- About Us
-
Inquiry Series
-
Current Year 24 - 25 School Year
>
- September: From where are we drawing hope to sustain the antiracist work ahead of us
- Fall: How does your community practice hope and grief in collectivity?
- November: How does your community practice hope and grief in collectivity?
- December: How do we imagine the world we’re working towards seven generations in the future?
- January: How do we build a school culture and design curriculum that engages critical hope?
- Previous Inquiry Series
- Inquiry Resources >
-
Current Year 24 - 25 School Year
>
- Summer Events
- Advocacy
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
Join BARWE for a Virtual Event in January
We are organizing and preparing to defend against attacks on the communities and work we center: immigrants, trans people, and the critical and antiracist study of history.
For our event on January 15th, from 7:30-9:00 PM EST, we will create an opportunity to build community and consider our path forward. We will use our year’s theme (from grief to hope to action) to guide our conversations.
We hope you will join us. Register here!
Overview:
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade wrote his essay, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete,” at the start of Barack Obama’s presidency. We are putting this essay to work at the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Under Obama’s presidency, we faced the challenge not to be swept up in mythical hope. Under another Trump presidency, we face the challenge of cultivating a practice of critical hope to combat fear, isolation, and exhaustion. How do we cultivate a real, lived practice of hope when we are not feeling hopeful?
Duncan-Andrade’s essay will guide the next two months of inquiry. His essay is written for those teaching in an under-resourced school but remains relevant beyond that context.
The discussion questions break up the essay such that January focuses on the three false hopes and February focuses on the three elements of critical hope.
Primary Resource: “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete”
Discussion Questions:
January: False Hopes (P. 181-185)
February: Critical Hope (P. 185-192)
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
We have made edits to our feedback form, with the hopes that you find it faster and more straightforward to fill out. Please have one person in your group take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went. It is very helpful to hear from you, and helps build our connection to you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
“Juntos is a community-led, Latine immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants.” Donate here.
Don't forget to give us feedback!
Join BARWE for a Virtual Event in January
We are organizing and preparing to defend against attacks on the communities and work we center: immigrants, trans people, and the critical and antiracist study of history.
For our event on January 15th, from 7:30-9:00 PM EST, we will create an opportunity to build community and consider our path forward. We will use our year’s theme (from grief to hope to action) to guide our conversations.
We hope you will join us. Register here!
Overview:
Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade wrote his essay, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete,” at the start of Barack Obama’s presidency. We are putting this essay to work at the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Under Obama’s presidency, we faced the challenge not to be swept up in mythical hope. Under another Trump presidency, we face the challenge of cultivating a practice of critical hope to combat fear, isolation, and exhaustion. How do we cultivate a real, lived practice of hope when we are not feeling hopeful?
Duncan-Andrade’s essay will guide the next two months of inquiry. His essay is written for those teaching in an under-resourced school but remains relevant beyond that context.
The discussion questions break up the essay such that January focuses on the three false hopes and February focuses on the three elements of critical hope.
Primary Resource: “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete”
Discussion Questions:
January: False Hopes (P. 181-185)
- How does Duncan-Andrade define or distinguish each of the three false hopes - hokey hope, mythical hope, hope deferred?
- Think of a time when you experienced one of the false hopes Duncan-Andrade references - hokey, mythical, deferred. Journal for five minutes using the questions below and then share in pairs or small groups.
- What happened? Who was involved?
- Locate yourself in your story. How did you act/respond/interact?
- What emotions did/do you associate with this experience? Are they positive or negative?
- What questions did/does it raise for you?
- What happened? Who was involved?
- Where do you see any of these false hopes - hokey, mythical, deferred - reflected in your school? Consider the culture of the school as well as the curriculum.
February: Critical Hope (P. 185-192)
- Material Hope: How can we as educators support our students with the resources they need to gain a sense of control and agency in the face of social stressors?
- Socratic Hope: How can we as educators support our students to courageously examine self and society, too often a painful process in an unjust society?
- Audacious Hope: How can we as educators cultivate the solidarity, care, and healing involved with audacious hope, or as Duncan-Andrade puts it in metaphor: “to collectively struggle to replace the concrete completely with a rose garden”?
- How do we build a school culture and design curriculum that engages critical hope?
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders. If you’re meeting in person, snacks are always a good idea!
- Send this month’s journal prompt to your group. Look through the additional readings to see if there is another reading that might be better suited to your group and its interests.
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
Feedback Form:
We have made edits to our feedback form, with the hopes that you find it faster and more straightforward to fill out. Please have one person in your group take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went. It is very helpful to hear from you, and helps build our connection to you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
“Juntos is a community-led, Latine immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants.” Donate here.