Expansion of Existing Work

Free Minds, Free People 2009. Free Minds is back! In 2007 we co-sponsored a national conference on Education for Liberation in Chicago that drew more than 400 teachers, community-based educators, academics, high school students and college students. For more information on that conference, visit the online archive. We have convened a team to plan another Free Minds, Free People in Houston in June, 2009.  

Planning to Change the World 2009-2010. Our first social justice teacher’s lesson plan book, published in partnership with the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), was a huge success. We sold more than 1,900 books to educators across the country. The network plans to work with NYCoRE to create a 2009-2010 plan book next year, and we have already secured research support from The Nation magazine.

EdLib Lab. Our online database of social justice teaching materials was launched in September, 2007. We will continue to add materials to this online database and publish the lab report, a monthly summary of materials added to the database the previous month. We also plan to continue talkin ‘bout, our online discussion series about important topics in liberatory education. We are also considering other website updates such as a news feed and discussion groups.

American Educational Research Association (AERA) social networking event. In March the network co-hosted a social gathering for liberatory educators that took place during AERA’s annual meeting in New York. Participants (about a quarter of whom were high school students) enjoyed presentations by seven New York organizations and schools doing different types of Education for Liberation work. We plan to co-host a similar gathering when AERA comes to San Diego next year.

How Did They Do That?. This project will document the work of groups doing replicable, inexpensive, innovative social justice education projects. The documentation will take the form of online how-to kits illustrated with photos, video, audio and graphics that detail how the organization did the project for those interested in replicating the work in their own communities. How Did They Do That? was started this year, but had to be postponed due to lack of funding. It will continue in 2009.

New Work

Youth organizer exchange. The network plans to develop a program that will support youth organizers to meet with their peers from other parts of the country in order to exchange ideas and experiences and possibly participate in training. The conference will be used as a forum to pilot this program.

National meet ups. On one day this spring we plan to host a series of simultaneous meet ups across the country where educators can connect with others in their communities who share their interests and values. Some of these meet ups will be hosted by network Advisory Board members, but we will be seeking volunteers who can host a meet up in their area.

Membership program. We will launch membership profile tool online that will allow people to post information about themselves and search for other members by interest, geography and other criteria--a mini facebook for social justice educators. We will also invite people to become full fledged members of the network by paying annual dues. Current services such as the database and listserv will remain available to all members, dues-paying or not. 

Database of evaluation tools. We will develop a searchable, online database of tools that community organizations use to evaluate the effectiveness of their political education programs.