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In this episode, we sit down with Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver, a full-time teacher and coach who is engaged in many community outreach and support initiatives. In our conversation, she shares valuable insights that emphasize the importance of belonging in the classroom, the necessity of equipping students with strong literacy skills, and the power of recognizing students' innate genius.
Our discussion revolves around the practical strategies and mindset shifts required to achieve these educational goals in light of real-world challenges facing educators and students today. The Big Dream One thing that Caitlin holds onto is the reality that the world is hard and full of injustice, yes, but she wants all students to know that they can make it better — their voices matter. Her vision is to empower students through education, equipping them with the critical literacy skills necessary to challenge injustice and create a better world. Mindset Shifts Required A few mindset shifts can help educators in today’s complex educational environment, including the importance of making space for what’s going on in the world and bringing that into the classroom. Acknowledging external circumstances is a starting point for all educators, and, from there, we can work to ensure all students feel safe and like they belong in your classroom. Other important shifts include: recognizing the inherent genius in all students, valuing students' existing knowledge, and resisting the urge to simplify complex texts or issues. Rather than performing tasks for students, teachers should guide them as they navigate difficult readings and discussions, stressing the importance of honoring students' lived experiences and perspectives. Action Steps For educators seeking to bring these shifts to their classrooms, Caitlin outlines her “literacy is liberation” approach, which is based on a recent talk she gave at the NCSS Conference (outline available here). Here are some action steps educators can implement: Step 1: Focus on creating a sense of belonging in the classroom by valuing students’ voices, experiences, and backgrounds. This foundational step is crucial for any learning to occur and a big part of it is simply acknowledging what’s happening politically in the world and talking about it in the class; even when it's hard to do, it’s better than staying silent on the issues that matter. Step 2: Listen to students. Ask questions about how they are and their well-being, and then learn and listen from them. This is how you can start seeing kids as geniuses that we can learn from, too. Step 3: Encourage students to engage with rigorous texts — a lot of them. Even when students have lower levels of literacy, it’s still possible to engage in rigorous texts when we support them through scaffolding that helps them tackle difficult material. Educators can also focus on building up background knowledge and vocabulary that support learners in their literacy and understanding of content. Step 4: As you work to build literacy skills, honor the hard work of learning by acknowledging its challenges and celebrating student progress and achievements. Facilitate an environment where overcoming obstacles is part of the learning process. Challenges? Caitlin reflects on how teachers — and maybe Social Studies teachers in particular — love the content and love teaching everything. So, teachers may also struggle with how to cover the right amount of content with limited time to both plan and teach. It can also be challenging to adequately provide background knowledge and motivation necessary for students to engage with complex texts. One Step to Get Started Teachers can start small by simply highlighting and teaching key “tier two” vocabulary words found within texts. These are the words you have to know to make sense of the text. This practical step can be implemented in daily lessons and has the potential to significantly impact students' reading skills. Additionally, school leaders can prioritize conversations with their educators, focusing on what they are already doing well, and exploring ways to support their literacy teaching strategies. Stay Connected You can find this week’s guest on Instagram at @2025vtteacheroftheyear. To help you implement today’s takeaways, our guest is sharing her presentation outline from the NCSS Conference: Literacy is Liberation: Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers and Work Towards Justice. It is full of resources that will support educators in the themes discussed in this episode. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 255 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:
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TRANSCRIPT
Lindsay Lyons: Caitlin, welcome to the time for teachership podcast. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Lindsay Lyons: I am really intrigued by, uh, a lot of different things that I, that you bring to the table as an educator and coach, and. One of the reasons we reconnected is around your NCSS presentation on literacy as liberation and thinking about like the social studies context and literacy. And I just, I was really intrigued by that, but I also know that you have a wealth of knowledge and information and like passions and all the things. So what's kind of on your mind today, or what do you want audience members to be thinking of today? Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Um, well, I am, uh, still in the classroom full-time in addition to many other things, and classroom spaces are hard right now. We're talking at the end of December. Um, last night we did another huge food distribution to our students who are really hungry. So I was just right before this call, cleaning up from that. Um, we're supporting, I'm heavily supporting a second grader of ours who was detained by ice, um, at the be over the Thanksgiving break. So I was. Emailing back and forth with that. Um, and then we have a huge Somali population at our school in Winooski. It's a refugee resettlement city. Um, and after, uh, Trump's remarks calling the Somali people quote garbage, we've done a lot of support for our Somali population, um, which has, uh, been hard in some ways. Like we've been very atta uh, targeted and attacked. So even just now, like I was in the hallway and just continuing talking to kids about how they're processing everything and December is dark and it's. You know, going into break. It's a hard time for kids anyways, so there's a lot on my mind right now. Lindsay Lyons: Thank you for naming all of the things, because I feel like things are constantly evolving and changing. So yes, we were talking December, 2025, and whenever folks are engaging with this episode, at whatever point, like. Hopefully things will be different from the better, but it's a good reminder that this is where we are right now and these are all the things that are affecting not just educators, but students as well, and families. So thank you for just like situating us in that, and I think connected to, connected to that, but maybe like a, a positive spin off of like what is possible. I always try. To lead with the question around Dr. Betina loves quote on freedom dreaming. So dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. Like, we know all of this stuff is happening and we know there is a better possible future. So what does that future look like for you? Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Yeah, I love, uh, Dr. Patina loves work and I think what I hold onto in one of my north stars is that the world is hard and it's full of injustice. And I want kids to know that they can make it better, that their voices matter and that they can change the world. Um, and I want them angry by what they see, but I want them knowing that they will play a role in dreaming us. A better world. Um, and then specifically like as an English and as a social studies teacher, we play a big role in then helping them get the skills they need to do that. So making sure that they're really strong readers, um, making sure they have a strong awareness of our, their past, our nation's past so that they can understand why we are where we are today, making them. Become brave writers that can cite evidence and use good sources and make sense of misinformation, and then to communicate their ideas strongly. Um, so even though things are hard at the end of December, that's why I like can't get away from the classroom. 'cause there's so much hope for me in my four walls when I'm working with kids that like I get to be the one that helps them make sense of what's happening and do something about it. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. I love it. And I love that you're already getting into like all of the specific skills and things that we have the power to like amplify in our kids who, like many of them have these skills, right? And our job is just like coach 'em and, and improve them, um, and find ways that they can use those skills in real world like settings. I love that. And I'm also thinking about. You know, the, the teachers, I think most people who are listening to this podcast or engaging with this podcast are people who know justice is important and they know that this is what they wanna do. And I think for some it might be like. I'm not quite sure how to bring this about, or I'm not quite sure how I do this and I, you know, do X, y, and Z that my administrator requires. Or for an administrator, listen, li listening, you know, and engaging, it's like what, uh, whatever they have right on their shoulders that is being, coming from a above. Like, here are we, were talking about like languaging, right? Here are the terms you can't use, or here's like the state law on this. And so I'm imagining there's a lot of like mindset stuff going on for people. Are there any powerful like. Shifts in mindset or kind of like big ideas that have helped you or helped propel others that you know towards doing some of this work. Amidst all the things going on. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Yeah. I think what comes to my mind first is I don't know how we do the work of social, being a social studies teacher, being a classroom teacher, if we don't address everything that our kids are bringing with them into the classroom, if we don't make space for what's going on in the world. I had a student say to me recently when we were kind of talking about how do teachers respond to what's going on, what feels good for you? And, um, I'm a teacher that's like always talking about it with, with the world and being relevant. And she said something powerful, which was that when her teachers don't talk about it, she assumes that they agree with everything that's going on. And I know that that's not the intent of the teachers. But it was a moment for me of recognizing the silence carries so much meaning for our kids, and this was just one kid. I'm like, oh, do other people think that about this teacher and this teacher? Um. So for me, kind of like two mindset shifts is like, number one, yes, this work is hard and I don't know any other way. Like kids have to feel like they belong in your classroom for, to do any learning. And it seems like often, um, a talking point from the right wing of like, oh, just teach reading or just teach math and it. We can't just do that if kids don't feel safe, if they don't feel seen, affirmed, valued, et cetera. Um, and then I also think that there's a big shift in terms of like really valuing what our kids are bringing into the classroom. Um, and not just like lip service of like, oh yeah, languages are, are strength, but really like showing that in your classroom. Um, and I think a lot about. Honoring our kids as geniuses and like really this mindset shift of like, they are a genius. And it's my job to bring that genius out of them. And how do I do that? Um, how do I facilitate a learning space, a classroom space? How do my instructional decisions align with this underlying principle that like, I am so lucky to be with 20 geniuses today. How do I get that out of them? Um. We read this book, uh, in one of my English classes, the Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, and a character says to another character, um, the world's been waiting for your genius a long time. And I printed it out on my classroom. And like when we read it, I look at kids, I'm like, have, have teachers said that to you? Like, do you feel that? And sadly the answer is no often, but like that is something that I try to hold onto as much as possible. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, there is so much there. I mean, I just fiercely writing notes about like, you know, the valuing of, of, of things beyond just like naming them, but like truly valuing the, the idea of genius. I mean, you're like bringing in Goldie Mohammed here. Like, I just, I love all of this and I, I totally, I mean, I can literally think of colleagues as well as my own teachers as a student who. Did not talk about what is happening in the, the politic political landscape, the politics, the current events, whatever. And totally, that's what happens is everyone thinks like, oh, well then you must be just fine with it. Which in populations where we're our students are, uh, marginalized in various ways and identities and groups that they belong to, it's like, oh, you, so you don't value me. Right. And, and how to your earlier point, like how can we engage with students, partner with students and families. If we are not specifically addressing it and, and saying we're against all of the oppression that's happening. So I just really love that all of this is like threading together what you're saying. And I I also love your segue into how, right, so you start, you left off kind of saying like, how do I do this? I'm curious like, what does the, how look like, that's a huge question, but I know there's like different components that, that you think about. I mean, you talked about literacy as liberation. You talked about like elevating the genius. Setting up classrooms in specific ways, elevating student agency. Like there's, there's so many components. I don't know if you wanna like pick one or just kind of share a smattering of ideas, whatever works for you. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Yeah. Um, my presentation around literacy is liberation. I was like trying to distill a little bit of like, what am I doing in my history classrooms, in my civics classrooms that is working. Um, and I think a lot around, um. Well, even backing up, I think a lot around the need for kids to be strong readers and strong writers when they graduate high school. I think so much of my students who have graduated high school and sadly have not graduated college within four years or six years and life gets busy and you know, they're often coming from families that are in poverty and. It's complicated. Um, but I think about how can we better prepare them with these real concrete skills to then live, you know, our freedom dreams. Um, I think a lot about how do you first create belonging in your classroom? And it's not like. Switch that you can flip and you have it one day and you don't have it the other day. Is this ongoing reflective process of all the stuff that I'm sure your listeners, uh, are aware of, you know, like diverse texts and really leaning into checking in with kids. This is one thing I've been talking about a lot recently is during COVID I feel like we did a great job of like really slowing down and just like. Asking kids, how are you? Do you have enough food? What's going on? But we're past COVID now, and it's back to normal. And it's like we lost something there. And I intentionally, especially since the new administration have been really slowing down and trying to check in with kids, like, are we okay? And it's really through that listening that we learn about our kids. And there's that mindset shift again of like. I am not the expert like you are bringing so much into my classroom. How can I learn from you? And I think kids see me as that type of teacher. I think hopefully that really listens and then like. My doors like never close. They just keep coming in and keep talking and like you keep learning more stuff about them. And then it's like the books we're using and the, this is why I love teaching also. It's like every decision carries so much weight. Are all of our curriculum decisions, the text we're using, what we're teaching, what we're not teaching, what we're emphasizing, um. All of that. It's like it's messy and we show up in really small ways for kids, but then also showing up in bigger ways. Like we, our school raised the Somali flag after Trump's comment, so we show up in these big ways, or we have this big food distribution things. But I think kids see belonging over the course of, you know, the year or many months. Um, so that's the first thing. Kids gotta feel like they belong. And then I have a whole lot, like been thinking a lot around what does this mean from a literacy perspective? Um, and I think a lot of the science of reading research, um, is fantastic. Of course. And like most states now have adopted science of reading legislation. Most of the legislation is focused around K to three. And that makes sense of like addressing the root of the problem. Um. And I think about our high school kids that are kind of left behind from some of that research and what that means. And I started as a, uh, US history teacher in Boston. Um, and I was trained as a history teacher and I did not know what to do with struggling readers. Like that was not where our pedagogy was. Um, and you know, through many years in different jobs and stuff, I went back to school to become a reading specialist, just 'cause I felt like I needed more skills of like. What do we actually do as content teachers when we have kids that don't know how to read? Um, and I'm really enthused and, you know, hopeful 'cause their research is like pretty obvious and we know what to do. Kids will only understand attacks if they have strong background knowledge about it and if they have vocabulary about it. It's kind of like one thing. And then second, they need to read a lot and they need to read rigorous texts and they need to read a lot of them. So kind of those like four things of like belonging first, a lot around vocabulary, a lot around building background knowledge and what that means. And then like the actual reading strategies and what that looks like. But I'm left hopeful of like the research supports that as social studies teachers, there's so much we can do to support kids being successful readers and writers, and then into their future. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, yes. I, I love that belonging is central and because you can't really do anything without that. Right. And then I, I do love bringing in like the science of reading stuff. I know that so many, I mean, you just named three incredibly important things from the research and equally three challenging things. I think that teachers ask as a coach, they ask me or. Say like, this is my biggest struggle. Like these are the, the most particularly background and, and reading a lot, like how do I get kids to consistently read and how do I get kids if they have no knowledge of a particular group of people we're studying? And I'm like, okay, we're gonna start this inquiry lesson where you're gonna ask questions. And they're like, well, I don't even know who we're talking about. Right? Like. There. These are two challenging pieces and I'll just say what I've been thinking about and then I would love some of your thoughts because I've been reading TTA Hammond's latest work around like building students' capacity to learn and thinking about how information is processed and how we support students to use tools to like do it beyond like the teacher always being there and so. One thing I'm thinking about is the engagement of students with any sort of text and how if we could make it more meaningful to them, like they're gonna be motivated to read more. And so that's something I've been like just interested about. Like that motivational aspect as well as like the literacy skills themselves. I feel like there's something there, but then also like the background knowledge piece to me, my move and tell me if there's like other ways. 'cause I would love other ways. My move lately has been to think about. Like frameworks, like funds of knowledge or, um, cultural capital from Yos o like thinking about. What are the background knowledge, things that you might already know that might not be like this period in time or this particular geographic area we're studying in history or this person, but there's some sort of like, oh, we're talking about migration. Okay, well, I have a personal experience with migration, right? There's like things that we can pull on that we don't always think about in the classroom. That could be leveraged, but tell me what you think about these. Like what do you do with these pieces? Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: So I love that. 'cause so many times it's like, oh, kids don't have background knowledge, so I have to give it to them. And I do see some role in that, but it's like, no, how are we honoring what they do know already? And. Learning, reading, it's Velcro, it has to stick to something. So figuring out what it's sticking to first. So it won't work if we're only front loading. Like, here's a video and here's some pictures. Like now you have background knowledge. We have to connect it to something that they already know of to begin with. Um, and then I do think there is a role in like. We're gonna like use a video as a text before we actually read the text so that you have like, we're having a shared common experience before we dive into it. And like a starting place at least. Or, you know, showing pictures or reading a small short text before we read the bigger text. And thinking about how we're leveraging like text, text. And what our core text is, like, what we're trying, how we're using reading in itself to build that knowledge. But kids have knowledge, they're bringing knowledge into our classrooms, and they'll be more motivated to do the work if you're honoring what they already know, rather than treating them like they're stupid and they don't know anything in the first place. Um, and I haven't read the Reddi Hammond's new stuff yet, but I want to, and I've been doing, uh, we had a really nice. Uh, professional learning session recently with, uh, Trevor Reagan from the Learning Lab. Really thinking about growth mindset plus and really honoring that learning is hard for kids. And I have a five-year-old who's also l doing a lot of learning right now, and learning's really hard and I hear him sometimes saying this like, I give up. I can't do this language. And the research is really clear. It's like you need to honor. That it is hard and not just say like, no, it's okay, like you can do it. Like, no, this is really hard. Like I get it. And it's a skill and you can get better at something or worse. And then especially in high school, um, kids don't wanna do hard things like their life is hard enough already. And, um, at N-C-S-S-I was like, how many teachers. I have kids that like immediately go to the bathroom when you pass out a reading and it's like, it's everyone. They don't wanna look stupid in front of their peers. Um, so how we can build our culture in our classrooms, in our schools, we're like, no, we're, it is hard and we're gonna do something hard together. And I got you. And like, not dumbing down the text, not making it easier. I started teaching in 2011, I think, and there was a lot of like scaffolding texts, making it easy, the news ELA stuff of like, oh, I'm just gonna change sentences. Like now my kids can read it. Um, and the, it's, the pendulum has really shifted. It's like, no kids need to be reading rigorous texts, so how are we then scaffolding the challenge so that they can read the text, but they're the ones doing it? 'cause we know they're not gonna get better at reading some reading if we don't ever give them a chance to read in the first place. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh, yes. For naming the, the pendulum swing for sure. I mean, 2011 is when, I think that was my first year of teaching, and it was exactly, it was like, here's like all, here are all these apps that will make it easier, so just use these. Right. And now it's like, okay, that didn't help. Um, yeah. Oh my gosh. I, I love the idea of honoring the hard. I also have a almost 4-year-old. And so it is like, right, we are, we need to, like, we can do hard things right now like this. We're in it together. Um, and I, I just really appreciate that this analogy of Velcro and like it's going to stick to something. What does it stick to? Like that really resonates because I think sometimes we think that there is literally nothing. There's, right. It's like the very much like the banking model, it's very much kids don't have anything coming in like. The No, it's sticking to something and if it's not sticking to something, it's 'cause we're maybe not like facilitating the, like, recognition that it's sticking to something. And it's just a kind of a, a lack of like us being like, it's sticking. And so I, I am curious in all of this, I mean in literacy challenges, in like talking about all the hard history that we have to teach. Like what is maybe a large challenge that you faced as a history teacher and what like. What's a way that you've kind of gotten through it, thought about like a different avenue into it. Like what advice could we give to social studies educators who might be like facing this big challenge that, that you've noticed yourself as a teacher or that you've noticed in other teachers? Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: I think one challenge is like we love our content. As social studies teacher, we wanna teach all of it. And like the more, the older I get, the more I learn. I'm like, oh my God, I never learned this. Like one random thing that happened. I was like, we have to do this. This is amazing. Um. And so for me it's like taking things out because we know if reading is hard, we gotta give them the space to process it on their own. And I know that sometimes when I'm short on time and I'm like, oh my God, I really wanna finish this unit before winter break. I'm like, I'll just read it for them. Like I'll just do this for them. And we start like doing more of the work for kids. Because we love our content. We, we think it's important for them to know. And I'm not saying there's never a place for that, which is what I love about teaching. It's like just being reflective and intentional about all your decisions. And I might make that choice tomorrow, Lindsay, but like I'm doing it with a reason. And I know in January we're not doing that, you know, certain things. But, um, I think really honoring, uh, and giving space to do this work of reading, of making sense of, um, you know. Figuring out what their genius is. If I'm giving them a text and I'm telling them what it means, like I am, that's still banking model, I'm still owning the meaning of that text and really creating space of like, I've read this text 5,000 times, but I'm reading it again with you, and you're bringing a whole new perspective into it. Um, but it's. It does take time and like even I, I know how important vocabulary instruction is and how important recognizing morphology like, you know, prefixes, suffixes, and roots and words is, and when you have diverse classes of learners, when you have so much at play in any given class period, sometimes it's easy to. Do some of the things that you know are good because you wanna get to your end goal. So I keep telling myself a little bit to like really just slow down and like honoring kids for, and giving them the time and space to do things. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. Again, with the, this is like exactly what all the challenges are. It's like pacing is number one. I literally have a post-it note that says slow, like right by my, because it's always right, like we can do less is more slow it down, like yes. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: And it's hard too. I had a student teacher a couple years ago that decided she didn't wanna be a teacher, and I'm like so happy she made that decision. But one thing she said to me was like, I just had no idea like how hard this work actually is. And I think just honoring that it. It really is so hard to do this well, takes so much planning time and across the nation teachers planning time is being cut left and right, and like to teach one lesson with one strong primary source, let alone like a whole DBQ or background text. Like it takes a lot of intentional planning to do it, and when that's cut short, uh, it's easy to fall into bad habits or just like trying to push through to get to certain content, et cetera. Lindsay Lyons: That's such a good point too for leaders who are like. Engaging with the episode. I think how much time we can give teachers is so critical. If there is anything we can do to increase planning or preparation time for lessons. Your, your comments today have just been such a good illustration that teachers know what is good practice and they usually are like, yeah, I have all these things in my head as I'm planning and I have the realities of the situation to like work within. And so as if we can just like support that structurally in any way, like. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Meetings. More planning time, please. Lindsay Lyons: Yes. Oh my gosh, that that's exactly it. And so I am just, I'm going to move us to kind of our clothes soon, but I am feeling like I wish I was a student in your classroom, and so I am just curious if there is a favorite lesson you've had recently or a favorite moment where like a student had this aha or like made you think differently. Like is there any, any sort of kind of like moment that in, in the moments of hard that you attach to and are like, oh, but this was great. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: You know why I love teaching is there's a million moments like that, but this is the one that just happened a half hour ago. But I was kind complaining to a colleague, I'm like, I'm trying to have this rigor, like I want the essay due, like, and kids just aren't doing it. And we're like, oh, it's a hard time of year. It's December, like, and I was like, I know, I'm just kind of setting myself up like I wanted to do revision circles, but. They don't have a solid draft yet, so I think I just have to give them more work time. Um, and then this kid came to me in her study hall and she's like, miss Caitlyn, will you look at my essay? And Lindsay, it was so good. I mean, it was amazing. And we're a small school, so I've been working with her in various classes for three years. And to see the growth in her writing was. So powerful. And she's writing, it's for the Bernie Sanders State of the Union, um, essay contest that our Senator Bernie Sanders does. Um, so they choose an issue that they think is the most pressing issue in the country and describe the challenge and come up with their solution. And like she's talking about ice, uh, detaining American citizens and she has a strong solution. So it was like all of this is coming together and like, you know, there'll be plenty of kids that. Don't have their first drafts done this afternoon and we'll deal with that also. But meeting with her for a half hour and looking at her essay with her was really powerful and uh, it was a nice moment. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. I love that for so many reasons. I mean, the student agency, the, like excitement that she's seeking out feedback like outside Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: I know. Lindsay Lyons: Incredible. And also just this idea of a growth trajectory. I mean, a lot of people can't, um, for structural reasons, like they don't see the same students o over and over, but many do. I mean, when I worked in a small school like you, absolutely do. You some teachers even have looping like there even in a one school year or one course, however long it is for you. Like the growth is, is part of the joy, I think, and sometimes in the pacing. Stresses and all of that. We, we kind of forget about like the growth and the, the student joy, and I just love that that story encapsulated that. So it's just like a nugget of a reminder for everyone too. Engage with that joy, engage with that growth and, and seek it out if it's not already seeking you out. Um, uh, beautiful. Thank you. And I think as we're closing, just kind of a few quick questions. One being like, we talked about a lot of big ideas and I'm curious if there's one thing that's like a implementable today or tomorrow kind of thing where. When they end the episode, they can go ahead and just do something to get started in one of these. So it might be like, I'm gonna do this in the lesson tomorrow. It might be something a leader could do. It might be something, um, where you've like, kind of painted this big picture and like, what's one, one step forward? I. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Um, yeah, for teachers, I was just reminded of this in my block one, uh, English class today of just, uh, highlighting tier two words, these words that show up in texts all the time that you have to know in order to. Make sense of the text. Um, so we were reading an article about how technology lowers students' emotional, um, intelligence, and there was a lot of words that were synonyms for the word lowers, so it diminishes, undermines, weakens. And just like I was doing so much with my hands just to help kids, like verbalize like it's going down, it's going down. Um. And just pay attention to those types of words in your text and how, if you didn't know what that word meant, how you wouldn't understand the text to begin with. Um, and then any administrators, listen, listening. I just think having conversations with your teachers and like the same way we try to, um, honor the genius in our students, honoring the genius in us as teachers. Um, so not coming in like, oh. Like I heard about this new way to teach vocabulary, but like, what are you already doing to teach vocabulary? What does teaching tier two words already look like in your classroom? Tell me about a moment of reading, you know, whatever it is, but just like honoring all the good work that's already happening in classrooms around literacy instruction, I think is important. Lindsay Lyons: I love that. I'm envisioning leaders putting up a little post-it that's like, what are you already doing? Dot, dot. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: That would be a win. Lindsay Lyons: That would be great. Um, okay. This one is just for fun. What is something that you have been learning about lately? It could be education related, but it could also be anything. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Okay. I thought of two things. Um, one, one of my students for this essay she's writing in civic class around the biggest problems in our world is writing about, um, moratoriums on building data centers for AI use. So I've done like a deep dive around. The climate and global warming impacts and environmental impacts of AI data centers. And we have some state legislation, um, in Vermont for next session. It looks like our senator is proposing some national stuff too. And just like what this means and like I'm kind of just like on the sidelines of this, but this student's top topic, I was like, I gotta learn more about this with you, what's going on? Um, and then I'm also in my English classes. I'm reading a ton of science fiction right now, and I, it's just been really fun. It's not what I would ever read for on my own, but what a way, like if we want kids talking about their world and like having classes where we're using literature and using history to understand our current context, just a huge plug for, uh, science fiction reading in classes. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my God, I am such a science fiction nerd that yes, like I totally love that you named that because I, every time I read I'm like, this is a blend of the things I teach. Like this is a blend of like the ELA and the freedom dreaming of like, often it's dystopian, but like also it's what is possible and how do we tinker with that as well as like grounded in the past. Oh my gosh. Yes. Love it. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: It's so fun. And then because I have this joint role where I'm English teacher and history teacher, like we read this story just now in my English class where I was like, oh my God, we actually gotta read this in my history class too, because the connections that we can make are so strong. Lindsay Lyons: I feel like we should do a sci-fi episode down the road. We'll do Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: down. Lindsay Lyons: And then finally, I mean, you do so much. I mean, you just presented at NCSS, like where can people connect with you or learn more about you? Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: I don't have a huge online presence, but I have my Instagram at 2025 VT Teacher of the Year. Lindsay Lyons: That's right. And huge celebration for being Vermont's teacher. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Thank you. I know the year's almost done, so it's coming to a close. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. Caitlyn, this was so fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver: Thank you, Lindsay.
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In this solo episode, host Lindsay dives into a crucial challenge many educators face: engaging students who lack critical background knowledge about a time period, historical event, or people you are discussing in class. She troubleshoots this issue by providing simple frameworks to bridge the gap and engage students in what they already know..
Highlighting her passion for teaching social studies, Lindsay offers actionable strategies that expand the concept of “background knowledge” and empower students to make connections between their lived experiences and new learning content. Why? Addressing the background knowledge gap is important because it impacts a lot of different pieces of learning, particularly in the social studies context. Effective inquiry-based pedagogy, synthesizing information, and student-led discourse can all be limited without “background knowledge” around the topic area. This can make it challenging for educators to teach—yes. And, it also presents an opportunity to expand the idea of “background knowledge” to help students pull from personal experience and media exposure; this validates diverse forms of knowledge and cues students to link new content with their personal lives. What? Educators who want to address a background knowledge gap in their social studies or other classroom settings can implement these action steps: Step 1: Expand Your Idea of Background Knowledge This is an important mindset shift to start with. Instead of narrowly looking at background knowledge as only key dates, events, or people, you can broaden the understanding to include personal experiences, media consumption, and cultural narratives. Step 2: Implement Cognitive Routines Lindsay walks us through some of Loretta Hammond’s “learn-to-learn” skills as a key starting point. First is to figure out what we already know—to “scan the hard drive” and look for existing knowledge (ask: "have we seen this before?"). Then, it’s “chew and remix” — think about how it connects to what we already know. Teachers can help students make sense of new information by connecting it to what they already know. Step 3: Use Frameworks Apply educational frameworks to your context. For example, Funds of Knowledge is a foundational exercise that helps students connect information with what they know. You would ask students if what they’re learning connects to things like their family traditions, experiences of people you know, or things familiar in the home environment. Lindsay dives deeper into this framework and the Cultural Wealth Model, which is an asset-based understanding that all children bring something valuable to the table. Step 4: Level-up Analytical Skills After laying the foundation of connecting to what students already know and drawing on frameworks that explore their background knowledge, then educators can level up their thinking and analytical skills. This can be done by generating questions, student-led discourse, writing an evidence-based paragraph, or other options. Step 5: Create Connection Cues Co-create a slide or something on physical paper that has all the connection clues and ideas you discussed in the class. The visual aid will help students remember things and independently make connections to curriculum content. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing these resources with you: If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below: And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 254 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. TRANSCRIPT Lindsay Lyons: Welcome to another episode of the Time for teachership podcast. This is episode 2 54, and today we're talking about student background knowledge, particularly troubleshooting the concept of students having no or limited background knowledge. So I'm really passionate about this. I've talked about this before, um, but just want to. Kind of get into some examples of what you can offer students when the knowledge about a particular time period or group of people or individual historical event or person appear to be lacking. So let's get into it. For context, the struggle for a quote, lack of background knowledge is ever present in particularly my social studies, um, coaching. And I first wanna validate it is it is a very challenging thing when we go in to teach something and we expect or anticipate students have prior knowledge of particular events, vocabulary. People in a historical time period that we're teaching, and then we realize they don't have that and then we need to adjust. So validating the hard there and also a gentle push. We can expand our concept of what background knowledge is and cue students to connect to concepts or themes or personal lived experiences, other forms of media in which they have. Seen similar things, experienced, uh, different events that maybe people in history have experienced in different ways, of course. And I think that Loretta Hammond's work in the learn to learn skills that she has put out in her 2025 book. As well as the cognitive routines she talks about in that book can help inform perhaps like a reusable slide or anchor chart, some sort of cue that students can use as tools in their own learning. They can use both inside the classroom and outside of the classroom so that teachers aren't always doing the scripted kind of heavy lifting for students, making those connections for them, filling the background knowledge gaps, but that students can access. Background knowledge that might be relevant and identify where the sticking points or areas for further inquiry are this struggle. I wanna name impacts a lot of different. Pieces of social studies, pedagogy, particularly inquiry based pedagogy, question generation. Anytime we're analyzing or synthesizing all the learning that's happening, we're in student led discourse and conversations about how to answer an essential question for a unit by putting all of these various learnings together, like that lack of background knowledge, and I'm using air quotes there. Is important. So let me front load one more kind of thing that's on my brain and then let's get to some frameworks that can support connections to existing background knowledge. And that's Loretta Hammond's Learn to Learn Skills, specifically Her Skills two and three. She lists five of them. So two and three. Kinda after you figure out what you know, the prompt or the question or the thing is that. That we need to engage with. We scan the hard drive. She says, right, this is step two of learn to learn progression. Have we seen it before? Have we seen something similar? What's the opposite from what we're seeing? Right? So we're, we're scanning our hard drive. We're noticing if there's anything that looks familiar. Then in the next stage, number three, chew and remix. How is this connected to what I already know? Right? This is happening in a child's brain or in an adult's brain, really a learner's brain. Is there anything confusing? How can I make sense of this, right? That's the key piece that sticks out to me is the sense making. How do I make sense of this and how to make sense of it in terms of connecting to what I already know. And so specifically here, we could think about the four cognitive routines. Which one could I use here? And she lists those out. D. S RRP are the kind of four initials of that. So distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives. And we'll get into these a little further in the episode. But these are in my brain as I am thinking about this challenge of a quote, lack of background knowledge. So here's what we might be able to offer some students. Frameworks such as Funds of Knowledge, which comes from Mall, Amman, Neff, and Gonzalez, uh, 1992. It's used a lot in Headstart programs, so a link to some, some things here in the show notes, but Funds of Knowledge is one that we could definitely use. And so kind of an adapted version of this, I would say, is inviting students. Whenever we are introducing a topic or a prompt for discussion or, or consideration prompting students, does this make you think of your kind of, do imagine a, a slide with like a dot, dot dot, right? And then a list of things, ideally with a visual and then a short kind of name. So one could be home language, right? Does it make you think of something, um, that maybe there's a, a word or a term or. Some experience that has kind of peppered with your home language, that connects to this term you're now seeing and whatever the language of instruction is, is there a family value or tradition that this could connect to? So in whatever you're engaging with content-wise, does this connect to something that you, as a family believe in, or discuss or have experience with in terms of a, a tradition that you, you live out right? Does it connect to any experience, activity, um, identity set of your friends or your family members? Are there any jobs that your family members or family friends do that connect to what we're learning about? Right? So just thinking about the things that kids know, even young kids, right? This is being used in Head Start. We're talking preschool, pre-K. Young kids are familiar with language used at home with what they do with their families and friends and who those family and friends are, the, the jobs they have, the identities they hold. Right. And finally, for funds of knowledge, anything related to chores or caretaking. So again, students have rich lives outside of school. What are those things that they're engaged? In at home might be chores, might be, uh, just interaction with siblings or other young children or older siblings. Um, any kind of like meal prep that they do, right? There's so many things that they're bringing to the table. So if we are learning about ancient civilizations, hunter and hunting and gathering right? Oh, well, I prep, you know, I prepare lunch for myself. I can make a sandwich with access to, you know, my, my cupboard and my fridge at home, right? And that's pretty easy to go to the fridge versus like going and getting a meal from like, nature, right? So like there's something in there that we can connect to. And so again, we don't necessarily need to name the connections for kids. We wanna think about what's the thing we can give them that acts as a tool for them to make that connection and that the tool can then go with them to another classroom or content area, or beyond the school environment to support learning and sensemaking more broadly. Now that is the funds of knowledge framework. I do wanna offer one other framework, which is the cultural wealth model from Yo O published in 2005. And again, we'll link to like a summary of this, but. I have changed a little bit the language in slides that I've used with students, particularly young students, although I certainly think secondary schoolers could engage with the, the language of, uh, yoo's original like language in her forms of cultural capital. So here's, here's what basically the, the premise is, right, is like all forms of cultural capital, like are, are present. In children, and we need an asset based understanding of kind of bridging school to home connections and thinking about the things that. Children bring to the table, right? There's so many assets that we overlook or devalue because of the culture that we live in that is steeped in white supremacy or white dominance. And we think about how do we value what students are bringing to the table? That sometimes you'll, you'll see in the language here, I actually confront or directly resist, um, that oppressive society and what society purports to value. With this own, like this strength, right? So here, let me just read her things. The six forms of cultural capital, according to yoo, are aspirational, linguistic, familial. Social navigational and resistance. And so here's what this might translate to for like a prompt to cue students to connect to some social studies content in perhaps like third grade appropriate language. So you might say, does this make you think of your, again, think of like a dot, dot dot, and then a list with like an image and a short title for each cultural capital aspect. Does snake you think of your hopes and dreams? Your language, which could be interpreted in anything, right? Like, uh, language, it could be English, but just the way that I kind of code switch between different audiences. It could be home language as a distinctly different language. Um, you know, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, whatever is home language. Just spoke at home. Um. Could it be related to your family and community, your friends? So again, some, some strong overlap here with funds of knowledge. Um, and then I think the two, uh, aside from hopes and dreams at the top, but the two last pieces of her cultural wealth model I think are, are the, um, distinguishing factors here as well. And I think it lends itself more to like social studies content, um, that is, has a more critical lens, which is always what I gravitate to. But one that yo so-called navigational, I would name kind of like, or term figuring out rules and organizations and have a little picture of like an institution, like a school or something. Um, and I would explain this to students. 'cause when you're introducing this, you might need to explain a little bit some things don't need cues at all. Right? Like friends and family. We got it. We understand. Um, but figuring out rules and organizations or navigational capital, right? Thinking about how you have to. Figure out how to go into, you know, whatever it is. Maybe it's a religious organization in the community, maybe it's school, maybe it's, um, somewhere that for older kids that you work or where your parents work, right? You have to figure out how to navigate and what like the unspoken and unspoken rules are in those systems to be able to get by. Right. And to maybe succeed and thrive, maybe to just not get in trouble, right? Like there's, there's so much navigating that kids do. Um, and so you have figured out the rules, both things that were told to you Yes. But even harder and perhaps more importantly, things that weren't told to you explicitly. That is an asset. And so how do you see this happening? When we look at historical societies and communities and people having to navigate the both unspoken, unspoken rules, the fair and unfair rules, right? There's a lot there that students can draw on their own experience to connect to social studies content. And then the, uh, term that you also uses is resistance. You can totally use resistance. I think, I don't know exactly what grade that, that might be unfamiliar language for, but for young, young kids, you might just say like, you know, naming and fighting against unfair things. I think that's, you would be able to use that with a, right. So like when you recognize something is unfair. And you say that's not fair, right? Or you fight against it or whatever language you wanna use. But that's a concept that certainly like two and three year olds are grappling with. So it is a concept that many, many students are going to, um, latch onto and be able to draw connections to social studies or historical content or current event content with. So again, I think these all prompt things that students have access to, they have this cultural capital, um, as part of their lived experience. They can connect, but they need the prompting to be like, that's a valid, right? Like that is a valuable connection. You are figuring out rules in your local church, you navigating where your dad works and being present in that space where you're never even told what the rules are, but you kind of. Figure it out on your own, like that is what other people are doing in history, and you could see the implications as we read about historical content or current event content. Where is that happening now in other settings? Right. I, I think that's something that, again, our role is queuing and validating as opposed to filling. Like an empty vessel, right? Like the banking model from Ferry is like we're, we're not necessarily needing to fill the background knowledge. Yes, we're gonna teach them, you know, terms that are relevant. Yes, we're gonna teach 'em about things that have happened, but I would argue that one of the most important things about social studies and really analysis in any capacity is like. Can you understand the big enduring conceptual themes that extend from setting to setting from time, point to time, point across history? And those require some practice like to do that well. Those require students to access and connect with their own lived experiences and background knowledge connected across time periods, compare and contrast, right? All these big skills. And so I encourage us to, um, use whatever framework works for you. I'll also just quickly share that not knowing any of these frameworks. When I was a teacher, I just use a simplified slide just thinking about what connections I make. So I like to like unearth or like uncover my own processes sometimes to figure out like, how did I get there? And then maybe this will help kids, right? And then, and then go from there, but use that as a starting point. And so I just would put up a slide. Does this make you think of a story from your life? Current events? Um, some kind of media, like TV show, movie, song, video game. Like I would list a bunch of media places or another form of media, like book or another subject in school. Kind of like school media, right? Like does this connect to, if I'm teaching social studies, ELA, science, art, pe like, you know, what other place could you connect to math? Um, so think about what works for you. You can take or, or leave pieces that take pieces that work, leave pieces that don't make it your own and, and change the language or imagery, certainly. But I will link in the show notes and blog posts for this episode. A resource that has some of these that I'm describing, these slides you can just take and use or you could adapt 'em. Now I wanna talk through, before we close, just an example of what this looks like or could be like in action. So recently was working with a bunch of teachers in Boston public schools, some elementary and middle and high school social cities, teachers. And thinking about Loretta Hammond's Learn to Learn skills and those cognitive routines, as well as this challenge of kind of quote unquote lack of background knowledge. And what did we come up with? We came up with a framework. We came up with a lot of stuff, but, but what I wanna talk about now is a framework that invites students to generate questions with a little bit of queuing and structure to support students who may be struggling to ask a question about. Like a new topic or were you learning this new unit? What questions do you have? Right. And that's kind of all we've got is like a quick question or prompts or image, like a very short amount of information. Small amount of information I should say, and then go time ask questions. So here's what they decided, they said, okay, so there's kind of two things happening. We want students to ask about some important social studies themes. So the content is important, but we also want students to do some like skill-based stuff, like some cognitive routines as Loretta Hammond would describe them, right? So again, that. Uh, DSRP is what we're thinking about at this point, so. We want students to think about distinctions, like comparing and contrasting. We want them to think about the systems like part to whole hold apart, right? Uh, relationships, like how does thing, how do things happen over time? Like what is the cause and effect relationship, for example, or perspective, right? How is perspective important? Certainly very important in social studies. So that's DSRP or the cognitive routines. So we want both social studies, content themes, and we want the skills or the cognitive routines. And how do we invite students to do all of that? Well, they came up with a slide that's kind of like two halves. And so they're like, okay, so ask a question about, and then they gave a few examples that, and then they gave a few examples of cognitive routines. So in the content themes, I'd be like, ask a question about, and here's on the imagine like the left side. People or land connections. This connects to, um, NCSS or the National Consult for Social Studies, themes, people, places, and environments, uh, is a very common theme. Um, seen in many social cities, uh, content areas in ch in chapters in history, as well as it also connects to like First Nation concepts of wellbeing. Um, so I'll, I can link to some of that, but people and connections is a content theme. Or you could ask a question about another content theme, people's hopes and dreams. Again, that's directly from cultural wealth, um, but it also is present in the national social studies, civic ideals and practices theme. Uh, ask a question about community care practices. So this was kind of adapted from, uh, yo's cultural wealth, also funds of knowledge, right? We're thinking a lot about family and community, um, friend groups, but also this is present in First Nations concepts of wellbeing. And then the fourth one, um, that they decided to include in this framework is what people did or can do to better the world. So thinking about like a justice orientation, uh, collective action, civic action thing, right? This is certainly present in the national theme for civic ideals and practices. This also present in yoo's cultural wealth framework, um, with resistance particularly. So again, the content themes, people land connections. People's hopes and dreams, community care practices, and what people did or can do to better the world. These are the big things that we're often talking about in a social studies environment, right? This particularly one that is, uh, angled towards like advancing justice and, uh, power with, right? I'm thinking about the Berkeley frameworks here. Um, a criticality lens, thinking about Goldie Muhammad, right? This is all really important. Now the cognitive routines side of this, right? So ask a question about one of those content areas. Is there a pitch that does one of these things connects to today? So you got like some systems there, like part to whole hold apart. Like how does this all fit together in the arc of history? But it also connects to relationships, right? I would say like cause and effect, like what happens in the past affects what happens today. And also NCSS, uh, their theme of time, continuity and change. So definitely still connecting the content themes there. You could say, um, asking a question that compares or contrasts that we have. Distinctions that considers cause and effects. You have relationships there or the uplifts identities, so. Inviting students to push back on or ask the question of whose stories or voices are missing. So again, we have that perspectives. Or also I would say systems like understanding systemic oppression, right? And how systems work to marginalize, I think is also present in there, depending on where students take the question or the analysis that follows. So again, we have a framework that BPS used to pull on social studies, content themes from various frameworks. And national standards, as well as inviting students to use a cognitive routine stemming from the work of, um, that Zaretta Hammond highlights and the work of independent learners and kind of how they make sense of things when they chew and remix in her learn to learn skill series. So example, questions stems that come out of this. Um, could be, and I mean this is a little high level, but we, we wanted to come up with something that was really meaty for an example. Um, but like. If we take, ask a question about the, uh, people land connections and we do something about, um, connecting to today for the cognitive routine, that might be how my indigenous people's connection to the land inform how we interact with the land today. And that's the question. And that might be a question that students come up with. In third grade when we're learning about indigenous peoples in Massachusetts, that's the particular curriculum they were talking about in the unit they were talking about. And so they were like, that is something that would be really high level for a student to ask, but also is like very possible even if they just asked part of that question. Um, because this cues them to think about those things. So obviously we took this in a direction in, in the BPS work and thinking about this framework in a direction that is. Um, far from the background knowledge, like we end up in a really analytical, kind of heady space, but we get there by first thinking about that content knowledge. So again, we're thinking about that Zaretta Hammond progression. We're scanning a hard drive. Have I seen this before? Have I seen something similar? We are chewing and remixing. How is this new content connected to what I already know? How do I make sense of it? And which cognitive routines can I use? Right? So as students are making sense of the new information, they're accessing background knowledge, what is familiar, they're using maybe one of those frameworks to do that. Then that's where they can start to make sense of things because they do have that affirmed background experience or connection to other media. They have experienced this before. They have valuable, um, kind of knowledge and insight. So now we're gonna apply a cognitive routine and we're gonna elevate that into a critical question or a level of analysis that's going to truly. Level up the historical thinking skills and the analytical thinking skills in the class. Whether we're generating questions, we are participating in student led discourse, we are writing a claim, evidence reasoning paragraph, whatever it is. So here is what I would advise if you're just getting started with this or background knowledge feels really hard. Um, what I would do is I would pick a framework. So one of the ones that we did either, uh, funds of Knowledge or cultural Wealth Framework. Or pick a piece of that framework and just invite students to make connections using that one queue. Does this make you think of, you know, how you've learned to figure out roles and organizations, right? Whatever the, the queue is, right. Often these connections can lead to very insightful analysis, and you can do this at any point in the unit. It could be just when you're starting, if you're inviting students to kind of access that background knowledge, like a typical KWL chart, like when you would do that, use that queue there. You could also use it at the very end of a unit or anywhere in the middle, but at the end of the unit it might be like when we are trying to, we got really granular, we learned a bunch of facts in the social studies unit, and now we're trying to analyze and draw bigger kind of key ideas. Maybe answering the essential question and we're trying to connect possibly likely to the present. That is where that lived experience of someone in the present could do that, right? You're gonna tie it all together. You're gonna expand through connections. You started by like entering the conversation and entering the social studies content with a connection through your background knowledge linkage, and now you're expanding it outwards in your analysis at the end, right? So you kind of start big, start broad, get narrow and get granular, and then you broaden out again for analysis. I think that's a very common kind of arc. Okay. And the number two option to get started, if that feels like, you know what, that's a lot to introduce a new framework to my students. Fine know instead where the connections are already being made by students. So your students are probably doing this to some degree, or maybe they're just about to make them like they get really close. Maybe they make some offhanded comment about how it's similar to something in their lives, but they're making it. As a joke or something, right? Like whatever it is, share what you're noticing with students and then what you can do, and this is so cool, co-create your own slide or physical on paper anchor chart with those connection cues, because then they'll be rooted in the student ideas, which lends even more validity to this concept and this tool, and something that they could actually use. They'll remember it better. Okay, that's what I have for you today. I will drop a link to the various frameworks in the show notes and blog posts for the episode. We'll also drop that, uh, free resource on generating questions, resource bank, which will have that slides for queuing background knowledge, connections from those, uh, kind of three categories we shared today. All of this information is gonna be at lindsaybethlyons.com/blog/254. 
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In this episode, we talk with Dr. Sarah Burnham, a postdoctoral scholar who works at CIRCLE (The Centre for Information & Research on Civic Learning) at Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. She primarily works on projects related to K-12 civics education. In our discussion, she emphasizes the transformative power of civics education and shares ways to create inclusive classrooms where both teachers and students are supported. Dr. Burnham discusses fostering critical consciousness and anti-oppressive attitudes within educational settings. Civic education, according to her, isn't about politicizing students but equipping them with tools to engage with their communities and society effectively. Sarah Burnham is a postdoctoral fellow at CIRCLE focusing on civic learning and development in K-12 education. She received her Ph.D. from Suffolk University in Applied Developmental Psychology. Her work aims to help teachers and schools embrace culturally sustaining pedagogies authentically so that all students feel affirmed in their lived experiences to effectively engage in civic action for themselves and their communities. She is also passionate about positive youth development and developing critical consciousness and anti-oppressive attitudes across the lifespan both online and offline. The Big Dream Dr. Burnham's vision for education is a landscape where classrooms nurture support and belonging for both teachers and students. She believes that this starts by paying teachers fairly and diversifying the teaching workforce to create a strong sense of community. Additionally, students should have access to resources reflecting their diverse experiences, creating genuine engagement with their learning environments. Mindset Shifts Required To begin creating classrooms that nurture support and belonging, Dr. Burnham emphasizes the need for educators and administrators to embrace participatory decision-making in classrooms, allowing students to have a say in their educational experiences. This involves teachers reflecting on their comfort with flexible classroom dynamics and administrators supporting these changes. Further, it means prioritizing social studies and civics education—and new ways of teaching—even when it feels noisy or messy. Action Steps A lot of Dr. Burnham’s work surrounds pedagogical practices that foster critical consciousness in anti-oppressive attitudes. For clarity, critical consciousness refers to the ability to recognize and analyze oppressive political, economic, and social forces that are shaping society, and to take action against those forces. Anti-oppressive attitudes require someone to actively acknowledge power disparities and work for equity and liberation. Ideally these two are working in tandem in education, and educators who want to embrace this in their classrooms can begin with these steps in their civics education practices: Step 1: Understand the purpose of civics education. It’s not to push a specific ideology or push students to become overly politicized outside the classroom. Rather, it’s helping students see the connection to their community, what’s happening, and their part in it. Step 2: Prioritize students' voices in decision-making processes within the classroom, ensuring their experiences help shape the learning environment. It’s important to also include more diverse voices in the curriculum, ones that are grounded in the students’ identities, histories, and communities. Step 3: Engage in self-reflection. Educators need to ask the question: Am I okay with being this flexible in the classroom? Because centering students’ voices means creating space for lived experiences and different ideas, which can be uncomfortable at times. Step 4: Implement participatory exercises that don’t just deliver content, but shape experiences of community. Shared decision-making is practicing democracy in the classroom. For example, a group budgeting exercise helps students learn about real-world issues that matter to them. Challenges? Educators may find it challenging to shift from traditional methods to more flexible, student-centered approaches. They need administrative support to explore these new pedagogies and incorporate them effectively, and there’s a need for quality professional development to guide educators in these transitions. One Step to Get Started One way to get started is for educators to identify local representatives and explore their positions on funding for schools and public goods. Engage students and families in discussions about these issues and encourage them to participate in community activities like voting or local meetings to demonstrate the practical application of civic involvement. Stay Connected You can stay connected with Dr. Sarah Burnham on LinkedIn or send her an email at [email protected]. Keep up with CIRCLE’s research on the Tufts website. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing the Curricululm Playlist with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 253 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:
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Transcript:
Lindsay Lyons: Dr. Sarah Burnham, welcome to the time for teachership podcast. Sarah Burnham: Thank you for having me. Lindsay Lyons: I'm really excited. I know we've been kind of nerding out just a little bit right before we hit record, but would love for folks who are engaging with this episode just to know you know who you are beyond maybe the professional bio. Sarah Burnham: Yeah, of course. So, um, just to iterate, my name is Sarah Burnham. Um, I am a postdoctoral scholar, um, at Circle. Um, I primarily work on projects related to K through 12 civic education. Um, I've been super into this. Uh, the new social studies curriculum in Massachusetts called Investigating History. Been working on it for about three years, and I'm really excited for what I've seen and the growth for the teachers. Um, I even have a sticker on my water bottle for investigating history. Um, but beyond the, uh, professional stuff, I was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston. Um, I just finished reading, um, rabid by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy. Um, very interesting nonfiction book about the cultural history of rabies. Um, and I'm also really digging the new Sabrina Carpenter album. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. I love this. I love the whole humanness of your response. Thank you. So now for a more, uh, potentially academic or, or work related education related question, I love starting with this. So, Betina love describes freedom dreaming as dreams, uh, grounded in the critique of injustice. And I'm curious just what is your freedom dream for education? Sarah Burnham: Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is a great question and I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Um, so my freedom dream is that, uh, is making classrooms, places where both teachers and students feel cared for and supported. So I think that mostly starts with making sure that teachers are paid fairly for everything that they do. Um, and I think if that happened, we'd probably see way more teachers from all kinds of backgrounds sticking around instead of burning out or leaving. Um, and then when teachers are coming from different backgrounds. Students are feeling more connected and they actually feel like they're part of the classroom community. So that's the one part of it. The other part is also. Uh, getting more relevant resources that reflect the diversity of students and their experiences. So, um, circles research has shown that less than half of young people say that they actually feel like they belong at school. Um, and that's a huge red flag. So that feeling of belonging isn't the same for everyone and particularly for, um, minoritized groups. Um, they feel it less than others feeling like they don't belong. So let's tell us there's a, that there's a lot of work to do in caring for both students and teachers. Um, so what is really exciting me and something that I would love to work towards and help, uh, teachers and practitioners work towards is making the idea of classrooms where students are not just learning about democracy and theory, but are. Practicing it. So things like participatory budgeting or, uh, group decision making where students get to use their voice and feel like they matter and feeling like they're belonging in this community. Um, and having that kind of hands-on experience also builds confidence, um, not just in school but also outside of school. Um. Then also to go back to the teacher side of this, um, school leaders and administrators need to have teachers' backs. Um, I know that this is a crazy time for everyone, um, but they, uh, administrators at the very least, can protect time for social studies, um, and civics because often those are relegated towards, um, prepping for, um, standardized testing, um, or often for supplemental services. Supplemental services should also be prioritized, but often kids are being pulled out of social studies for those supplemental services. Um, and so prioritizing social studies and civics and encouraging teachers to try new ways of teaching, even if it feels noisy or messy, um, and making sure that like it's, they feel okay about it. Um, so that was a lot that I just said, but. Making sure both teachers and students are cared for. And that starts from caring for teachers, caring for um, uh, students, and then also making sure they're protected by their administrator and their institutions. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. I am like furiously scribbling notes. This is amazing. I love all of this. I love the concept of pr, practicing democracy in theory, like Sure. Budgeting. So cool. I love the idea of protecting that time for social studies because one of the things we've found out from the third and fourth grade pilot with investigating history of Massachusetts is like, no one has time. Like it's not, it's just not allotted. And so then it's like how do you create that time? Well, what is it being used for? Like you said, it's like standardized test prep and. It is so disheartening when it's like this is civics is like how you engage with the world, with your community. This is a lifelong thing that people need to develop capacity for, and yet we routinely kind of erase it from the structure of how school is done, particularly at lower levels. And it is so depressing. So thank you for naming that. I really appreciate that. And I also just love your idea of like risk taking, like the idea of like risk taking pedagogically and like supporting that as an admin. So often I think as a teacher there's kind of this fear of like an observation is happening and it's gonna be punitive. And it's like, how cool would it be if we had admin who are like, yeah, I support you trying that new thing, and I'll come in and I'll collect data for you and we can reflect together. And I know it's gonna be messy and it might be loud. And like all the things that traditional schooling tells us, it's like not good pedagogy, but like is great, you know? Mm-hmm. I just. Oh my gosh. All the things. Yes. Thank you. Sarah Burnham: Yeah, and like, so we would do like classroom observations for the evaluation and like teachers were so nervous and I was like, please do not be nervous. I don't, I don't care what you are doing. I wanna see how this, this, the classroom is functioning like as a whole, like it are the students engaging. Like this is not evaluative, I'm not sharing this with anybody. This is all confidential and I think that was hard for teachers to kind of get over the, because like so often it's a higher up that's in the classroom. I'm just like, I am just here to take notes. Just here to take notes. Lindsay Lyons: Yeah, I would love that culture broadly to permeate like the school, like both for outsiders, but like internal, like peer-to-peer teacher, like observations and things would be so lovely. Um, and I know, so thank you so much for sharing so much of the research, that statistic about less than half of young people reporting belonging at school is like soul crushing makes me so sad. Also though, the hopeful part of me, the critical, hopeful part is like, how cool would it be if that is a metric that schools were tracking internally, right. To just be like. Okay. Like, we're gonna measure this every three months or something, and we're gonna just like make moves towards increasing that number. So I, I do think for people who are engaging with this episode, like, you can do this, this is something that you can track and value it just as much, if not more, right. Than those standardized test scores that we devote so much time and energy to. Um, but I know you have a lot of, a lot of research knowledge. Would love to, to learn from you in all of that. So curious what the research says about civic education in whatever way you wanna take that. I know that's. Super broad field of research, um, but also thinking about. Specifically, I know you research like anti-oppressive attitudes in youth critical consciousness. Like what pedagogies or pedagogical practices foster critical consciousness in anti-oppressive attitudes. 'cause I think that's what many of us are in the work to do and would love to know what the research has on that. Sarah Burnham: I. Yeah, that's a great question. And so before I get into like kind of the meat of this question, I just wanna make sure that, um, I'm clarifying what I mean by by critical consciousness and anti-oppression. So, critical consciousness, um, developed I think in the mid 19 hundreds. Um, so this refers to the ability to recognize and analyze oppressive political, economic and social forces that are shaping society and to take action against those forces. So critical consciousness, um, and a lot of, at least the developmental sec. Uh, psychological literature, which is my background, um, has like three distinct, uh, dimensions of like critical reflection. So understanding kind of like your own positionality, um, political self-efficacy. So understanding what you can and can't do kind of in your position. And then also sociopolitical action of like what are the actual actions that you're taking. Um, so that's my understanding of critical consciousness. Um. And then anti-oppressive attitudes. Um, so that's requiring someone to like actively acknowledging p power disparities and work for equity and liberation. So these two concepts should ideally be working in tandem in education and then create a school climate that cares for teachers and students. Um, so, but to get back to the question at hand, um, so I think, um. I think this is a lot something that educators are grappling with, right, right now. But research paints a pretty clear picture that when done well, civic education works, right? It's linked to better civic outcomes, like stronger community engagement. Um, understanding how, a better understanding of how government works and how you can affect government. And then also a deeper sense, deeper sense of a responsibility to participate in your community. Um. And so civic education is boosting knowledge, civic dispositions. Um, but I also wanna emphasize that based also on circles, research that, um, having robust civic education, um, is not leading students to become overly per politicized outside of the classroom, which is I think something that, um, uh, a lot of, uh, naysayers against civic education. Um. Might have a concern about, um, it's not linked to partisan outcomes. It's not links to ideological indoctrination. Um, what it's doing is giving students tools to make sense of the world and see themselves as people who can have a say in it. Um, and I think that's the core of civic education. And then, um, the critical, conscious and anti oppressiveness of like, understanding that you can affect your community and you have a responsibility as a citizen to kind of make things better for both yourself and for your community. Um. So, um, I think one of the key shifts is around how we teach civics, um, not just what we teach. Um, and I think investigating history is a great example of that, where inquiry-based learning is a huge part of, uh, transitioning how we're thinking about teaching civics. So when students are encouraged to ask real questions and investigate issues that matter to them, um, and engage in dialogue with their peers, they're starting to build those critical thinking skills in the classroom. And then those skills transfer far beyond the classroom, like in their afterschool activities, um, or maybe in, uh, even just in conversations with their families, which I will get to at a later point. Um, but also, uh, fostering critical consciousness. Um. It also re requires, um, making civic learning relevant to students' lives. And I think that's also connected to having a classroom community where students feel like they belong, right? If they don't feel like they belong, then they're thinking that civic, civic learning is not relevant and then they're not fostering critical consciousness, um, which is kind of not where we wanna be. Um, so it's. It about also about including more diverse voices in the curriculum and grounding the entire learning experience in students' identities, histories, and communities. Um, one of the things that we learned from the teachers during these, uh, evaluations was that, um. Social studies, classrooms, and lessons, um, often act as like windows, um, where we're looking out at other people, other places and other times. Um, but we need to have more mirrors or spaces for students to reflect on their experiences, their own positionality, and how they fit into the broader social and historical context. Um, and this was something that. People like appreciated about investigating history was that it does provide some of those, um, mirrors, um, rather than like kind of the windows. Um, and then. Yeah. So civic education is not just about kind of government structures or historical timelines. It's building the habits of democracy, um, feeling like you're connected to your community, your classroom. Um, and when students kind of see themselves in the story, then they kind of see that they have the power to shape kind of what comes next. Lindsay Lyons: Amazing. Oh my gosh, what a great synthesis. Thank you. And, and I'm thinking about the teacher who might be, um, listening or reading the blog posts and, and thinking about their specific actions. So maybe they do have investigating hist history as a curriculum. Maybe, you know, they're, they're in a different state. They don't have that. But they want to shift pedagogically, like how, you know, they're doing things. And I know you mentioned the inquiry being huge, like en engaging students and asking, I like that you said real questions. Real questions that mean something to them. And investigating those sources as well as having dialogue. I love also just the idea of building habits of democracy. So how do teachers, I mean, what have you found in the research or how have you, how have you learned about. What specific practices may be things that, that teachers can do to kind of implement or, or bring about some of this learning for students? Sarah Burnham: Yeah. Um, so, um, first I think it means centering student voice and like not just a buzz buzzword, but like in a way that's like real and consistent. Um, so creating classroom environments where students' opinions, questions, and lived experiences actually help shape, um, what happens in the room. Um, and that can be really uncomfortable. And I think that also requires some self-reflection on the part of the teachers of like, do I feel okay with being this flexible in the classroom? Um, and but they also kind of need, again, their, uh, administrators to support them in making some of these choices. Um. Uh, in some of circle's research, and Ill be, these are with kind of older grades, but having that shared decision making framework, like participatory budgeting has been really effective in students feeling like they have a voice in kind of what happens in the classroom and what happens at their school. Um, so that is really kind of centering student voice, um, and. Um, we've also heard that like having, um, adjusted materials can also, um, like adjusted materials to reflect kind of, um, student um, experiences in the classroom can also be really helpful. So, um. Like, uh, if it's, if they feel, if teachers feel uneasy discussing things, um, like they can ask for help to do so, um, and making sure that they feel okay to ask for help. Um, and having kind of robust professional development is also really important. Um, and, um. Yeah. So for teachers, like it's, it's kind of like they're not just delivering content, they're also kind of shaping students' experiences of community, um, and kind of of democracy when they're trying, when they're doing this shared decision making in the classroom, if that's, um, an avenue do they decide to, uh, pursue. Um, and yeah, so it means kinda doing a lot of self-reflection and then also feeling okay with. Exploring some of those more uncomfortable or uneasy kind of pieces that either about themselves or about kind of history, um, at large. Lindsay Lyons: Love the different components of, of what you shared. What I really latched onto my like scholarly student voice brain was like, ooh. Shared decision making structures. I love that. Are you, have you seen in the research the, like an example that you could share around either a class-based decision making structure, like something that you would invite students into to like. Help make a decision around, or even, I know you said upper grades, even if it's like a school based decision making structure, like an advisory council or anything. Um, anything that you've come across that, that feels either interesting to you or just like you've, you've seen it come up in the research and, and wanted to share it? Sarah Burnham: Yeah, so I can actually, so I wasn't, I'm not involved in the, um. Illinois kind of democracy school project as much as my colleagues. Um, but there was a big participatory budgeting, um, project in the Illinois Civic hub schools where, um, there were, they highlighted a couple of, um, high schools, um, where they were given like a small amount of money. Um. And they were thinking about kind of what students needed. So, um, there was one, um, school where, um, they, uh, used the money to create a resource closet, um, for students. So, um, things like, um, clothes, um, hygiene supplies or food. Um, so students like basic needs could be met. Um, so that was one way that that kind of showed up in one of the high schools that they worked with. Um, there was another, um, school that they did a similar project with participatory budgeting, um, where they looked at, um, students. Like students when they were like divided into, um, groups, um, especially with like different like abilities, they came up with like different ideas. Um, and then they had like, and this is also part and parcel with the participatory budgeting process of like generating ideas and then voting on some of the things. But it was really interesting some of the ideas that came up. Um, of like new speakers having a coffee bar, um, having a digital media room. Um, ultimately that particular school, um, chose to set up like a calming room, um, so students could feel like comfortable and safe in their school. Um, but yeah, it like having students, like having their ideas heard, even if they weren't voted on. I think it's still a very generative process for the students. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. Thank you for those concrete examples. I love those. And especially as a former high school teacher and, and thinking through the lens of like maybe a principal or someone who's listening to this from the high school lens, oh, I wanna measure student's sense of belonging. That's gonna be a metric for our success. How do I do that? Well, I open up the floor for conversations and ideas like this. And if we aren't gonna go for a particular idea, someone nominated, we at least get back to them and say, I think that's one of the components of like Laura Lundy's, four pieces of voices. Like, you gotta like get back to 'em and like let them know why, why we didn't choose something. Um, and I, I love that. So, such clear examples like of what can come out of inviting students into that process. I think I've even seen in as young as first grade in the student of voice literature that like even just co-designing the classroom space can be something, right? Like, well, how you know it, there's like a weird impediment to like how you come into the classroom and hang up your stuff in your cubby and like how do we redesign that or. I need a calming space. How could we make that happen? Um, just last night, my, my kid was like, I, we have a corner in our preschool where I don't feel mad because you could just squeeze a stuffy. And I was like, I love that. Would you like to make that at home? And he was like, we, we can do that. What? Yes, like just the tiniest things sometimes are just so valuable. So I appreciate your concrete examples and I think to transition to, to family life at home, I, I think. A lot of families or a lot of educators actually wear kind of two hats where they're like kind of parenting or supporting a young person in some capacity in their families and they're like, yeah, I do this at school, but maybe I don't think about bringing it home. Or How could I bring it home? Or someone could like, share this episode with a family member, the of their student. Um, how can families also support? So we kind of have this dual support from both school and home. We have this kind of partnership around civic engagement. Any recommendations you have for families? Sarah Burnham: Yeah, so I think that's a great point. And I think that like, you know, civic education is kind of also happening like all the time. Like I think a lot of times we think it like happens in schools like no, it's happened like all the time. Like when you're going to the grocery store and like even just like returning like. The carriage like that is still like making things like better and easier for the other, um, folks at the grocery store. Um, but like, yeah, families are a huge part of the picture. Um, so, um, more often than not, young people are usually getting information from their immediate family members. Um, so, uh, seeing their, uh. Parents or even their, or just caregivers talking about local issues, voting, attending different community events, or just having, um, like thoughtful conversations about what's happening in the world. Like young people are noticing that. Um, and they can see that like, Hey, this is something that matters to my community. So what can parents do, um, or any family member do, like an older sibling, an aunt or an uncle of like just. Helping them volunteer or even just like taking your kid with you to go vote and see what the process looks like. Right. It's like it's, uh, at least, uh, when I was voting in Somerville a couple months ago, like it was pretty easy. Everybody was so friendly and like the stickers are like so much fun to get. Um, I currently have a collection of I voted stickers, um, just like pasted on one of our cabinets. Um, and like. Young people are pick up on these things. They pick up on this. And, um, having family support is just really important. Um, and then it's also kind of, especially before they turn 18, is like reinforcing those ideas, like of participating in democracy. So doing like, like bake sales, um, or just like going to like some of the afterschool, um, programming things. Um, or, um, modeling even just, uh, modeling, respectful disagreement during dinner conversations that can also. But also be really effective in helping, uh, young people understand how to have those kinds of disagreements and to respectfully disagree. Um, because I think that's also something else that can come up in the classroom is how do we have those res, the respectful disagreements. And I think that's a great place to kind of see what's happening at home and then model that kind of in the classroom. Um, so. I think like families, like don't need to be experts obviously, in this work. Um, but they kind of need to be open and engaged and kind of willing to show like their kids or, um, other family members that their voice matters, um, kind of now and not just when they turn 18 and they can vote. Lindsay Lyons: Oh my gosh. I love that you said that because that is consistently one of the kind of points of frustration of schooling as we always say. Like, oh, we're preparing them for this future time. And it's like, no, they right now they can do that right now. Yeah. Sarah Burnham: Yeah. One of my colleagues like keep, like, keep saying in these conversations with civic education, we can't expect students to practice all these things at 18 when they haven't gotten any experience with it. Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely. And, and we can't instill this idea in students that their voice matters and their ideas have impact. If, if we're not actually like doing that now, right. They're gonna be like, I guess only adults have that. 'cause you keep telling me to wait. I am so fascinated by all of that. You have shared, I'm sure there's so much more to that you have come across in the researcher. Is there anything that we, before we get to kind of our lightning round questions, is there anything that we did not talk about that you wanted to bring up? I. Sarah Burnham: Um, I don't think so. I talked a lot about things and I hope some of this was helpful Lindsay Lyons: For sure. Um, yeah, no, for sure. It is. And I, and I think one of the things that people like is usually at the end we ask, uh, our first lightning round question, well, I'll just get to it, I guess is like some sort of first step. So like an action I can take today or tomorrow. Upon ending the episode and being like, I wanna implement something. I know we talked about a range of things, both at home and in school. What do you think feels like an attainable, kind of like starter people could do soon? Sarah Burnham: Um, yeah, so I at least, 'cause I mentioned being in Somerville, I know like our. Municipal elections are coming up. So looking up who is running and what they stand for. So, um, there's been a lot of talk about funding the schools, um, in Somerville, um, and also libraries. So thinking about who your local representatives are, who's running, and find out what they stand for in terms of like fair compensation, um, and then public, like public goods funding, and then. Like that also feeds into some of the, what I said before is like when teachers are feeling supported, um, it can create the kind of classrooms where students are empowered to ask these big questions. Um, and I know it might be. Harder for like, not cities, but it seems like a lot, at least in my experience, people who are running for office like are fine with like talking to you, like just sending like an email. And if they're not fine with talking to you via email, then maybe you've focused your efforts to somebody else who's running. Lindsay Lyons: Oh, I love that. I have a, a, a colleague, I'm pretty sure this was Cara, who, you know, Cara Pranov, who, who was saying, you know, actually all of my, like my kids and my niece and my nephews, like, they know and have talked to all of the people in their, um, like local, like people that represent them because it is possible to do, it is attainable. You just have to like reach out. So I love that you brought that up. Um, and I, I really love this idea of like. Considering not just who's writing, but I I think you also mentioned like funding and I am so fascinated when you even hand over, like the hypothetical question of like, if you were to control the budget, where would you allocate money to? Anyone from high school all the way to like a preschooler, right? I mean, the preschooler probably say like toys, which is the usual answer I get. But like, other than toys, where would you spend money? Um, but making sure that people have. What they need as kind of that lens and through line is like, where do you think people have a need? Where do you, right. I think that's such a great conversation starter. 'cause every kid's gonna have a different answer. And so if you're at home, cool, you learn more about your kid and what they care about. And if you're in a school system, like, okay, in this class we had like 25 different answers. So how do we, how do people actually decide where to, like, that's such a lovely entry point into, um, conversations about civics and government and, and all of that. Um, so I love that that lens of like, who are the leaders? Right? How does the funding get allocated? And then there's such a beautiful, um, kind of inquiry map that you can start there to dive into all of the structures and ways decisions are made. Sarah Burnham: Exactly. Always inquiry all the time. Lindsay Lyons: That's right. Um, okay. This one is kind of just for fun, but it can be research based, but also just in your life in general. What are you learning about lately? Sarah Burnham: Um, so I've actually, this is research based, so it's not like as fun or exciting, um, but it's fun and exciting to me 'cause I'm learning. Um, I've been attending some weekly webinars about research practice partnerships, um, or RPPs. So they're like collaborations between, um, education agencies and researchers. Um. So there's like, they've been doing some short webinars, especially they've been kind of over lunch, so I don't really like talk. Um, but um, learning about like what makes a successful research practice partnership, I think like, uh, people may be more familiar with like the U Chicago, um, consortium where they primarily partner with, um, Chicago Public Schools, um, to, um, increase or improve, um, different aspects of, uh. Just schooling of like, I think there's like computer science, education, um, reading and literacy, but they're like really purposeful, um, partnerships that people like Foster. Um, so I'm learning more about that. Um, but it seems like a very powerful way to connect evidence to poli policy decisions like in real time. Lindsay Lyons: What that is fascinating. I have not heard of this, so I need to investigate. Thank you for that. Um, and then finally, how can our audience connect with you? Continue to follow your research. Check out what Circle is doing all the things. Sarah Burnham: Yeah. So, um, I am on Blue Sky, um, as Bernham Burglar, that is my last name with burglar added to the end of it. Um, I had been meeting about, I've been meeting to be better about using Blue Sky. Um. You can also follow me on LinkedIn as SL Burnham. Um, for more formal connections, you can email me at my Tufts email address. It's just, uh, sarah dot [email protected]. Um, and then for all circle research, which is not just on civic education, there's many aspects of young people civic life. Um, I think we just posted something about, uh, rural turnout, um, and also youths connect, uh, young people's connection to social movements. Um, you can check out circle.ts.edu and there's a ton there. And you can also find more about some of the things I was talking about, especially with the participatory budgeting, um, project and some of the other work, um, in Illinois. Lindsay Lyons: Amazing. Dr. Burnham, thank you so, so much for talking to us today. Sarah Burnham: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. 4/6/2026 252. Processing ICE and Resistance using Think Feel Do with Kara Pranikoff and Dr. Eric Soto-ShedRead Now
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In this episode, host Lindsay talks with Kara Pranikoff and Dr. Eric Soto-Shed. They introduce a thoughtful framework designed to help educators navigate high emotion topics in the classroom. They specifically frame the conversation around current events involving ICE, and the intense emotional and political responses nationwide. Grounding the conversation in what’s currently impacting students today, this episode offers practical and hands-on knowledge for educators to apply to their classroom settings today. Kara Pranikoff spent more than two decades in NYC schools as a classroom teacher; reading interventionist; Instructional Coach; curriculum designer; and an adjunct instructor at Bank Street College of Education. As a consultant and coach she nurtures educators in developing inquiry based practices in social studies and writing that develop independent student thinking, voice and a sense of belonging for all members of the community. Dr. Soto-Shed is a lecturer in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research centers on curriculum development and teacher training, with his work aiming to promote inquiry and equity in education. He also consults on school district initiatives and conducts professional development workshops for educators of all levels. Why? At the time of recording (end of February 2026), over 30 people died in ICE detention facilities in 2025, six people have died interacting with ICE agents in 2026, and ICE arrested around 3,000 people over six weeks in Minnesota in early 2026. This has all led to widespread protests and fear among immigrant communities. Emotions are high, and anyone working with youth is wondering: how do we engage with this in a thoughtful way? This episode walks educators through the “Think, Feel, Do” framework to engage in this and other high-emotion topics with students and young people. What: Understanding the Framework The goal of the “Think, Feel, Do” framework is to both honor the range of natural responses that students would have, and then broaden their responses. The framework centers on the student experience, who will all respond differently:
Understanding these differences helps educators respond in a range of different ways. How: Implementing “Think, Feel, Do” To begin engaging students in high-emotion conversations, like what’s happening with ICE, educators can implement the following action steps: 1. Lead with content While it’s not always the first thing we think about when addressing high-emotion topics, it is very important to leverage high-quality, accurate content about the topic. This grounds the conversation in facts and what’s really happening and helps students sort through the volume of information they’re exposed to. Content is a starting point for the conversation and will really engage the “think” side of things. 2. Reflect on values In addition to the content, the facts, it’s also important for educators to start by lifting up fundamental values. What do we hold as true and important? How do these values influence our understanding of immigration policies and human dignity? This gets at the heart of the issue and connects with what we believe to be important. 3. Create space for all responses Knowing that students will engage in these conversations very differently is a key truth to start with. Some will know very little about the situation, whereas others may be actively engaged in protests or resistance. It’s important to create space for all responses—they’re all valid, and we can learn from each other. 4. Engage students compassionately When approaching high-emotion conversations, it’s also important to note that some students are directly (or materially) impacted by what’s happening. Educators can lead with compassion and understanding, checking in with students and tapping into that “feel” side to ensure they are safe and doing okay. 5. Find joy amidst challenges Bringing in experiences of joy and hope can offer a powerful compliment to the oppression and adversity people are going through. Educators can actively bring in these expressions of joy, like artistic forms of resistance and resilience, to emphasize our shared humanity. 6. Partner with families Similar to how educators need to understand the different ways students engage in high-emotion topics (e.g., “think, feel, do” orientation), parents can benefit from understanding this, too. Even in the same household, children can have a range of responses. Parents can lead with authenticity, showing their kids how they’re responding to the news, and then process it with their children. They can also model media literacy and good media habits to be mindful of what information is being consumed in your house. There also needs to be strong communication between educators and parents, offering guidance on how to continue these high-emotion conversations at home. One Step to Take Today To begin integrating this framework into educational practice, begin with a reflective practice. Educators can do this by considering personal responses to current events through the lens of the framework. Stay Connected You can stay connected with our guests via their websites: Eric Soto-Shed and Kara Pranikoff. To help you implement today’s takeaways, we’re sharing our Think Feel Do cards with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 252 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:
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TRANSCRIPT
Lindsay Lyons: Welcome to another episode of the Time for teachership podcast. Today I have my amazing adored colleagues, Dr. Eric Soche and Kara Proff here to talk to you about, uh, something that I think is coming up a lot for us all in all of the. Communities that we coach and work in and with, um, which is how to enter a conversation about ICE in this time. Um, we're airing this in April 7th. We're recording this on February 20th, 2026. I just wanna like, contextualize that piece for everyone, but really we're kind of thinking about. Where we are in time. I'll set the stage here with some factual context and then kind of what do we do to respond to this time in partnership with fellow educators and thinking about the youth in our spaces, whether that's families or teachers. So let's get into the context. So at least 32 people have died in ICE detention facilities in the year 2025. Six people have died interacting with ICE agents in 2026. And in early 2026 ICE arrested 3000 people over six weeks in Minnesota. I think that's an important context to set first because there's this been long history, right, and that's only looking at the last year, year or so. Then Amids protest. Renee Good was shot and killed by an ice agent. Later in January, Alex Preddy was shot and killed by federal immigration agents while filming those agents and the Trump administration has called both victims domestic terrorists. Widespread protests have ensued and widespread fear in immigrant communities has resulted in reduced school attendance in an education setting and close many businesses. So, so much is happening. Emotions are high, and I think anyone working with youth is wondering how do we help youth make sense of this? If they're seeing this on the news, how do we process and talk about this? What do I say if it comes up? Do I bring it up? So many questions. And one of the big questions that we've gotten from educators is, how do we do this without further traumatizing students? Like, this is already like a hard thing. Um, and how do we do this in a thoughtful way? So with that, we have developed kind of a, a framework for, um, social studies, instruction and pedagogy generally. Cara, can you talk us through kind of the why behind the framework and how it connects to this moment? Kara Pranikoff: Yeah, so thank you Lindsay. I'm so happy to be here with you and Eric talking today. Um, in many of our conversations, again, trying to figure out the best way to address what's happening in current times with students and with families. We were looking. For a way to both honor the range of natural responses that students were going to have, and then also broaden their responses. So we thought about a framework that really centered kind of the student experience. It's the think, feel, and do framework. So it's composed of kind of three different questions. So students, when they're. Brought to a current event or a, um, high emotion topic. Some students are gonna respond by thinking about what do I think? So they're going to be curious. They're gonna want some more information. They're going to really delve into the desire for more content and some criticality. Some students are naturally gonna respond by thinking about how they feel. These are the students who really connect with their identities, connect with the emotions, and, um, lead kind of with empathy sometimes, um, even with joy. And then some students are going to be thinking about, what can I do? They're going to be called to action. How can they respond? What are the skills that they can develop? To respond. So in the creation of this framework, the think, feel, and do framework, we were really looking for a way that teachers could respond or support their students in responding in a range of ways, and also kind of deepen their response, um, to the issues that come into the classroom. Lindsay Lyons: Thank you for that overview. And Eric, what advice would you give us as we're thinking about all that stuff? Like what's on your mind? Eric Soto-Shed: Well, you know, the first is, I'd love to know, ping back maybe a follow up, uh, to, to you Lindsay, and you talk about, you know, how do we sort of address this with our students without, you know, further potentially traumatizing or traumatizing students. I'm, I'm curious if you could like, maybe unpack for us in the audience, like what do you mean when you say traumatized? Um, students. Lindsay Lyons: I so appreciate that question and I, um, I'll definitely open it up to, I'd love to hear what all of your thoughts are. Not sure exactly what the each individual teacher who has asked a version of this question has meant, but what I interpret it to mean is really like, how do we engage and not avoid hard, like what I would call high emotion topics in the classroom. And, um, particularly I'm thinking for students who are, you know, deeply feeling for students who are, whose backgrounds and experiences might be connected to whatever we're talking about, right? Like recognizing the opportunity for them to either step away, um, giving some space for just like the human response, to not be so overwhelming that now I can't function, I'm feeling. Like, I'm, I'm debilitated for the day. Like I'm, I'm down and out. Um, and so what's the, what's the way we engage in kind of that optimal zone of emotional engagement where I can feel discomfort, but I am not so uncomfortable, um, that I am like unable to function. Eric Soto-Shed: Appreciate that, that's really helpful. And I just think it's really, um, you know, important to sort of define the terms that we use because when we look at history, we look at current events, there are things that are hard, that are tough, that evoke a strong emotional responses. And those are things that we want to engage in responsibly as a teacher. At the same time, there are real sort of trauma and impacts that we really wanna avoid in our classrooms. And so I think that distinction you made is really, um, helpful. Boy, there's so much we could say, but maybe lemme just jump in with a couple of points and, uh, you know, I'd love to just be in dialogue with y'all. And so when we think about like, how do we address this, you know, I'm gonna name two things that I think are particularly useful to think about, particularly when we think about our framework. So, from the think, uh, part of our framework, we, we, we highlight curiosity and. Criticality, which I think are really high leverage, but I would, I would lift up content here, which is often the least sort of sexy and maybe appealing, but I think it could be really, really important because what content knowledge does is it provides. Context and explanatory power. And as Cara mentioned, you know, kids are gonna be curious like what's going on, right? And some way we sort of help sort of meet that curiosity or engage with that. Curiosity is through content, is through explaining like, here are some facts, here are some backgrounds. So when we think about, you know. And the particular, and at our current sort of moment right now, I really think it's important to take sort of a broad, sort of 40 year view of the history of sort of asylum, of the history of immigration or the more recent history of immigration. And that can really allay some fundamental, uh, content that can demystify what's happening. That can provide some, some context and some explanatory power, and that could really help young people begin to make sense. Potentially take a stance or think through deeper or begin to engage with some other feelings. So I think content is really important. And then I'll just lift this up and then, you know, Carl, Lizzie, maybe you wanna riff on, I think values are really important because I think values are kind of a nice sort of, um, they sit in between, I think both feelings and thinking, right? It's like, what do I hold to be really important? Some fundamental values. And I think through, um, lifting up values, it's a way to begin to, um, understand and explain. Certain policies and the impact of those policies and how we want to judge those through something that is, I think, on one hand could be a bit cerebral in sort of these values with these specific definitions. But on the other hand, gets to the heart about what do I feel and what I believe to be true. So I think content and values are an important, uh, place to begin to start. Lindsay Lyons: I love that. Thank you so much. Cara. Do you have thoughts at the moment? Kara Pranikoff: You know, I was just gonna say that I'm so glad that you started with content, Eric, because I think one of the challenges of our current day is that students come in with really with a range of content. They come in, some come in with a lot of information, some come in with misinformation. There's a lot of conversation that happens with students that can be really activating outside of the classroom. So I think if we are really clear about developing the, like leading with content, here are some facts. So that everybody can be on the same playing field, I think it can really kind of deescalate, um, and, um, help students feel safe in order to be able to engage with the, um, the ideas that are coming up in the classroom. So I just wanna amplify that. Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely. And I mean, I, I'm going to a couple, a couple thoughts. One, just as we're talking, I'm, I'm thinking about. How my almost 4-year-old is like engaging with this like, imagery that's happening on the front page of the paper. Right. That comes to our house. And so how I've had to, you know, explain that and then thinking about like the traumatizing, like how, how big do you get when you're talking with little ones versus high school students? Right. And so there's a range. Um, what I love about our framework though is that it's. It's agnostic to grade, right? It's agnostic to age. You can enter anywhere. So that content might look a little bit different for a 4-year-old, right? Than like a 14-year-old. Um, but that, that, that is just kind of like on my mind and what a cool, um, approach it is to kind of enter into any conversation with values regardless of how old they are. Um, and so I've been thinking about like, what's the values? We use in our home with young people. Right. And then how, what are the values that I've used in high school settings with older kids? And so like one of the things that we've talked about with a lot of current events is like, uh, are people more important than money? Right. And like, who's making, you know, like, we believe people are more important than money. Right? And so like what are kind of, in this case, it's not money, but it might be like a larger systemic like power, which is a little more. Maybe difficult to understand as a, as a 4-year-old, but more high school. Um, I think about the idea of safety being really present here. Right? And so my initial thought was like, what's the value, tension, safety, and what? But I think even before that, you unpack safety for whom, right? So it's like, oh, I wanna feel safe, so maybe I am like very, um, I, I want like strong borders. I'm air quoting here. For folks who are listening and this idea of safety, like, well, who gets to feel safe then? And who, who is safety for? Right. In that scenario. And so I think there's some like unpacking around values that could come up once we surface them. I'll stop there. I wanna know what you all are thinking. Eric Soto-Shed: It's great. I really appreciate how you unpack, uh, some values and if you wanna like look at, I think, um, you know, immigration policy from the broadest perspective, maybe the values start around as fairness, right? And it's like, what does it mean to be, treat people fairly who gets treated fair? Um, and I think there's just a lot that you can begin to do with just the, the concept of fairness and, uh, and get then get into some of the more minutia that was around like, you know, temporary protected status and how that was removed and. I think you can go both big picture around immigration, uh, policy and enforcement, as well as sort of more of the important policies that are having real implications under the lens of fairness. Kara Pranikoff: Um, I wanna. Just name two things first. Lindsay, you mentioned that one of the reasons that we really have enjoyed playing with this framework is that it is kind of grade agnostic. I also think the nice thing about this framework is that it is applicable not only in every grade, but in every, um, situation, right? So it, right now we're talking about ice, but something else will come up, and this framework just provides a steady way to engage with events that are happening. And I know that as. Parents and as educators we know we want to talk about hard things and sometimes we wonder, well, what's the best way? Right? So this framework really allows us to develop some muscles and our young people to develop some muscles, some ways into these conversations, um, and into listening to other folks responses. Um, in this situation when we're thinking about ice, I think it's interesting also to think about what can I do and what are people doing? And I think there's a interesting range there to look at. Um, you know, what are protests? Who is protesting? What do those protests look like? Are the protests peaceful? Are they not peaceful? Who is helping support the protestors? Who's bringing food, who's bringing warm coffee? Who is teaching students who are not feeling safe going to school. And so I think that this, um, moment in time, it can also allow us to show our young people kind of the range of ways that people can support moving forward towards good, towards safety for all, um, even in hard times. That it really takes all of us in a variety of ways. And I think young people can see that. Lindsay Lyons: I love that you, you brought it there. I, I was also thinking about, there's research somewhere that a colleague when I was teaching and I was teaching about all these hard things, right? And she was like, I just wanna let you know very kindly that the research says, you know, kids who learn about all this hard stuff and current events and all this oppression that's happening and have even just a very small. Recognition that there are people who are against this oppression and fighting back. They are just like so much better off than all the people who just learn the oppression and don't learn about the resistance. Kara Pranikoff: Hmm. Lindsay Lyons: And so that's such a great point and I think about. Uh, what that makes me think of is yes, the, the range and the focus on the civic action. And I also think about the kid who's not quite there yet and entering in a different space and they're kind of stuck in the field, or not stuck in the field, but they're entering in the field. And so I'm thinking now of a teacher who is designing a lesson or who's facilitating a class conversation, maybe that bubbled up. We have these various entry points, which I think the framework enables, but what considerations do, do you think a teacher should have when we have some kids who are like, yes, like I went to a protest immediately with my family, or I want to go do something right now. Then we have other kids who are in this other kind of state phase or parts of this three-pronged framework. Um, how do you design for that? Or like what considerations should you have or maybe language to provide to teachers too. Deal with that situation. Kara Pranikoff: So I think that's such an interesting question, Lindsay, and um, it makes me think about the courageous, uh, conversations Compass introduced by Glenn Singleton. And so Glenn Singleton introduced a compass that kind of introduced ways to. People respond when they're talking predominantly about race. And here I, one of the things that is strong about that is the recognition that all of the ways that we respond are okay. It can help us understand why somebody might. Um, have a really large feeling that kind of stops them, that they might get stuck in that feeling while somebody else might jump up and say, we've gotta make policy changes right now. Right. So I think to take it back to the think, feel, and do framework, I think in the classroom, the first thing the framework does is it typifies or normalizes the fact that all of us can hear the same information and have a variety, kind of a spectrum of responses, and they are all okay. I also think the next step is how can we learn from someone else's response? So if we were in a classroom and, um, Lindsay, you, you know, jumped up and you were like, I gotta go, go protest right now. Eric kind of took a step back and said, wait, I need some more information. I might, as an educator in that space say, okay, that's interesting. Eric, can you explain to Lindsay why you feel like you need some more information? Let's see. Lindsay, can you hear that? Lindsay? Can you explain to Eric what is making, you just wanna get up and go protest? Eric, can you hear that? So it's ultimately, we want our young folks to understand there's gonna be a range of response. All the responses are okay, and we can really learn. About other ways like expand our responses by hearing other people's natural reactions. Is that clear? Eric Soto-Shed: Yeah. If I could build off of that. I think like, please, I just wanna amplify and say like that would be, I think the most important takeaway, what card just said that sort of getting the students in different places to actually engage with each other about those different places as a way to connect learning. So I think that is like just such a powerful takeaway. That would be my like, headline. Um, one or two other things that I would note along with that is, um, also when we think about, um, you know, our, our framework, we talk about what can I do and we really kind of highlight skills and if you wanna kind of anchor kind of what's happening in the field, but what many teachers are doing, you can think about the C3 framework and this idea sort of wrapping up a learning or inquiry arc with like. Take making a claim and taking it informed action based on what you've learned. Right. And I think if I had students in different places, I might lean into those sort of two different sort of parts of that, uh, of, of, of that, uh, sort of end of the inquiry arc by the C3, which is to say either you can sort of make a claim or begin to wrestle with a claim about take a stand on this issue. Or you can actually act upon that and think about how do you want to get out there in the world and impact. I just think that offers two different options for students that are still sort of processing well, can we begin to take a stand and think about the other position, the other side, right? And, and make that claim, right? Mm-hmm. If you're like, I'm really convicted, I've thought this through, and then what? How do you want to act? So that'd be my one small sort of thing I think you could do in addition. And I think what, um, is deeply in on all of our minds, but hasn't been said. And so I don't wanna say it explicitly, right. To me, the biggest difference isn't, so it, it, it, the biggest difference that I would be thinking about all the possibilities of my students are who are my students that might be directly impacted by these policies. Right? And then that's a big game changer. And that's, I think first and foremost where my attention is going to, is like, how can we both learn about this event? But make students that have real material sort of threats to their existence, um, feel that this is a place where they can process, think and belong. And so I would lift that up. Um, I mean, it just, it it is not lost on us, right? That we have students that are not going to school right now. Um, and so for our students who are showing up, how can we really meet them where they're at? Um, I think just be the other thing that I'd be really considering. Lindsay Lyons: It makes me think too of just like the importance of that foundational culture of discourse about anything hard or high emotion, right? Is like this idea of a baseline understanding, for example, of like all humans are worthy of dignity and existence and safety and whatever that is for your class, but like that has to be in place because we can't have people coming in being like there are people or identities that people hold that have no space here. Right? That's like not, that's just like a no go. And I think that's important to note because I think. People are nervous sometimes in teacher positions or even leader positions that like we have to remain quote unquote neutral. And it's like, well, human dignity is not a thing to be neutral on. Right? Like we can take the stance of like, we're not going there. That's not up for to be. And I just wanna like name that for teachers who are nervous. Eric Soto-Shed: Thanks Lindsay. And just to like, you know, jump back to our framework too, when we think about like, those, you know, students that might be directly impacted by these policies, I think, you know, it might, you might wanna jump into the feel first, right? Really get a sense of like what's going on with their feelings. Um, recognizing that students, regardless of not their impact, could have all sorts of strong feelings, but really important with folks that have like sort of real material threats in their lives to just do the check in around the feeling piece first, some processing and metabolizing. Getting back to this idea of not further traumatizing students. So given a place for this to come to the service to work with this. And then move into the think right? And some of that more, or the skill piece. Whereas if um, you know, I feel students aren't gonna be as directly impacted, I might feel like, Hey, you know, a good entry point might be to build up, let's start with the content knowledge piece, right? And so that's just one of the many considerations for teachers. Kara Pranikoff: I also am thinking now, Eric, about where you started with this idea of content. 'cause I think when I think about this issue and our youngest students, our elementary school students, when they see a five-year-old, you know, detained, they do come in without understanding, but they know what a, a little child looks like, right? And so I think about the content of, um, explaining how and why that happened and explaining. Who are the helpers in your, in your community? Who can you look to right here? To your point, Lindsay, that we always wanna make sure that our students, um, feel, feel safe and feel, um, like protected, right? And so we've gotta understand where our students are, are entering, um, and that the fears are, are real, um, and present. Lindsay Lyons: Absolutely. I, and I'm thinking this is a, maybe a drastic shift now, but I'm thinking about earlier in the conversation, Cara, you mentioned Joy as you were explaining the framework and you were saying, you know, maybe, maybe joy comes in for some people that took me in a variety of directions mentally. And so I, I mean, I could, I could remember, um, like, uh, you know, a moment in the, the 2016 Trump election, for example, where I had won student. In the class who was excited that he won, and a lot of other students who were actively sobbing and fearful. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so there's like that dynamic when it comes to, to joy in our framework. I think about like also joy as, um, like artistic expression, which makes me think of like bad bunnies, super Bowl, halftime show and like how that was. So connected to all of this, right? And so political, but expressed through, through joy, through through dance and like critical joy. I, I would, I don't know if that's a phrase, but you know what I mean? Like there was both, like there was both the critique and then there's both the presence of joy so as not to be extinguished amidst the oppression. Like I think there's something there and I think sometimes. I mean the classic, like people who are so uncomfortable, they laugh at funerals, right? Or something like that. There's like these emotions that bubble up in these high emotion scenarios. So whether someone is laughing because they're nervous or joyful because they have a difference of opinion, or trying to find that joy so that oppression doesn't crush 'em, right? Like I think there's sometimes, um, questions around joy and expressions of joy. And, and seeking joy in moments like these that can be such a conundrum for teachers. Any advice here? Kara Pranikoff: I'm so glad you brought it back there because as I was explaining the framework, you know, I know that Joy is one of them and I was thinking it, it came out of my mouth almost before I could like think about it in this context. That said, I do think in this context there's something that is, maybe, I wouldn't use the joy word, but maybe I would use the word like affirming. I think there is something affirming to having a group of people stand together. Um, in resistance, right? So I, I think that you can look at some of the protests that are happening or some of the resilience that's happening and find some affirmation or some joy in the human spirit of coming together, right? Or, you know, you brought up Bad Bunny. We could also think about other artists who are having a response to these, um, policies and to what's been happening. Um, in our nation, and we could think about how they are channeling their creative expression, um, in a way that kind of affirms their humanity, which is joyful or affirming. Do you know what I mean? Like, I, I think that there is a. We can think about that word in a variety of, of ways. But I think that fundamentally when we come together, um, even as we're protesting something awful, there is something that feels we are supposed to be in community working together. Right. And so I think that that taps into that affirmation or joy, bit of humanity Eric Soto-Shed: again, car, I think, I think that's, that's a great point. So I want, I wanna headline that please. Um. And also offer up, you know, um, the idea of also finding joy during oppressive times or oppressive moments, right? Mm. We can't look at. Um, you know, enslavement and say that there was no joy for folks who were enslaved, right? That just is denying their humanity and denying their existence and de denying the record, right? Like the people do. So how do you hold both is really hard. But at the same time, I think, you know, when we are gonna talk about ice, we're gonna talk about immigration policy, you're gonna see a lot of the negative and a lot of the oppression, right? So are there al also moments say, let's take a total look at this and what are the examples? What are the stories, you know? And I can just say. A small aside that I was, um, at the gas station a couple nights ago in Massachusetts, Massachusetts, it was freezing cold and I saw a family kinda walk by the gas station. It was looked to be like a husband or wife and maybe a 10-year-old child. This is like 10 o'clock at night. And there's like, this is not like a place where you walk. It was driving right. And I immediately, like my heart goes out to this family. I'm trying to figure out, they have a big thing of luggage and I'm trying to think like, what can I do? And what I notice is that the boy seems to be playing this little 10-year-old seems to be playing with the cart, with the luggage and kind of jumping back and forth and like it's kind of like boisterous from from afar. And so on one hand I had this like heavy moment of this family and then the other. Talk about resilience, talk about humanity. Seeing this young boy in this moment feeling that way and um, and so I don't wanna make any light of the situation, but I just want to acknowledge the full, that people experience joy. That's part of being human. To humanize folks and really get into stories and see examples, I think is just a powerful compliment to the very necessary attention to both the oppression and the resistance. Lindsay Lyons: You're making me, that's, I love Eric. You always bring it back to like some really good, amazing example. I thank you for that. And you're making me think of, um, Goldie Mohammad's work, which we like intentionally thought of when we thought of like criticality and joy in our framework. And I was just pulling up some language from her. Around joy and she, she said, yes, studying what joy was for the ancestors. Happiness is more immediate, but joy is long term. It's sustainable. Joy is what you have when adversity continues to strike and you retain your happiness. Mm. Find as wellness, healing, abolition, working toward a better humanity. For all beauty aesthetics we recognize in ourselves and within humanity. Cara, to your point, it's centering love and music and art and our learning experiences and our children's voices. It's a collective, it is wide. Gold ham, man. Kara Pranikoff: Uh, I I'm stress. Lindsay Lyons: Yeah. So I think, man, it's hard to come after gold ham. Sorry guys. Eric Soto-Shed: Take a pause. Kara Pranikoff: Yeah. Seriously. Eric Soto-Shed: Deep breath. Scene two. Lindsay Lyons: So I think I am wondering, now we talk a lot about teachers 'cause we're, we're with teachers, right? A lot. Families, Eric, to your point about just even seeing the family, right? Mm-hmm. And knowing that families are grappling with, with, with this, with, with lots of heavy stuff. Um, what can families do? Is it the same? Is there something different to consider for families who are supporting, you know, young kids or, or older kids, children at any age, I suppose, to grapple with the news and what, what's been going on? Eric Soto-Shed: That's great. I'm thinking of my little 2-year-old right now, so that's a bigger jump for me. But I'm also trying to think. That's a great question. Mm-hmm. I mean, I feel like definitely I, I don't see anything we haven't said that you really wouldn't wanna. Apply as a family thinking about like, do I really need to engage with some background and help my child understand a little bit more of the context? Do I really need to engage feelings and kind of surface for them, uh, what, what, what they might be feeling? So I do think much of what we said with the classroom applies, but Carl, I'm interested, said if you're also seeing some things around like family specific. Kara Pranikoff: It's so interesting. So when I think about the family work, um, I think it's important for families to also understand that kids are gonna respond in a range, and that if you've got more than one child inside your house, they might also respond differently and that's okay. So we know that there are some kids that aren't ready to talk about what's on their heart and mind, and you kind of need to. Wait for it. And that's okay. It doesn't mean that they're not feeling it. You've gotta cycle back and check in. I would say for families, um, you might want to bring up, here are some things that are happening in the community that we could do. Here's what I'm drawn to do. Do you wanna come do that thing with me? Whatever it is. Whether it's protests, whether it's, whatever it might be. But I think that we can act as, um, role models. And I also think, as with families, I think we can be clear with our young folk about how this is settling for us. I think you can say to your, um, child, whatever their age is, you know, I. I am really feeling concerned, or I really had a hard time sleeping last night because I saw this image or listened to this recording and I, um, it was hard for me to get out of my head. Right? And this is how I am processing, this is how I'm caretaking. Um, I'm wondering how you are feeling. Right? So I, I think that, I guess two things. There's gonna be a range of responses, even if you're in the same house, and I think you wanna be clear about. Having your own chance as a parent to respond, um, and then figure out how to talk to your, to your kid, but be honest about, um, where you might fall, right? Or do you need more information? How are you feeling? Is there something that you are looking to do? Eric Soto-Shed: Yeah, I think if I could maybe add to, you know, maybe slightly older, you know, children, you know Yeah. 10, 12 and into the teen years. You know, in schools we talk a lot about media literacy. Um, and I think a unique role that the household can play is media habits, right? Particularly now that the media has become so just, you know, bifurcated and kids have access and it does intersect with what we mean in terms of media literacy, in terms of like, how are you being criddle? Call your con of, of what you're consuming. But let's step, take a step back and ask what are you consuming? Right. And you know, I can think back in my household, there's two things that I could tell you that every morning my dad listened to. 10, 10 wiz, you know, you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world. Anytime I got up early, he was in the kitchen with a little radio listening to that. And that, um, he always got the Sunday paper, the New York Times and the Daily News like, and so while my dad never sat me down and said, you know, son, it's very important that you become informed. Guess what I do? Every morning I listen to NPR. Guess what I do every weekend? I read the New York Digital Times, right? And so in this, you know, increasingly broadened, uh, land, and it doesn't have to be traditional media, but increasingly broadened landscape, is there one or two ways you can kind of share with the young people in your household? Here's the thing that I'm reading, maybe check it out. You know, or just even just sharing what you do as a, an example as a model to say that there's, you know, there's all the stuff I'm seeing on my little social media feed, but then there's also this resource that I sit down with and digest and it puts it in context. And so I think those examples and that modeling of sort of media consumption Lindsay Lyons: mm-hmm. Eric Soto-Shed: And I, and the habits that you have in terms of consuming, I think could be really also beneficial. Lindsay Lyons: I love both of those answers and it makes me think about school, family partnership and communication, right? That is, that is two way. And so my initial thought is like all those things you just said, like somebody type those up and put them in a little template letter to go home to families, right? It's like, I think. What we car you and I have tried for, for grading conversations is like, here's how you support at home. Like a shift in how to grade, right? Like I think you could do that here easily or with any current event. Here's how you support at home. Here's how you think, feel, do at home. And I think if you just had a few bullet points to give some guidance, and it's not instruction, but I think it's like an offering, right? An invitation for families. I think families, I, as a family member would feel personally like invited in and supported, um, rather than feeling like I was being given homework. And so I, I like that idea that, um. You know, there's so many ways that you can support, so thank you all for those. Any other advice you'd give for that school family partnership or communication around talking about these things in a classroom? From the teacher point of view, communicating to families? Kara Pranikoff: I would just say that I think that communication is essential, and I think the only thing that I would add is the teacher. I might say, here's the content that I was shared, and here are some of the ways that your students responded, because I think sometimes. Families can't imagine what those conversations look like in any grade. And we want them to understand that they're happening in a way that, um, is supportive to students and in content that is bite-sized for students to understand. And so I think that can help families and it can also serve. Kind of to your point, Eric, of, of a model of how we explain to our students, um, where we're gathering our information, what media we're showing or not showing, and that it's important to be talking about what's happening in the world, but I think parents like to see, or families like to see kind of what content was shared. Eric Soto-Shed: Yeah. And the only other thing I'll add, and I think it's um. It might be a little bit of nuance and just a reason to give pause, but I think it, it's worth mentioning, right, to say that you know, what happens when, you know, the families that we're working with, those educators might feel differently around the current events that we're talking about, right? Mm-hmm. And so, one thing I'd like to lift up is I believe this. Statistic is 54% of, uh, voters, uh, for in the 2024 presidential election were broadly in support of mass deportation, not quite understanding what the policy would look like once it took inact, but when you given that sort of, that policy question, 54%. So it's both, you know, both sides of the political, uh, spectrum. Um, and so with that being said, you know, I think what you can do when you're also thinking about that, that. Uh, community, the family and school partnership is really kind of leaning into the values and the content piece, right? And so even when there might be some different views on the policy, if we are talking about values around dignity and what we're trying to do in humanity, and we are talking about content in terms of understanding policies, I think that that could be a nice sort of, um. Sort of way to bridge if you're dealing with different views, right? Again, teachers know their communities, they know their families, and so you can obviously curate to to, to the audience that you have. But there are a lot of teachers out there that have audiences where, uh, there might be some differences in opinion there. And so I think really leaning into both content and values can be really powerful there. Kara Pranikoff: Hmm. Lindsay Lyons: Great idea. And it's also making me think of the importance and possibility of hosting family conversations too in evenings or something, right? Eric Soto-Shed: Yes. Love that. Love that. Lindsay Lyons: Alright, last question. In our final minute we'll do a speed lightning round. Uh, we talked about a lot of things. What is one thing that a listener or audience member could do to day? Like, where could they start? Eric Soto-Shed: I know this is a lightning round, but do we have more questions or is this it? This is the last question Lindsay Lyons: I was gonna invite you to share, kind of like where people can, can find you online, but if there's any other content you wanna share, go for it. Eric Soto-Shed: Okay, cool. Um, so what, uh, so can you ask the question again? That way I can hook you up with your edits. Lindsay Lyons: Yeah. One, one thing that someone could do today. Eric Soto-Shed: All right, I'm gonna go with one and, um, it's kind of, uh, uh, I'm cheating here 'cause I wanted to get this in somehow, but I really think you could do it. Um, and I think it would be, if you're thinking about, you know, supporting young people thinking through ice, thinking, through immigration policy, um, how do you do this with this framework where we're think talking about, think, feel, and do. I would encourage you to purchase and read the book. Everyone Who Is Gone is here by Jonathan Blitzer. It is a powerful account. Of, um, the sort of US foreign policy, the history of immigration policy, and it's done through, uh, you know, powerful vignettes of about five or six people. And I mean, it will have you thinking and understanding content and broad notions of policy. It will have you really like, sort of identifying and feeling people that are in these experiences. You will see, uh, people reacting, taking action, everything raging from being in protest with gun fire and shootouts. Lindsay Lyons: Mm. Eric Soto-Shed: To offering mental health services to people in their community. Mm. It is just a powerful and profound sort of take on sort of how we got here. Um, and I highly recommend, uh, educators, parents reading that build out your own knowledge, but that is something you can definitely share with the young people that you work with and or live with. Kara Pranikoff: I love that, Eric. It's immediately added to my PBR pile, so thank you. Always good. Um, I'm gonna go a different, uh, different angle. I think as we are thinking about our framework of think, feel, do and the current situation around ICE and immigration policy. I think I would encourage educators and family members to take a pause and think for themselves about what they think, how they feel, and what they can do, and try to tap into where their natural space is and think about can they expand that right? And really, I'm like still back thinking about the resilience and the joy. And I'm wondering if we as adults are, um, in a space, can we access. That kind of humanity and that resilience and how might that shift things for us? So I would encourage, um, adults to think, feel, and do on their own and experience, um, experience a framework that way. Lindsay Lyons: I love it. I would add that people, we will link this, but people can download our framework along with some key questions that you can just have, like print it out or keep it on your computer and have to be able to consult while you are reflecting or while you're supporting your child to reflect or your student to reflect. Okay. The very last question. Where can people connect with you all online? Who wants to go first? Eric Soto-Shed: My day job is at the Graduate School of Education in Harvard, so you can find me there. Kara Pranikoff: The easiest way to find me is through my website, car proff.com. Lindsay Lyons: Awesome. Kara and Eric, thank you both so much. It is really inspiring to think that amidst hard times, there are people doing this good work and that resilience and joy and critical thinking and collective action are possible. Um, and I would argue probable because we have such great educators and family members in the world with our young people and our young people themselves are amazing. So for all the resources on this, you all can go to lindsaybethlyons.com/blog/252, where we'll have a detailed show note section as well as that free resource. |
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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
May 2026
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