Liberatory Design Mindsets

March 2023

All systems produce the outcomes that they are designed to produce; the inequities and injustices in our world are manifestations of designs rooted in systemic oppression.  In order to achieve different outcomes - outcomes that are liberatory - we must not only identify what’s not working in our systems, but also learn to think and be together in new ways. Liberatory mindsets support us to transform our thinking and ways of being as individuals and in community. 

This free, 1-hour webinar will introduce you to the National Equity Project’s approach to Liberatory Design, focusing on how liberatory design mindsets can support you to explore and embody new ways of leading in your individual and collective work to dismantle systemic inequities and injustices and co-create a world that works for all of us. 

Freedom Dreaming: Uprooting Oppression By Cultivating Our Collective Liberation

January 2023

When you consider what it means for you to take up the work of co-creating a more just and equitable world, what are the words you use to describe your commitment? In what ways do you tell the story of the work you do, of the visions you hold for what’s possible in the world you hope to design and build? In Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Robin D. G. Kelley reminds us, “without new visions we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.” We need more than a sharp analysis of oppression, more than the strategies and tactics required to resist and refuse the ways in which we and others are dehumanized by interlocking forces of domination on a daily basis.

We need the courage to freedom dream: To manifest the world we deserve, where each of us experiences a sense of belonging and can thrive, we must be bold enough to imagine. We must root ourselves to a sense of interconnectedness that confirms across space and time that together we hold the power to unleash the forces of our collective liberation.

This 60-minute webinar will support you to tap into your power, access your agency, and connect to a collective vision that will do more than dismantle the house oppression has built - to plant the seeds and inspire us all to work the soil to grow the possibilities of a liberated world.

Design for Belonging Book Launch

April 2022

Belonging brings out the best in everyone. Whether you're a parent, teacher, community organizer, or leader of any sort, you can use design to create feelings of inclusion: rituals that bring people together, spaces that promote calm, roles that create a sense of responsibility, systems that make people feel respected, and more.

What does it mean to design for belonging? How can our schools, organizations, and communities design for belonging? What happens if we don’t? How can paying attention to belonging help us as we design new experiences and ways of being together?

Susie Wise, author of Design for Belonging, How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration in Your Communities joins Victor Cary (Sr. Director, National Equity Project) in a lively discussion hosted by Mark Salinas (Director, National Equity Project). We celebrate the book and discuss creative ways to design a world where we all belong.

Leading With Courage and Commitment: Reclaiming the Narrative for Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Schools

November 2021

Over the past two decades, many school districts across the United States have engaged in some form of ‘equity work’ in an effort to change persistent racialized patterns in student experience and achievement. Communities have engaged in a wide range of efforts to increase opportunity and expand educational excellence and equity. While the impacts of these efforts vary, much has been learned about (and brain/neuroscience supports) the benefits of creating student centered and culturally sustaining approaches to teaching and learning.

Yet, today diversity, equity, and inclusion work is under increased scrutiny and controversy in many school districts. While framed as a debate about “critical race theory”, the programs and initiatives under attack more often include research-based efforts intended to increase opportunity and fairness in our schools, classrooms, and curriculum.

How might we use this moment of contention to inspire, engage, and activate our communities to protect educational approaches that ensure every young person has access to the resources, opportunities, and relationships they need to learn, develop, and thrive?

Designing Agendas for Equity Work

Designing meetings for productive discussion and collaboration on equity work requires intentional planning that is responsive to both the emotional and cognitive/intellectual needs of participants. We believe that, when planning adult learning, it’s essential to design an experience people will go through together that moves beyond a series of tasks or agenda items. This is particularly true when a group is engaging in conversations focused on issues of equity or other emotionally-charged challenges that arise while working together.

In this webinar, we will offer a framework for participant engagement used by the National Equity Project in professional learning opportunities that support authentic engagement, meaningful collaboration and movement forward on challenging and important work. Join the National Equity Project as we share some of the foundations of designing agendas for equity conversations in service of transforming the life trajectories of historically underserved youth.

Equity 101: Starting the Equity Conversation

The word “equity” is everywhere these days– but what does it really mean? What if it means something different to me, to my colleagues, and to my community? A crucial part of the “equity conversation” is creating meaningful opportunities for people to connect to why equity matters to them. Connecting to their “why” helps people to individually and collectively define what equity means and looks like in their own context.

Schools, districts and organizations often name “equity goals”. But in order to set — let alone reach — equity goals, you need to create conditions for people to make sense of what equity means, why it’s important, and how to approach it together. Working with equity at the center requires people to authentically bring who they are and their life experiences to the table. This isn’t always easy in a professional setting, but it is a necessary part of getting people ready to lead for equity.

Learn some of the why, what, and how of NEP’s over 20 years of experience in initializing equity conversations in service of transforming the life trajectories of historically underserved youth and families. In our view – equity is a process, not just an outcome. Walk away with new insights and some concrete tools for getting the equity conversation started in your context.

Focal Students: Equity in the Classroom

Moving from “big picture” conversations about equity to effectively changing classroom practices can be a big hurdle for schools and districts. At the National Equity Project, we’ve supported major shifts in classroom practice and gains for students by working with teachers to take a focal student approach: learning deeply from a few students to change practices to impact greater numbers of students. We use our signature Learning Partnership framework – drawing from the work of our colleague Zaretta Hammond (author of Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain) – to guide this focal student approach.

Learning Partnerships enable educators to build trust with students across differences of identity (race, gender, class, family background, life experience, etc.) and leverage that trust in service of deeper ownership—and ultimately acceleration—of student learning.

This webinar explores:

• What learning conditions have we created that either inhibit or promote student success?

• What kind of relationships increase engagement and ownership of learning for students – especially those who have not been successful in schools and/or have a history of negative experiences?

• Why and how might we use a focal student approach in service of working toward equity?

• What does it mean to build a Learning Partnership between teachers & students? How can we get started in building that partnership?

Implicit Bias, Structural Racialization, and Equity

Increased interest in the topic of implicit bias provides an opportunity to open and deepen important conversations in our organizations and communities about equity, belonging, and ultimately justice. Most work on implicit bias focuses on increasing awareness of individuals in service of changing how they view and treat others. But to lead to meaningful change, an exploration of implicit bias must be situated as part of a much larger conversation about how current inequities in our institutions came to be, how they are held in place, and what our role as leaders is in perpetuating inequities despite our good intentions.

Our success in creating organizations and communities in which everyone has access to the opportunities they need to thrive depends on our willingness to confront the history and impacts of structural racism, learn how implicit bias operates, and take action to interrupt inequitable practices at the interpersonal, institutional and structural level.

Liberatory Design Mindsets for Challenging Times

We are all living in challenging times that our past experiences and training may not have sufficiently prepared us for. What inequities are more visible now? What inequities are emerging? What if we start designing the equitable future we want to live into now?

This webinar will introduce you to the National Equity Project’s Liberatory Design framework, focusing on how liberatory design mindsets can support efforts to lead change and create more equitable teams, organizations, and systems in ways that respond to this moment and lay groundwork for longer term transformation.

This webinar explores how to:

• Notice and reflect on the inherent tensions, complexity and uncertainty in leading for equity right now

• Surface the most pressing equity challenges you are confronting in your organization now

• Generate and harvest ideas about how to apply liberatory design mindsets in your own equity leadership and change efforts in your context.