Fund for Teachers encourages a holistic approach to designing a fellowship by asking teachers to consider:

• what is missing from their classrooms and school communities
• why this grant specifically will address those gaps, and
• how they and their students will benefit going forward.

For Jillian Swinford and Piotr Wojciaczyk (Pulaski International School of Chicago), COVID influenced all three answers.

“International Baccalaureate was the guiding philosophy at our school and our cohesive curriculum allowed students to apply their knowledge across all subjects for real-world learning and the transfer of their knowledge in creative and expressive ways,” wrote the teachers in their grant proposal. “Unfortunately, the pandemic forced a shift away from these principles to focus more strictly on reading and math instruction to make up for ‘learning loss.’ The negative effects of these changes can be seen in student achievement and the lack of collaboration among teachers.”

An additional COVID casualty was connections that celebrated learning, resulting in isolation from the community, their peers and even themselves. Piotr and Jillian chose to design a fellowship that would reintegrate the school’s IB focus, reunite students, and elevate a global culture within the school community undergoing a demographic shift.

With a $10,000 Fund for Teachers grant, the teaching duo learned the techniques of traditional block printing, eco-friendly dyeing techniques, and about the sustainable fashion industry in India to create a cross-disciplinary unity between art and design that teaches students about sustainability and creating clothing that expresses their identity.

 

Jillian and Piotr wanted to empower their students to model change, not fast fashion that comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions annually. In addition to learning about Indian culture in Jaipur and New Delhi, they also apprenticed with artisans to learning art of traditional block printing on fabric, ecofriendly dyeing techniques, and the country’s emerging sustainable clothing companies.

“Getting a chance to meet the artisans & see how the village of Bagru — where more 400 families live and work to create the majority of the hand printed fabric in India — worked together was inspirational,” said Jill. “I also learned to take things slowly & be flexible. There were times that our plans had to change & instead of getting stressed, we took things in stride & maintained a positive attitude. The fellowship also re-inspired my teaching and provided me with so many unique learning experiences that I couldn’t wait to share with my students!”

Seventh graders in Jillian’s art class and Piotr’s design class wholeheartedly dove into a new hands-on unit this spring. In addition to learning about the fast fashion industry, students carved blocks with a symbol that represented their identity, used it to print their fabric, and then created a hand-sewn outfit with the fabric in their Design class.

The culminating project took place in March — a community wide style show, complete with runway, lights and models of change sporting clothes they made that represent who they are. Watch their premiere here.

The conservation of France’s Camargue wetlands represents the opposite of rags to riches: It’s millionaire to marshlands manager. In 1948, a young heir to the Roche pharmaceutical fortune spent a bit of it to buy an estate in a mosquito-infested, briny marshland. The region also was the second-largest delta draining into the Mediterranean Sea, behind the Nile. Twenty-five-year-old Luc Hoffmann saw the value in preserving the Camargue. And seventy-five years later, FFT Fellow Frederic Allamel saw the value in teaching about it.

“I designed this fellowship to allow learners to better grasp the fate of coastal communities facing ocean-level rise and their attempt to preserve their cultural identity in the context of climate change,” Frederic explained. “Furthermore, the aim of this inclusive approach is to generate empathy towards ethnic minorities striving to preserve their cultural heritage, including nomadic Gypsies and the iconic gardian (the cowboy of the marshes).”

The Fellowship

For seven weeks, Frederic conducted research from the Provencal town of Arles to accomplish three goals:

1. Establish a glossary of the most prominent markers (i.e., ’Provençal’ dialect, vernacular architecture, symbolic bestiary) along with their significance in ‘Camarguaise’ culture.
2. Focus on the articulation of these markers and the fabric of a unique blend of cultures — ‘gardians’, ‘gitans’ (Gypsies), ‘cueilleurs de sel’ (salt gatherers), etc. — through the recording of life histories.
3. Develop a partnership between my students and their peers in Camargue through the creation of visual archives mapping distinctive landscapes and human activities in this threatened region, as well as strategies to cope with climate change.

“Besides the beauty of its landscape (pink marshes surrounded by white salt domes), I experienced firsthand the harshness of this lifestyle, working under the sun in extreme heat and being blinded by the whiteness of the salt,” he said. “It was a challenging body experience, although the camaraderie felt alongside other workers helped me gain their unique sense of place.”

The “Followship”

Now, his students at the International School of Indiana are engaged in a new Global Politics class using data and images Frederic collected on his fellowship. Supporting students’ acquisition of an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, they are working toward projects addressing climate change and societal implications. Additionally, an intrinsic aspect of the IB diploma is a service, which Frederic intends to inject through student involvement with local organizations involved in environmental justice work.

“This fellowship reinforced in my belief that gaining firsthand knowledge is a prerequisite for being an engaged educator whose communication skills rely on experiential-based expertise that aim to be inspirational for students,” Frederic said.

Frederic is a two-time FFT Fellow. In 2017, he designed a fellowship to study Aboriginal arts in central/northern Australia with a focus on environmental symbolism to provide a case study for Anthropology of the Environment students.

“I collected numerous artifacts from the Shipibo Indian tribe with the intention of initiating a long-term class project. Consequently, my students became key actors of the Anthropology Club, whose goal was to design a bilingual catalog (English/Spanish) and curate a show that was eventually on display at Indiana University in Bloomington for a whole year. This project allowed students to develop a strong team spirit while applying a vast array of skills (translation, research, photography, logistics, etc.) to in the end deliver a near-professional publication and exhibition.”

Access that exhibit here.

(Top photo courtesy of the MAVA Foundation for Nature.)

Over the course of my career, I have observed the wide variety of background experiences that students bring to school and how those experiences impact learning. The more confident and savvy learners tend to get the lions’ share of the time, resources, and attention; these same students tend to be from stable homes rarely impacted by poverty and trauma. In my class, every student has a voice, but how do I ensure that they are equally heard and heeded?

Teachers all over the United States are struggling to create and implement working definitions for concepts such as equity, equality, motivation, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Participating in Fund For Teachers’ Innovation Circle on equity and collaborating with my “fellow” Fellows to elevate every students’ voice brought these definitions sharply into focus for me.

I used my Innovation Circle grant to attend the International Baccalaureate workshop on Social Emotional Learning, which incorporated global perspectives, international mindedness, and equity mindsets. During the two virtual summer seminars, I had an aha moment – the more reticent students didn’t lack the materials or time they needed to successfully complete a 5th Grade Exhibition project, but the confidence that they COULD.

After this fellowship, I now understand that one of the greatest factors in helping students achieve equity is helping them develop self-efficacy.

Students from poverty, trauma, and troubled backgrounds often lack the self-efficacy (the belief that they can do a task) to be successful in school, and, by extension, in life. Parent contacts confirmed this and student surveys bore it out. Therefore, I am now focusing more on the development of student self-efficacy in the process of teaching. I have a new perspective on the balance of process and product, and intensive efforts devoted to building student self-efficacy is transforming a once-difficult class into a one filled with successful, positive, motivated students. (see their work below)

A few takeaways from my seminars and group work with Fellows:

• “Equity is the provision of personalized resources needed for all individuals to reach common goals:  the goals and expectations are the same for all students, but the supports needed to achieve those goals depends on the students’ needs” (Latta, 2019).  The supports typically consist of providing students with materials, supplies, time, personnel, and opportunities, all of which are indeed important for students to succeed.
• Inequity in education has been traditionally associated with groups of students who have suffered from discrimination due to their race, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, class, gender, or disability.  I contend that the true inequity lies in a student’s belief in self, based on the experiences and treatment s/he has received. Without belief in self, no amount of materials, supplies, time, personnel, or opportunities can assure success.
• True equity, that which resides in the heart, requires intangible, elusive, but very real  self-efficacy.  Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in his/her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1997).   Self-efficacy reflects an individual’s confidence in his/her ability to exert control over his/her own motivation, behavior, and social environment.  All human experiences – the goals people strive for, the amount of time and energy that is expanded towards meeting the goals, and the likelihood of attaining certain levels of behavioral performance – are all rooted in self-efficacy.

• Self-efficacy focuses on “doing” and self-esteem focuses on “being.” Self-efficacy is the belief that one is able to do and self-esteem is a general feeling of one’s worth as a human being. The self-system is comprised of all of these elements, which manifest themselves in attitudes, abilities, and cognitive skills.  The self-system also plays a major role in how people perceive situations and how they behave in response to different situations (Bandura, 1977).
• Equity in education must include developing self-efficacy in all students.  It does not matter how much “stuff” or time or opportunity a student has.  If s/he does not believe in his/her capacity to execute the necessary behaviors, success will always be out of reach.

The good news is that self-efficacy can be nurtured in four ways:

1. 1. Experiencing mastery experiences;
   2. Witnessing other people successfully completing a task;
   3. Being persuaded through positive verbal encouragement; and
   4. Developing psychological responses by learning how to minimize stress and elevate mood when facing difficult or challenging tasks.

More good news: 94% of my fifth graders are participating in Exhibition, compared with 75% in past years. The IB Fifth Grade Exhibition is scheduled for May 19. We started work on September 2, and we will continue to move forward with Exhibition projects with the 32 kids who are participating. Self-efficacy work is woven into the process, and also with the two students who chose not to participate in Exhibition. The equity portion is having them BELIEVE that they can do it, so that they WILL do it.

Caroline Belden, author and social justice advocate, explains it this way, “Equality is leaving the door open for anyone who has the means to approach it.  Equity is ensuring there is a pathway to the door for those who need it.”

As teachers, we have the power to create that pathway for our students. Teachers want all of our students to succeed, to become productive citizens, and to become lifelong learners.  Equity in the classroom, developed through self-efficacy, will help all students to succeed.

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Janet Key is a three-time FFT Fellow: In 2011, she attended the Clarice Smith National Teacher Institute at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC;  in 2014, she returned to Washington to participate in the Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Physical Sciences (pictured); and in 2021, she received an Innovation Circle Grant to virtually attend the three-day International Baccalaureate conference titled “Your Exhibition” to develop fifth graders research and presentation strategies on a transdisciplinary theme, a required component of the IB Primary Years Programme. Janet is a proud Milwaukee Public Schools teacher since 1985, and retirement is on a distant horizon.  She currently teaches at Lowell International Elementary School, in kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms.

 

In celebration of  International Women’s Day, we share the teaching of Neha Singhal (Montgomery County Public Schools, MD). In one of our more unique fellowships, Neha conducted mini-ethnographic research on the experiences of doulas and other birth workers in New Delhi, India, to increase IB Anthropology students’ understanding of fieldwork and data analysis, and to spark interest in maternal health justice in the United States. Neha exemplifies what can happen when teachers are given the trust to design experiential learning. She combined her educational background (an undergraduate degree in international business, international development and conflict management and a master’s in social justice), previous experience (work with a non-profit on the Texas/Mexico border), and a passion for women’s health to create in-depth, project based learning for students.

My high school was only the second school in our district (the largest in the state) to offer IB Social & Cultural Anthropology and has become one of the few schools in the country to offer such a course. This study, aimed at deciphering the complexities of what makes us the same and different from one another, is extremely relevant for my students who come from 30 countries and speak multiple languages. The subject also corresponds to my commitment as a teacher to develop students’ analysis of history, oppression, power, and social justice to help equip them with the tools necessary to transform themselves and their communities.

In addition to being a social studies teacher, I am also a full-spectrum doula who is trained in providing nonjudgmental support to pregnant people in all decisions and phases of their journey. I became trained in this role after watching a documentary and doing my own research on the experiences of women giving birth at hospitals. It is unacceptable that the U.S. has a steadily increasing maternal mortality rate, which is also the highest in the developed world. There is a clear need for more attention to the issue and community-based solutions, and I used my Fund for Teachers grant to accomplish both.

For one month in 2019, I conducted mini-ethnographic research on the experiences of doulas and other birth workers in New Delhi, India, to understand what challenges and opportunities they see in lowering maternal mortality rates. I chose India partly because it holds significance to me as my birthplace and because the maternal mortality rate has decreased by 22% in the country from 2011 to 2016 according to recent data. I met with individuals in hospitals and nonprofits such as Birth India to collect data through a mixed-methods approach, using both participant observation and interviews, which are two popular methods in cultural anthropology.

Conducting this fieldwork gathering and analyzing data equipped me with new primary resources that now model and support my students’ research inquiries for their IB Anthropology projects. And, undertaking fieldwork helped me become a better teacher because I intimately understand the challenges and excitement that comes with “doing anthropology.” Now that I did the work I ask of my students, I can better explain the process of collecting data and articulating analysis about social phenomena.

Students benefit tremendously when their teachers are given the time to become energized and gain new ideas and perspectives. Teachers who have been invested in, invest in their students in return! The type of learning Fund for Teachers affords allows us to engage in creative experiences that enhance our connections with ourselves and our subject areas. It is also great role-modeling for students to see that teachers are lifelong learners and continue to have passions and goals. As a result of my fellowship, I am now waiting to hear about my acceptance in a PhD program in Cultural Anthropology!

While my fellowship helps me most readily with my 11th and 12th grade IB Anthropology students, with whom I piloted a new Medical Anthropology unit introducing the subfield focused on the impact of social, cultural, and historical forces on health and illness, how illness is experienced by various communities, prevention measures, and the process of healing. However, my experiences in India also benefit my 10th grade students in my U.S. Government class, as well as my Latin American Studies elective course. In my government class we have a unit on domestic policy where I implemented a research project that allows students to pick an issue, such as maternal health, and propose a policy-based solution. Our high school also hosts a medical careers program, which trains a sizable amount of our student population to explore careers in the healthcare industry and my students now present their new learning about birth, public health, and combating maternal mortality to students in the medical careers program.

Learning about issues women face in India regarding birth and realizing how similar those are to what we see in America made me even more confident in creating a unit on maternal health justice. At some point in their lives, it is very likely that students will either know someone pregnant, be the person giving birth, and/or be the partner of someone giving birth. Being in any of these three positions warrants the knowledge of pregnancy and birth as one way to tackle the crisis of maternal mortality in the United States (as well as many other countries). This fellowship is leading to learning outcomes that:

• Help students understand a specific situation (maternal health and birth) both in a global context and in their country of residence and
• Teach the practice of using research to solve real-world problems.

By directing my Fund for Teachers grant to confronting the problem of maternal mortality, I’m positioning my students as the solutionaries of the present and future.

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Neha Singhal is a high school teacher in Maryland who has taught students in several courses: IB Anthropology, Government, U.S. History, Latin American Studies, and College/Career Prep. She has also taught various courses in Asian American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Prior to becoming an educator, Neha worked with La Union del Pueblo Entero, a grassroots immigrant justice organization at the Texas-Mexico border, where she supported organizing efforts to fight for neighborhood development, immigration reform legislation, and workers’ rights.