh, wait, what? Not everybody was on the same page about this?" But, um, and not just like w- w- I mean, 'cause really, and, and the reason empowerment is along with it is because, you know, we want to... It's important to celebrate the, the progress that we have made. It is a big part of... It's the number one, um, component of organizing, of activism, is celebrating the wins and celebrating the progress. But, um, and, but, but at the same time, we don't want to fall into the trap of believing that progress is inevitable and that we're just gonna arrive to this place all by itself. We have to recognize the entanglements within the progress. So the empowerment is about the progress. It's about the, the ways in which people have formed, um, coalitions and they have collaboratively found agency and, um, and actually made progress, actually gained rights. And, but the entanglements are like a check on that, on that progress that, um, that making sure that we understand that, you know, it's never as simple as it sounds and, um, or it has been made to seem through certain narratives and stories. Um, yeah, so, um, it's ensuring that, you know, empowerment is not just isolated civil acts, but- Um, teaching students about the capacity to act ethically within and against entangled conditions too. You know, so there's a lot... I, I think it's, it's really about complexity of progress, the complexity of progress, the cl- complexity, but the really the complexity of everything. Um, and yes, there's a lot of... So in terms of like, um, how to do that, I, I guess I, I did mention a few story, a few examples of, you know, comparing and contrasting two different stories. Um, but you can, at the younger level too, you can ra- recognizing the, um, the tensions in the classroom, like as maybe students disagree on, um, on some routines or, um, you know, really recognizing this is hard. You know, it's hard to get along with people and, um, how can we solve this problem and learn to listen and respond, and what can we learn from these stories of people who did figure out how to work together, you know? And, um, so relating it to their personal lives, but also, um, co-creating rubrics or criteria for projects and, um, holding structured dialogues where students practice listening before responding. Um, and like building... I, I al- I think here, you know, the next one, the next letter is R and it, you know, res- it's, well, spoiler alert, it stands for relevance and responsibility. It's the taking action part of it. But I do think the E needs to, um, bring in... It, we gotta g- prepare, prepare for that action. So it's about not just learning about progress itself and the complexity of progress, but starting to plan for it, and starting to think about why, what, what it is we care about within this topic that we're learning about. What are these things that are still, um, what are the current entanglements and the current ways that we could empower ourselves, and how could we start planning student-led inquiry-based, um, action projects? But we, before we actually take the action, we have to plan it and recognize the complexity of that. I mean, it is hard, like, but- You got this classroom full of kids that all care about different things. They might not agree on the best way to solve a problem or address an issue, and so there's, you know, but typically if you sit, if you, if you just get out a chart paper and you start brainstorming ways, you start seeing different clusters of kids that really have similar ideas. So there's breaks, so they break up into groups, and they wanna do work on different projects, and it's about, um, you know, talking through the not as sexy stuff of leadership and, and coalition building and working together and organizing. It's not that exciting sometimes. It's sticky, and it's icky, and it's like, um, involves spreadsheets and Post-It notes, and it's not as, um, yeah, i- it's like we wanna just get to the change. We wanna get to the, the cool part where they're, you know, marching through the street or where they're writing the, they're, they're, they're talking to the legislator on the phone. But there's a lot of work that has to get teased through before that. So, um, that's what the E I, I think about as, um, the E is a lot of preparation for the students' own coalition building and, and, and action. Lindsay Lyons: There is so much organizing and coalition building- Yeah. ... and, like, group work dynamics on, like, a meta level for civic projects as well, so I love this, that they're learning about it- Love ... and they're preparing to do. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Yes. Yes. Lindsay Lyons: And finally, do you wanna tell us- It's great ... the R? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Yes, definitely. Um, okay, so the R stands for relevance and responsibility. Um, it's where we make the curriculum matter. Um, teachers are really good at relevance naturally, I think. Whenever teaching about social studies, they're pretty good at naturally saying, "Why does this matter? How does this connect to students today?" Um, that's just, I, I, something I've noticed, that I don't really have to teach student, teachers to make curriculum relevant. They're really good at it. Um, and a- in fact, I had, uh, one grade level, a third grade team plan their entire curriculum so that the R, the relevance part of the R, and the, and the responsibility, the R, was at the end of every unit, no matter what. Like, so unit one was, like, the P and the, and the R. And then unit two was the O and the, and then the R. And then unit three was the W and the R, and then the... You know, so the R was just, like, there no matter what, which I loved, um, because yeah, we gotta make everything relevant, and we don't wanna just have this, like, culminating big, huge student action project at the end of the year. We want it multiple times throughout the year. So, um, so yeah, so relevance is about... And it's not just about connecting the past to the present or the past to the students' lives, it's also about connecting global systems to local lived realities. The whole think globally, act locally. You know, so if you're... 'Cause a lot of kids care about something that's really big and really global, and so, you know, getting them to look at, for organizations and partnerships and with- within their community that's already doing that work, um, that's part of the relevance connection, too. Um, but the responsibility is, again, it's about creating space, making space for students to not just design, not just talk about the solving of the problem, but actually to take responsibility to do actions, um, and pursue responses to the issues that they're studying Um, and to position responsibility as informed, as ethical collective action toward meaningful change. And that can be done in a lot of ways. You know, we have, um, a lot of, you know, kids as young as kindergarten can, you know, write letters to, um, school leaders or to local officials. Um, kids can create posters, make, you know, uh, raise, like, have awareness campaigns about things that they care about. Um, uh, service projects. Service learning is great as long as there is those deep discussions, as long as the P-O-W and E came before. Um, and they could do, um... I mean, w- I've done, like, a water walk when we did, like, a world water crisis where we walk around the school with water, you know, holding water and, or we've, you can do... So that's like, that's like a walk, but not like, you know, y- teachers don't need to feel like they need to be bringing their students to, like, Black Lives Matter protests to, in order to be, like, having done action. Um, writing letters is huge. Writing letters to local or national leaders is huge. Teaching them, writing scripts, and then actually having them call, not just community, not, not just legislators, but also, like, um, there was a group of students that I worked with, with, who were, um, they cared about, like, working against factory farms and wanting to build more sustainable, um, organic farms, so, that treated animals better. And so they would call, they, they, their whole action was calling a bunch of restaurant owners around the, the city and asking them where they get their meat. And that was, that was, like, in, that was in and of itself, you know, their action. So, um, so tons of ideas. I'm sure you, that's something that you talk about on this podcast often. But, um, it's extremely important to make that space for it and, um, and, and, and, and forefront also partnerships, um, I think with other, with the community, um, and teaching students how to really reach out and, um, and look at the opportunities for solidarity, um, because that's, you know, we don't wanna all be working in isolation Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, that was absolutely incredible. Thank you so much. I wanna be mindful of your time, so we can- No, you're fine ... definitely wrap up quickly. But I love this framework. I love the examples. I love how practical it is. One of the things that's on my mind, and maybe this can be one of our kind of lightning round, 15 seconds or less answers maybe. Sure. Like, an audience member who just listened to this, right, or who engaged with the episode, they're gonna feel like there's a lot here. What's one place they can take a small action to get started with this work? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: I would say just taking a look at your own curriculum. So let's just think about, okay, close your eyes. What's your social studies curriculum? And then, um, or, or maybe just take one unit, you know, one unit and think, "Okay, do I have the P? What's, what's going on with the P? Do I have... What's, what identity stuff? Do I have any oppression stuff too early? I don't know. Okay. Maybe. Yes. All right, let's move that back a little bit." Like, what, let's think about the books. If there's anything that's, uh, brings up oppression topics, let's move it back. And okay, now it's the O. Do I have oppre- Are we talking about both oppression and opposition at the same time, or are they separate? And do we have resistance stories? You know, probably, yes, but, um, are they coming up at every instance of oppression that we talk about? And then, okay, quickly, wisdom and wit. Am I generating joy? Are my telling stories through the voices and eyes of marginalized groups, and also through their wit and wisdom, their different ways of knowing and being, and, um, and satire? Um, uh, you know, just, and then the E Is anything simplified, like overly simplified? How could I quickly, like, make sure that the c- we're leaning into the complexity a little bit more? Um, and, and of course, am I providing a space for them to think about how it's relevant to them, and how they might be able to take responsibility? And I think one thing that, a pitfall that I see often at the end of these units are that, that the teachers say, "Okay, n- guys, we've learned a lot. Now it's time to take some action. What are some things that we could do to improve our community?" And even though the, the unit was all about, um, maybe Black history, the kids start saying like, "We could pick up trash. We could, you know, save the turtles." And so, um, I think making sure that the action is actually... Like, it is okay to make that a requirement. To say like, "No, we are, we are, there, this, the, the, we have explored a variety of problems and issues," and, um, it's like within the E, it's important to talk about today. Not, not just th- this historical problem, but th- today's issues, and so, um, how can we address or, those issues, alleviate some problems in those. Um, so making sure that the action you take actually, um, has something to do. So I, I, yeah, I guess thinking about it as a quick checklist. I don't know. That wasn't super short, but, um- Lindsay Lyons: But super helpful. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Super what? Lindsay Lyons: Super helpful though. I love Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: that. Oh, okay, good. Yes, it doesn't have to be this long... I mean, I have rubrics for POWER that just, yeah, just have one or two questions per dimension. Um, and then, you know, just think, "Okay, if I don't have enough wisdom and wit, like, let's do a deep dive into joyous books." Like, that's, that's a fun little activity. Um, yeah. I love- Give me an email or a call. I'd love to share books. Lindsay Lyons: I was gonna say, that's our last question, so we'll segue there. Like, where can people connect with you? Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Um, well, I can, um... Let's see. We have, I have a website, schemacurriculum.com. I have an email address, [email protected]. I still have my personal re- website that has a lot of resources on it, um, that people say they, they use still in their methods, elementary social studies methods courses. So I have not taken it down. Um, but it, yeah, that's genevievecaffrey.com, and it has a lot more of, like, my publications, my writings, um, a little bit more about my story. And, um, then all of my writings are also on ResearchGate. I have just begun LinkedIn. I, I quit social media, like, five years ago, and I always say it was the best thing of my life. So I'm trying not to go too quickly back into it, 'cause I, I do wanna get back out there because I just graduated. I'm ready to, to connect more. But, um, right now I'm just on LinkedIn as Genevieve Ecker Caffrey. Um, can I share one more thing about the power framework that I can't believe I did not talk about- Absolutely. Yeah ... that I didn't say, because it's, like, kind of the, like, obvious, like, it's, like, the elephant in the room, but it's the fact that the po- the word power is purposeful. It's not just that these themes happen to spell P-O-W-E-R. It's that power- The circulation of power itself is, through each dimension of power, is important to explore, um, within each dimension. So, and I think that each dimension, um, interacts with power in a different way. So presence and personhood, doing work with students where you don't just jump into oppression and you really dig deep into the brilliance, agency, and humanity that conventional curriculum often suppresses, that is reclaiming power in and of itself. Like, you are reclaiming power by restoring that brilliance and agency of marginalized groups that are going to come in the curriculum and the students themselves. Um, oppression and opposition obviously surfaces the forces that have constrained communities while also illuminating the long histories of collective power that, um, has shown up as resistance and disrupt those constraints. Um, and then wisdom and wit shifts power by legitimizing the power of intellectual, creative, and cultural knowledge systems that have really sustained marginalized people across generations. Um, and it's also, like, putting satire into songs. I mean, what an act of power of... And what a way to harness power. And then entanglements and empowerment demonstrates that power is never singular, um, or self-made, but it emerges through relationships, obligations, tensions, all that make up solidarity work. And, um, I think that obviously the pow- the word power is in the word empowerment. Um, but I think we as a society would become more powerful if we, if everyone were to recognize the complexity in every issue, and that no one is all this or all that, and noth- no issue is all bad or all good. Um, I mean, my children, my own children know that they're not just, they're just not allowed to ask. "Is, is he good? Is she bad?" Like, "Is this good? Is this bad?" Like, 'cause nothing. They know I'll say, "Well, nothing is all good or all bad." And then relevance and responsibility obviously is redirecting power towards civic engagement, transforming our understanding and our learning into an accountable practice. So yes, I think it's just important that, you know, I recognize the word power, um, that yeah, that these are, it, the, the p- when you think of critical, critical theory- What makes something critical is power dynamics. It's the study of power. It's the study of power dynamics. But, um, you know, it's the p- study of power dynamics now, in my mind, through each of these dimensions. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, what a beautiful summary and extension of what we just talked about. Oh my goodness. Dr. Erica Caffrey, thank you so much for this conversation today. Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: Thank you, Lindsay. I... Gosh, I'm... It's such a privilege, and I'm sorry if it's a little scattered. I just, you know, finished a 350-page dissertation- Lindsay Lyons: Of Dr. Genevieve Erker Caffrey: course you did about all of this, so I could talk about it in a lot of directions. But, um, thank you for keeping me focused and moving along.
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AuthorLindsay Lyons is an educational justice coach who helps schools and districts co-create feminist, antiracist civics-based curricula, discussion opportunities, and equitable policies that challenge, affirm, and inspire all students. A former NYC public school teacher, she holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Lindsay believes all students deserve literacy, criticality, and leadership skills. Archives
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