We speak with Justin Cohen, whose work focuses on the intersections of education, race, privilege, and public policy. Cohen’s recent book is Change Agents: Transforming Schools From the Ground Up. He looks at ways a faculty can systematically improve its school. Knowing the community and having honest and difficult conversations about race are critical.
Overview
00:00-00:33 Intros
00:33-01:44 What Change Agents is about
01:44-03:55 Results-Oriented Cycles of Inquiry (ROCI)
03:55-04:31 School Organizing as a form of community organizing
04:31-10:25 Conversations about race
10:25-13:54 A fishbowl exercise about race that went wrong and what happened after that
13:54-16:46 Achieving early wins
16:46-19:39 What accountability can mean
19:39-23:06 Strategies for improving school-parent communication
23:06-24:05 Working on listening as a school
24:05-26:33 Improving existing schools vs. starting new ones
26:33-29:46 Urgent policy changes
29:46-31:11 Relevant Ethical Schools episodes
31:11- Outro
Transcript
Click here to see the full transcription of this episode.
References
Book Change Agents: Transforming Schools From the Ground Up by Justin Cohen
Soundtrack by Poddington Bear
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