Major Workshop

Thursday, May 31—1:30–4:30 p.m.

Empowering Teachers to Become more Inclusive Through SEED Seminar Work

In 2011, filmmakers Rick and Shakti Butler interviewed seventeen staff members of the National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, on the occasion of the Project's25th year. The acronym SEED stands for Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity. SEED prepares K-12 and university teachers to lead their own year long seminars with their own colleagues on making curricula, teaching methods and educational climates more gender-fair, multicultural, and inclusive of all students no matter what backgrounds they come from. 

Shakti Butler will describe and show film footage about three themes she picked up repeatedly from her interviewing. 1) The centrality to SEED processes of personal narratives delivered through "Serial Testimony." 2)the centrality of the theme of Curriculum as Window and Mirror, first introduced by SEED Project Co-director, Emily Style; 3) Style's theory of "the scholarship on the shelves and the scholarship in the selves." 

Peggy McIntosh, Founder of SEED and Co-Director during the first 25 years, will show some footage of her presentation on Interactive Phase Theory on gender and race, which ties together many SEED convictions and practices. Then four SEED staff members who teach in the NewYork/New Jersey area will facilitate three interactive exercises for NCORE participants that model SEED's adult development of educators. These exercises are about providing all learners with "windows and mirrors,"  about "balancing  the scholarship on the shelves with the scholarship in the selves," and about using serial testimony for faculty interaction in SEED meetings or any other kind of meeting.  Through these interactive exercises, participants in this session may gain more conviction in bringing their own experiences to bear on their practices in education especially with regard to the most vulnerable students in their spheres of influence.  The exercises  will elicit teachers' memories of schooling and identify some of its cruelties and deficits for people of all backgrounds, including faculty. The process will probably empower participants to believe still more strongly in inclusive practices in the classroom and in their institutions. SEED processes are designed for learners of any age.

Shakti Butler, Ph.D., Film Maker, and Executive Director, World Trust Educational Services, Inc.—Oakland, California

Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D., Associate Director, Wellesley Center for Women; Founder and Co-Director, National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), Wellesley College—Wellesley, Massachusetts