- About
- Objectives
- Principles
- Registration
- Financial Assistance and Group Discounts
- Transportation & Lodging
About
Learn more about the Equity & Inclusion Institute from past participants
About the Equity & Inclusion Institute
Designed to promote personal and pedagogical growth, Nueva’s Equity & Inclusion (EII) Institute equips teachers and school leaders with tangible tools to construct more inclusive, equitable, and identity-affirming school communities. Through a collaborative, project-based liberatory-design model, the institute emboldens educators to disrupt the status quo in service of creating transformational change.
Nueva's EII is a supportive and brave space that provides
- Foundational knowledge of identity and power to inform your work in schools.
- Concrete strategies and tools for leveraging change into your classroom, pedagogical practices , and broader school community.
- The opportunity to engage in group-work with a team of educators around a particular problem-of-practice.
- The opportunity to leverage liberatory-design principles to respond to a problem-of-practice.
- An opportunity to practice self-care while exploring your own identities and biases in the company of other educators committed to creating equitable educational environments.
Why attend?
- To gain a nuanced understanding of how power manifests in schools
To examine your own identity in the context of your professional practice
To build a community of educators committed to building cultures of belonging in schools
To learn how to leverage change within schools from a place of both individual and institutional knowledge
To learn how to incorporate self-care into your equity and inclusion practices
Who is this event for?
This institute is suitable for all preK–12 educators, especially:
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Teachers interested in crafting cultures of belonging in their classrooms.
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School leaders who aim to build cultures of inclusion and equitable systems into their schools ecosystems.
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Trustees who aim to gain a more nuanced understanding of how equity and inclusion works manifests across different facets of school communities.
Objectives
By the end of the Institute, participants will be able to
- understand the necessity of doing one's own internal work as it relates to issues of identity, bias, power, and privilege.
- speak to the social identities, power, and positionality they hold and how these identities impact their work in diverse school ecosystems.
- apply a historical and theoretical framework to their work of creating more diverse, equitable, and inclusive school and classroom communities.
- leverage liberatory-design to respond to problems-of-practice within schools
- transfer learning to their own learning school communities
- draw from the knowledge of a diverse community of thought partners, co-conspirators, supporters of this work as they return to their own schools.
Identity work is the foundation of transformational school change
The work of diversifying communities, building inclusive and equitable systems, eradicating injustice, and embedding this work in curricula requires tremendous emotional labor, strategic thinking, and a complex understanding of historical processes. And while this work is immensely tactical, this work is also deeply personal. It demands we engage in a deep and often messy process of introspection and self-reflection. It requires us to confront the power we hold. It necessitates that we think expansively about the sources of knowledge from which we draw.
More often than not, diversity, equity, and inclusion work can feel like a sisyphean endeavor. Yet, our task is also deeply joyous. When students critically interrogate who they are and how they move through the world, they equip themselves with the tools to leverage change from a place of empowerment and self-understanding. As members of a global community and as folks who care for children in schools, our work is to keep pushing the boulder up the hill. And when we fail—which we know we inevitably will—to return to the task once again. Through Nueva’s Equity and Inclusion Institute, we as a community will engage in the work of creating transformational learning experiences for students and colleagues alike. We will look inwards. We will look outwards. And, most importantly, we will water the seeds of our expansive dreams!
Project-based Learning
The Equity & Inclusion Project is a core facet of Nueva’s EII experience. Working in teams of two to four, you will identify a problem-of-practice and conduct a systems-analysis of the surrounding school ecosystem. Your team’s final deliverable will constitute a theory of change that you will present at the EII Expo on Friday, June 20. This project-based model will enable you to bridge the chasm between theory and practice, as you will apply the concepts explored during the institute to the real and messy work of diving change in schools. And–who knows– perhaps you put your theory of change into action in your school this fall!
Equity and Inclusion Project: Problems of Practice Selection
All Equity and Inclusion Project problems-of-practice come directly from EII participants. Our intention is that you bring diversity, equity, or inclusion related problems or pain points—not solutions—to be workshopped with your teammates. For this institute, we request you remain open to the process of understanding and analyzing institutional needs and actively resist jumping to solutions. As Albert Einstein argued, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” Ours is the work of understanding problems.
The problem-of-practice submission process begins prior to the start of the official program, allowing time to submit and narrow the list of ideas that will eventually constitute your project.
Here’s how it works:
- If you have a problem-of-practice you are excited about workshopping, you will submit your idea as part of your registration. While you are not required to submit a problem-of-practice, you are highly encouraged to do so. *Note as part of the liberatory design process, your team will be asked to interview colleagues within your school in order to better understand their distinct needs. Prior to submitting your problem-of-practice, please connect with your colleagues about this.
- At the end of Day 1 of the institute we will host a “speed-dating” session in which problem-posers can pitch their projects to the group. Interested in what someone else is working on? Join their team! Struggling with a similar problem as someone else in the room? Link-up and learn from each other's knowledge.
- Each team will be comprised of two-to-four participants. If more than four folks are interested in exploring a similar challenge, you will splinter and form two smaller groups.
While problem-posers provide their group with the problem-of-practice, they do not play the role of team-leader. Group members need to decide how they will organize around decision-making and leadership for the project component of this institute.
Principles
"There is no such thing as a neutral education."
- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970
Renowned educator and philosopher Paulo Freire believed education either prepares citizens to conform to current systems of inequitable power and privilege—therefore perpetuating those systems—or, it can serve as “a practice of freedom,” preparing citizens to challenge systems of oppression and “participate in the transformation of their world.”
With Freire’s work as our foundation, we propose an educator activist framework that includes seven "Principles of Critically Conscious Education." We believe that educator activists must actively confront the injustices of the past in order to reveal the inequities of the present and boldly envision and build a collective future together.
Principles of Critically Conscious Education:
- Approach issues of identity and equity with courage and curiosity.
- Understand the ways that systemic oppression was historically created and is currently maintained, resulting in present societal inequities.
- Recognize the ways your social positionality informs your educational practice including your methods, materials, perspectives, reactions, and interactions.
- Identify how current social inequities manifest within your classroom, school, community, and the lived experiences of your students and colleagues.
- Boldly move beyond what is; to radically re-envision what could be.
- Commit to critically conscious practices that intentionally and consistently uphold counter-narratives to systemic oppression.
- Understand that this work is grounded in radical joy, healing, dignity and love in the service of the Beloved Community.
Registration
Registration coming soon
Registration for EII is $800. The registration fee includes four full days of workshops, continental breakfast, lunch, snacks, and a curriculum binder. Participants are responsible for arranging their own hotel accommodations and this is not included in the registration fee. Please refer to the Transportation & Lodging tab for more information.
We encourage schools and organizations to send teams whenever possible as we have found institutional learning and implementation is more impactful when teams come together. Correspondingly, we offer a group discount—5 registrations for the price of 4. For more information email equityinclusioninstitute@nuevaschool.org. Please note: Attendance is limited to 7 participants from a school or institution, and all participants need to complete the registration form for themselves as it includes questions about specific food allergies, accommodations, and emergency contacts, among others.
All program participation fees are due in advance to confirm your registration and participation. Financial assistance is available. Please select the "Financial Awards" tab above to complete the applications. For questions, please contact equityinclusioninstitute@nuevaschool.org for more information.
Any cancellation and refund requests must be submitted in writing via email to equityinclusioninstitute@nuevaschool.org.
Financial Assistance and Group Discounts
We offer a group discount of 5 registrations for the price of 4. For more information, please email equityinclusioninstitute@nuevaschool.org.
Please note: Attendance to EII is limited to 7 participants from a school or institution.
Financial assistance awards are available for educators who do not have access to adequate professional development funds. Please complete the form below to apply for a financial award.
Transportation & Lodging
While we do not provide shuttles or other forms of transportation to Nueva, our Hillsborough campus is a short ride from the hotels listed below and is easily accessible from Interstate 280. Uber and Lyft are also widely available in our area.
If you will be joining us from out of town, we recommend looking into the following hotels for your accommodations, which are all within a 15-minute drive to and from our campus. There are many other hotels in the area and we encourage you to please do additional web research for other hotel options.
- Hyatt Regency
- 1333 Bayshore Highway, Burlingame 94010
- Westin San Francisco
1 Old Bayshore Highway, Millbrae 94030 - Aloft San Francisco Airport
401 E Millbrae Ave, Millbrae 94030 - Hilton San Francisco Airport Bayfront
600 Airport Blvd., Burlingame 94010 - Bay Landing Hotel
1550 Bayshore Hwy. Burlingame 94010 - Embassy Suites*
150 Anza Boulevard Burlingame 94010 - Best Western Coyote Point Inn
480 N Bayshore Boulevard San Mateo 94401 - Crowne Plaza
1177 Airport Boulevard, Burlingame 94010 - The Dylan Hotel at SFO
110 S El Camino Real, Millbrae 94030
If you utilize sites such as expedia.com or hotwire.com, search for hotels in San Mateo, Foster City, Burlingame, or Millbrae.
*The Nueva School has secured a fixed-rate discount of $159 at Embassy Suites, which includes breakfast and cocktails. Use this link to take advantage of this rate.
Dates
Jun 20–23, 2023
Cost
$800
Location
Hillsborough Campus
6565 Skyline Blvd.
Hillsborough, CA 94010
Questions?
Email us at equityinclusioninstitute@nuevaschool.org.