Dr. Django Paris hosted a workshop over lunch about teaching pedagogies and and how to reform the techniques of teaching in the classroom.
Over lunch, Andover faculty and students discussed teaching techniques to promote educational justice across classrooms with Dr. Django Paris, Director of the Banks Center for Educational Justice at The University of Washington at Seattle. Paris encouraged participants to reflect on current teaching methodologies and examine ways to reform them.
Jineyda Tapia, Instructor in English, spoke on Paris’s teaching philosophy and the notion of a culturally sustaining pedagogy, which he explored in depth within the workshop. Tapia mentioned how the model manifests at Andover and is intertwined with Andover’s non sibi motto.
“The idea is that you sustain people where they are at, that the purpose of education is not only to have democratic access to education but also to meet students where they are at. There should be places where we can sustain you, and by you I mean your culture, your languages, your likes, your dislikes, and give you freedom within that classroom space, deconstructing some of the hierarchies that may cause you harm in the educational space… What’s really cool about the workshop is [Dr. Paris] tied it to non sibi. At Phillips Academy, ‘non sibi’ is one of the things we claim everywhere, and that actually is culturally sustaining. It’s not for self but for the community,” said Tapia.
She continued, highlighting the faculty turnout at the event across all departments, rather than being limited to the humanities. Tapia expressed her pleasant surprise toward the willingness of Andover faculty to reexamine their own methods and hold such difficult conversations.
“When I came into [Dr. Paris’s] workshop on Friday, I was mind-blown at seeing people from the math department, the science department, and the language departments. It wasn’t just History and English, because the stereotype is sometimes that the humanities are the ones who do this work. So I came out of [the workshop] really enthusiastic and hopeful, knowing how amazing the faculty are but really seeing it in space. Because [Dr. Paris] was really asking some tough questions and we were all so introspective. I had never seen faculty in that kind of learning space here. It was a new experience for me in that sense, so it was exciting,” said Tapia.
Eliot B. Sykes, Director of MS Squared, Andover’s longest-running educational outreach program, mentioned his excitement to utilize the workshop as an opportunity to hear his coworkers’ thoughts and techniques, in addition to engaging with Dr. Paris’ work. He spoke on how conversations fostered by Dr. Paris could equal or exceed the impact of Dr. Paris’ work itself.
“I was looking forward to the conversation with whoever my peers were gonna be. I read Dr. Paris’ work during my own graduate school when I was doing my doctorate, so I was familiar enough with it. I didn’t necessarily feel that I needed a one-on-one or a lesson in it, so I was more interested in hearing what other people’s takeaways and thoughts were and how they were applying it to their own work,” said Sykes.
Sykes also highlighted the importance of having such conversations at Andover. He commented on how preoccupied faculty often are with their individual work, resulting in less exposure to new ideas within other circles. Sykes emphasized that the workshop helped cultivate discussion to broaden ideas.
“We can, especially these days, be locked into some very small circles, if not individual spaces of thought production, where we don’t open ourselves up to new ideas to question what it is we think and what it is we believe. So having opportunities to share space with people, to ask questions, and to answer questions is very important,” said Sykes.
