Student Work Highlighted at Harvard Graduate School of Education Conference
By Integrated Learning and Information Science Department
This summer’s Project Zero Classroom conference at Harvard Graduate School of Education highlighted the work of the class of 2031, this year’s 5th graders. The work was part of their months-long study as 4th graders about social justice movements of Native and Indigenous Peoples.
During the 2022–23 school year, 4th grade students in ILIS classes engaged in thinking routines from the JusticeXDesign framework. JXD frameworks allow students to develop a sensitivity to designed systems of justice and injustice. Fourth grade students looked at the environmental and Native Tribes and Indigenous Peoples’ protest at the Standing Rock camp in South Dakota. Standing Rock was the largest gathering of Indigenous Peoples from around the world protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Students examined images, documentation and firsthand accounts of people at the camp. Using a JXD thinking routine—Messages, Choice, Impact—students thought about the message the protesters were trying to convey, the choice they made in the protest and the impact of the protest on the environmental movement and Indigenous Peoples’ social justice movements. For the final project, students took inspiration from the Mile Marker sign created at the protest camp and now on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. Fourth grade students created their own Mile Marker installation with the messages they wanted the Parker community to hear about the Standing Rock protest. The sign is on display outside the Kovler Family Library.
The conference hosts thousands of educators from around the world who come to explore ways to enhance student engagement, encourage learners to think critically and creatively and make learning and thinking visible. During workshops this past summer, participants studied the work of Parker students and engaged in JusticeXDesign thinking routines, taking inspiration from their work and making connections to take ideas back to their schools. The ILIS teachers took back some of the conference work to share with the current 5th grade students so they could see how they inspired educators!
Several Parker educators are engaging in a year-long professional learning cohort with the creator of the JusticeXDesign framework to design curriculum around the concepts of designed systems of justice and injustice.
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.