Liberated Learning

Kisa and Mike continue their conversation with Mike Brown and Nick Terrones. Mike Brown states that “most of teaching is in the gray area, but we talk about it as if it’s black and white.” If we are going to talk about the gray areas, we must do the same thing we do to be an attuned educator: slow down, reflect, and revisit our ideas.   In this episode, we talk about Mike and Nick's podcast Napcas...

This week, Kisa and Mike talk with Mike Brown and Nick Terrones about magick in the classroom. Liberated teaching is about being in the moment, but that can take years to achieve. There are countless skills to use, but over time you discover that you can't force these skills on children. Often, the best thing you can do is nothing except be reflective and responsive to what is happening.   We talk...

This week, we share an episode of Pre-Primary Sources where Lizz Nolasco talks to Kisa and Mike about racial identity development.   Anti-Racist and Anti-Bias education are (should be) part of all educator training; but what do we know about how children develop positive racial identity? Kisa Marx and Mike Huber (Liberated Learning podcast) join Lizz Nolasco to talk about a small piece of racial i...

When children and adults can show up as their authentic selves, it fundamentally changes the culture of the group, both when they are part ot the group and when they leave. Each cohort will develop its own culture whether that means the painters, the searchers for dinosaur bones, or the donkey-kickers. The way they get down—the ethos--stays the same. The way the rock out—the culture—changes as the...

Interdependence is a part of liberation. So is autonomy. Kisa and Mike return to an issue they first discussed in episode LL021. The balance of interdependence and autonomy requires ongoing discussion. We don't have to choose one over the other but rather power with a child whenever possible and power for a child when it is needed. By focusing on each child's agency, children become active in thei...

We are inundated with sensory input every moment. We learn to filter out information that seems insignificant while also making assumptions. We couldn't interact with others or move about in the world without these abilities. But if we're not careful, we can rely on our unconscious biases. We need to reflect on our actions and make changes when we notice these biases showing up. We must also remem...

Kisa and Mike talk about the idea of Joy as Resistance. We need to resist the idea that people of the global majority are trauma vessels. Nobody is. Everyone deserves joy and everyone can experience trauma. Acknowledging this does not mean we ignore how disparate people's experiences can be. In the musical Hadestown, Orpheus is introduced with the line, "He could make you see how the world could b...

Code switching is perspective shifting. It involves the cultural context of the speaker and the intended audience. Kisa and Mike discuss some of the gray areas of code switching. They then pivot to working with children and the importance of flexibility and taking each child's perspective.  Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Th...

When we talk to other educators, we want to be clear and intentional. But that does not mean each of us will use the same words. Kisa finds that Chat GPT will whitewash her words when she uses her Southside vernacular. Mike's white suburban upbringing more closely mirrors normative language. All communication has a cultural context. Kisa and Mike talk through ways they choose when to use academic...

When we Interact with children, we often use scripts, phrases we can repeat to get children engaged. Scripts can be helpful for beginning a conversation or working through emotional times. But relying too much on a script can take us out of the moment. We need to be sure to connect to the child, not the script.   Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Ins...

Our conversation with Cay Burton turns more personal when Cay talks about their hope to be the adult they needed when they were a child. Cay reminds us that we don't need to have all the answers. We just need to approach difference with compassion, acceptance and love.  Cay's article can be downloaded using this link:  https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/jcs/issue/view/1643   Cayley Burton (she/the...

Liberation requires that each member of a community feels free to be themselves while accepting others for being themselves. Our differences are gifts--not threats--to collective well-being. We continue our discussion with Cay Burton focusing on how adult fears can interrupt children's appreciation of the range of human experience.  Cay's article can be downloaded using this link:  https://journal...

LL029 It's Also Mermaid Tails  Rudine Sims Bishop once wrote, "Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us." But because human experience varies from person to person, what each of us sees also varies. When educators read to children, adult interpretations and goals for children too often get in the way of things; children live what they know of their lives. We continue our d...

This week we are joined by Cayley Burton to talk about their article, Queer Circle Time: Inviting Children’s Responses to 2SLGBTQI+ Picture Books. We talk about the importance of representation; children having mirrors that reflect an aspect of their experience. The talk quickly goes deeper and talks about the need for educators to take the time to let children express themselves authentically. Wh...

Actions speak louder than words, but words matter. The power is in matching words with actions. We teach a child to ask, "Is there anything I can do?" rather than "Sorry," so they understand that apologizing requires action, not just words. Coaching a teacher is more effective when you tell them one thing to focus on and then have them observe and try it out. Intentionality is the key whether usin...

Being an educator is vulnerable because we are showing an early draft of our authentic self. We can't improve our practice until we let others see how we show up. Then we need to let the children and our co-workers inspire us to be our best educator self. Like everything, we may feel a bit of imposter syndrome when we try something new, but over time, we can integrate practices that are working an...

Listening to others means more than simply hearing the words that are spoken. Young children have the same complicated feelings adults do, but they have limited ways to express those feelings. What the child is feeling internally matters. This calls upon the adults caring for that child to take on the child's perspective when listening to them. And like much of what we learn from caring for childr...

LL024 Seeing the Other  This week we have an unfiltered conversation about race, gender, and class. Kisa and Mike then reflect on the conversation and see how the topics share a thread of how to see the humanity in others. This can be easier said than done because we experience the world from our own perspective. We need to be able to notice when we are ignoring the perspective of others. Once aga...

Learning is not linear, especially for neurodivergent people. Yet too often our learning institutions are structured as if it is. In high school, the day is often divided into periods of 45 minutes, so students jump from one subject to another. It’s hard to imagine an artist being told to stop working after 45 minutes so they can go swimming and then learn about history. In early childhood, childr...

Equity means everyone gets what they need. But before that can happen, relationships and trust need to be established. Young children often articulate their needs through their actions. When we have a strong relationship with the child, we see both the child’s genius and their needs. When the relationship is cursory, a child’s needs can be seen as deficits and the child can be seen as a diagnosis....

This week we have our first guests. Emma and Amanda Worms share how Emma’s autism diagnosis caused the school to focus on her perceived deficits rather than her humanity. In an attempt to support her, the school took away her agency and her parent’s agency. Eve Trook says that when power is exercised on a child, the child is oppressed. When power is exercised for a child, the child is facilitated,...

When Kisa needed a sense of safety as a child, she didn’t need a teacher asking lots of questions, no matter how well intentioned. She needed someone nearby, someone to come to her quiet. How many children could we, as teachers, connect with if we approached them with quiet attentiveness. Children do this with each other frequently, but we don’t always notice because of a false hierarchy of play. ...

Nature cannot be experienced just watching on a screen or through a window. We don’t just see nature; we hear it, smell it, and feel it. What can we learn from our own experiences in nature? The more we take the time to slow down and truly appreciate all nature has to give, the more we notice. But nature doesn’t change; our understanding does.   Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike...

Like much in life, showing up is the first step. Nature is not just good for children, it’s good for all living things, even grownups. Kisa and Mike share stories of the things they discovered by just being outside. The exuberance of nature allows for opportunities for us to be in awe right along with children. When we liberate ourselves, we don’t just open ourselves to life-long learning, but lif...

Nature is all around us as long as we have earth, air, sky, and water. Getting outside exposes children to the diversity of nature—the various shades of green, the insects flying by, the fluctuations in temperature. It also can make us aware of the diversity of the children in our care. Nature-based play is more common in white spaces, but nature is for everyone. In this episode, Kisa and Mike add...