Instruction Partners is a nonprofit organization serving schools, systems, and states (e.g., departments of education) to support excellent instruction for all students. Their work includes on-the-ground support, thought partnership, and capacity-building, with an emphasis on literacy and math, closing equity gaps, and addressing urgent, pandemic-related learning interruptions for students experiencing poverty, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and students of color. “We support leaders as change agents in their buildings,” explains Senior Director of Program Strategy, Elizabeth Ramsey. Ramsey manages special projects, multi-year planning, and framework design for the organization. 

Instruction Partners initially invited the National Equity Project (NEP) to provide professional development focused on Liberatory Design with their program team, which focuses on designing solutions to the pressing problems instructional leaders face. “We do a lot of research and design work, internally as well as with our partners, which is part of what brought us to NEP. There’s just not enough research and development that’s grounded in truly liberatory practices,” said Ramsey, noting that Liberatory Design permeated NEP's engagement.

Ramsey appreciated NEP facilitators Mark Salinas, Managing Director, and Erik Fermín, Senior Equity Consultant, modeling liberatory practice from the outset by asking about team members' goals and dedicating time to learn about the specific people in the room. This personalized feeling and responsiveness was impactful. After an initial introductory meeting, each session was informed by feedback to shape the focus and approach. “It’s adaptive work,” Ramsey says. “It’s so responsive to who’s in the room. Mark and Erik went to a lot of lengths to learn about us and tailor the work. I know it’s content they deliver to people all over the country, but I felt like they really made a lot of effort to meet the needs of our team.”

One noteworthy element of NEP’s support to Instruction Partners is what Ramsey calls “healthy pushing”—critical reflection or redirection that benefits the work. For example, Ramsey wanted to start a bit further along, but Mark Salinas pushed her to consider the importance and payoff of taking time at the onset to ensure that everyone is on the same page before diving into action. “Especially in education spaces, there is an understandable sense of urgency to seek and implement solutions,” says Salinas. “But it’s important to keep the problem space open and really seek to understand your challenge. Reflect on why you need to address an issue, name what you need to better understand, and be honest about what’s been getting in the way of taking action.” Supporting the team to resist the urge to converge on solutions before taking the time for collective sense-making proved to be an essential approach that cultivated new habits (both individually and organizationally) around navigating uncertainty and complexity.

As the program team began applying their new Liberatory Design skills, interest spread throughout the organization, and other teams asked about the concepts and tools they were hearing about. While the Instruction Partners team initially saw Liberatory Design as helpful for their program team, they came to understand its value for their entire organization. “Liberatory Design pulls leaders away from being a hero or expert and pushes them to approach their challenges as a learner – and to learn in partnership with others,” explains Erik Fermín. “These relationships unleash our collective creativity. This is what we want throughout our systems.”

Liberatory Design mindset card examples: Build Relational Trust and Exercise Creative Courage.. Download the full deck at www.liberatorydesign.com.

“We use the mindset cards so regularly,” Ramsey explains. “We’ve structured our team meetings this year around different mindsets and modes." The frameworks have become the foundation of her team's work, bringing new language and focus points to projects. When asked about NEP's value-add, Ramsey shared that NEP’s work helps thread the needle between institutional or organizational change and individual change by grounding the work in humanity and equity. “The connection from our humanity to how we show up in meetings to how we’re designing different things provided a very full picture," Ramsey says. This highlights the expansive potential of the National Equity Project’s approach and tools to unlock new frameworks and change practices.

“There’s a human element,” Ramsey adds. “NEP clearly has a team of exceptional people who know how to connect with people of different backgrounds and identities.” She offered that the skill and effectiveness of NEP can help organizations and the people inside of them to find themselves in the resources being introduced. “The content is incredible,” she says, “but frameworks and tools are just documents until someone helps you make connections to your work.”

Learn More

• Bring the National Equity Project to your organization through our Strategic Consulting or Custom Professional Development services

• Attend an upcoming training on Liberatory Design

• Read the Introduction to Liberatory Design Framework