Whose Agency? Reflections on Building Critical Consciousness Through Maker-Centered Learning and Arts Integration

An Ignite Talk by 2018-2019 Agency by Design Oakland Teacher Fellow Kurt Kaaekuahiwi

Kurt Kaaekuahiwi is an Ethnic Studies, Art, and Making teacher at Roses in Concrete Community School. In his Ignite Talk, presented at Agency by Design Oakland’s year-end event on Saturday, May 4, 2019, Kurt and his students explore how art and making can impact engagement within the course content. “How do we humanize using Arts and Making in ways that promoted critical consciousness?” Kurt asks in his Ignite Talk.

“We looked at the design process of making our own skin color. We mixed primary and secondary colors using tinting and shading to make our own shades of brownness. ‘Look Mr. K -- this is actually my skin color. I made it, look!’ Students were able to talk about internalized racism, talk about the politics of identity, the politics of being light skinned and of being dark skinned and bright, and talk about what ‘she's hella dark’ comes from, what that means.”

Watch Kurt’s inspiring Ignite Talk below! And follow the #pictureofpractice hashtag to see more Ignite Talks and leadership from our 2018-2019 Teacher Fellows.

Kurt standing by his students’ collaborative mural of Nipsey Hussle.

Oakland Teachers Designing for Student Agency

“What stood out was the great energy of the presenters. It really gave me enormous hope for the teaching profession and the future.””

— Miko Lee, Executive Director, Youth in Arts

On Saturday, May 4, at Urban Promise Academy in Oakland, educators from across the Bay Area came to engage with our 2018- 2019 fellows' inquiry work and leadership through a morning of ignite talks, workshops, and documentation booths.

Event Program

Event Program

Event Program

Event Program

Event Program

““Connecting with new people is the best part. We live in a rich community of art and design and it’s great to see what people are doing.”
”

— Laura Garcia, Teaching Artist, Museum of Children’s Art (MoCHA)

Agency by Design Oakland Fellow Chantel Parnell shares work from her documentation booth, entitled “The Evolution of Reflection: Finding Opportunity for Student Voice Using the Problem Solving Process.” Parnell is a Computer Science Teacher at Bret Harte Middle School.

Agency by Design Oakland Fellowship Director Paula Mitchell and Fellow Jane Lee engaging with Fellow Kristen Vetterlein’s documentation booth entitled “Practicing Self-Reflection and Developing Agency Through Art!”

Agency by Design Oakland Fellow Kurt Kaaekuahiwi standing by his documentation booth entitled, “I Got a Story To Tell: Arts-Making and Cultural Consciousness as Agency.” Kurt is an Ethnic Studies, Art and Making Teacher at Roses in Concrete Community School.

Kurt Kaaekuahiwi and Julia Cheng rearrange a box mural by Kaaekuahiwi’s students at Roses in Concrete Community School.

Another possible iteration of the “box mural” made by students from Roses in Concrete Community School.

A participant writing a teacher appreciation card.

Agency by Design Oakland Fellow Veronica Haro shares her documentation board entitled “Feedback: An Opportunity for Co-Critique and Co-Inspiration” with participant Domonique Jimerson.

Agency by Design Oakland fellow Julie Ellis and a participant catching up near Shraddha Soparawala’s documentation booth entitled “Art of Repair: Transforming Objects and Ourselves.”

Agency by Design Oakland Fellow Erin Posbergh facilitates a hand-on activity at her booth entitled “How Does Tinkering With Materials Affect Content Knowledge?” Posbergh is the Physics Teacher at Oakland International High School.

Erin Posbergh stops at the documentation board detailing the history of Agency by Design Oakland, an independent non-profit organization that is the Bay Area component of the Agency by Design research project developed by Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Documentation Booth in Focus:

Linh Linh Trinh, 7th/8th Grade Science Teacher at Roots International Academy, invites participants to join the conversation at her documentation booth. Her teacher action research displays her systemic analysis of the Roots International Academy school closure and asks participants to share their own response to the question “Are you UPHOLDING or RESISTING the system?”

Former Agency by Design Fellow Lillian Ortiz takes a closer look at the key players involved in the the Roots International Academy school closure.

Trinh’s system maps of how the different parts/people of the systems interacted.

On the other side of the documentation board, participants write their personal answers to Trinh’s question, “Are you upholding or resisting the system?”

Agency by Design Oakland Senior Fellow adds this follow-up question to Linh’s documentation board. “Why did you add this to the board?” asked Agency by Design Oakland Program Coordinator Nico Chen. “I saw so many people reading this question and then just walking away,” said Wolf.

“Can we get copies of these talks? They were incredible!””

— Catherine Rice, Art Teacher, Madison Park Academy

“Raise your hand if you are creative,” asks Kurt Kaaekuahiwi when beginning his talk entitled, “Whose Agency? Building Critical Consciousness Through Maker-Centered Learning and Arts Integration.” In his talk, Kurt Kaaekuahiwi asks students in his Ethnic Studies class at Roses in Concrete Community School how art and making can impact engagement within the course.

“How do we humanize using Arts and Making in ways that promoted critical consciousness?” asks Kaaekuahiwi in his ignite talk. “We looked at the design process of making our own skin color. We mixed primary and secondary colors using tinting and shading to make our own shades of browness. ‘Look Mr. K -- this is actually my skin color. I made it, look!’ Students were able to talk about internalized racism, talk about the politics of identity, the politics of being light skinned and of being dark skinned and bright, and talk about what ‘she's hella dark’ comes from, what that means.”

In her ignite talk entitled “Teaching is a Political Act,” Julia Cheng shares her personal reflections on teaching and community building this year, and in doing so, how she is able to center her views and values on in and outside her classroom.

In his ignite talk entitled “Students as Curriculum Designers,” Jeff Embleton and 7th graders co-design a curriculum focused on the refugee experience at ASCEND.

“What we did to support [refugees] was we made donation boxes and gathered money for the IRC (International Rescue Committee),” said Ariana, a 7th Grader from ASCEND. “We created t-shirts and helped refugees by donating the proceeds.”

Our amazing ignite speakers!

Ignite Talk in Focus

Fatimah Salahuddin, Ethnic Studies Teacher at Roots International Academy, delivers her ignite talk entitled “Letting Go of Power: Who is the Teacher?” In her talk, Salahuddin shares how she shifted power to her students by redirecting authority and helping students build agency by being the teacher.

“Both of my workshops were fun and immediately applicable to my work.”
”

— Nico Janik, TK-8 Makerspaces/Engineering Coordinator, Ravenswood School District

Participants start on a “do now” activity at the beginning of a workshop.

In Olivia Franco’s workshop “Gamify Your Lessons!” participants learn how to step back and let the students direct the learning and making through gamification. In this workshop, participants created their own game prototype ideas to bring back to their own classrooms.

In her workshop “Making Circuits Personal,” Bridget Rigby asks, “what parallels can we make between circuits and ourselves?” In this workshop, Bridget shares her students’ work, and asks participants to explore how learning about different circuit systems can be used to examine their own “circuitry.”

In Carrie Moy’s workshop, entitled “Authentic Feedback Through Thinking Routines,“ participants learn how the “Parts, Perspectives, Me” and “Imagine If...” thinking routines can make student voices tangible, so that they can make productive and actionable shifts in teaching and classroom practice.

Tasha Pura asks participants to popcorn read a definition of system in her workshop entitled “Mini-Design Challenge: Choice & Voice While Systems Thinking.”

In her workshop entitled “Shifting the Cognitive Load with Systems Thinking,” Julie Ellis asks participants explore how systems thinking protocols can be infused with social studies standards to engage in deeper learning.

“What are the choices students can make to demonstrate their understanding of systems?” asks Pura in her workshop. Participants engage in hands-on systems thinking by taking apart a system and building a model.

Participants in the midst of building a tree system in Pura’s workshop.

Participants discussing their finished model, demonstrating their shared understanding of the the system of a tree.

In her workshop “Amplifying Voice and Values to Shift School Culture,” Crystal Barr asks how can thinking routines like “Imagine If...” and “Think, Feel, Care” support not just a shift in student thinking, but a shift in school culture?

“What makes home feel like home?” “Can we build it together?” Participants explored empathy and connection by making collaborative homes in Denise Montgomery’s workshop entitled “Creating Empathy & Connection Through Maker-Centered Learning.”

Workshop in Focus

Jane Lee, Instructional Coach at Roots International Academy, leads her workshop entitled “Agency? By Design!” In this workshop, she asks participants whether the purpose of education is to teach subversion or compliance — and challenges our participants to reflect on whether or not they have the agency to subvert within our educational systems.

“Unlike a lot of maker related initiatives, Agency by Design Oakland uses making in a way that opens the door to having conversations about systems of power and students, which is so needed in this world.””

— Angi Chau, I-Lab Director, Nueva School

PHOTOGRAPHY by Yasser Alwan, Melhik Hailu, Nico Chen