by Wendy Fischman
We have just wrapped up our Project Zero annual Summer Institute—when hundreds of educators from all over the world come to Cambridge to learn about Project Zero research and practice methods. It is always an energizing experience for us researchers—it is a reminder for many of us that we are fortunate to do work that is engaging and stimulating, and attendees always make us feel as though it is important and helpful to their own work‚ which is rewarding for us to hear.
Lynn and I taught the GoodWork Toolkit course twice, and we had two very different, very interesting groups. In the first group we had twenty participants, and in the second course, we had nine. Though sometimes, as a presenter, it is energizing to have a large group of participants, the smaller group can be more intimate and sometimes easier to get to know on a more personal level. We followed the same agenda (of course staying flexible to participants’ needs), which is similar to the one posted on this site…. (link pasted below).
In this course and in other presentations and seminars, we have used the narrative of Meg hundreds of times. Meg is an Asian-American actress who is unsure about accepting a role in play that she feels degrades stereotypes of her own race. Interestingly, last week we heard a comment we had never heard before (if you have not yet read this narrative, see the link below). In each of the two different sessions during last week’s institute, a participant suggested that Meg might be in the wrong profession. If her goal is to undermine racial stereotypes, perhaps she should think about becoming an academic, a writer, or a journalist—not an actress. How can she take a role that compromises this goal? Our participants argued that being an actress is not going to satisfy her goal—and that should not be her mission as an actress. What do you think? Do you agree with these two institute participants?
The other tidbit that we learned from this year’s course related to the Value Sort Activity. A participant suggested that it would be interesting to have her peers sort the values in terms of how they think she would sort them. She was interested in how her peers interpret her own values and what is most important in her work. I thought this would be fascinating.
Lastly, one other important note: in addition to being able to sort your values on this site, we now have new and improved Value Sort cards available (for purchase), as well as two new resources: a narrative volume (with some new narratives) and a guidebook (with suggested structure for educators who want to use the GoodWork materials and need some guidance). We are very excited about these revised resources, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about them.