Considering the role of the 3Es in promoting racial justice

by Shelby Clark, Lynn Barendsen, and Daniel Mucinskas

To our readers: The Good Project has, for the past 25 years, been interested in finding ways to help individuals reflect on how to do “good work”—work that is excellent, ethical, and engaging. In light of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and other Black people in America, we feel that one contribution we can make to the ongoing conversations regarding how to bring about racial justice is to help people think about and reflect upon the connections between what it means to do “good work” and racial justice. In this blog, we discuss some of our current thoughts regarding how The Good Project’s ideas might further issues of equity and racial justice in the world.

However, as we wrote this blog about how to think through the 3Es of good work and businesses' performative virtue signaling of support of the Black Lives Matter movement, we thought about whether this blog is a similar form of virtue signaling; is this an easy way for us, a predominantly white research group, to ease our guilt? We discussed the pros and cons of posting this blog, and ultimately, given our commitment to promoting reflection, felt that encouraging reflective practices towards promoting racial justice was better than remaining silent at this time. We know, though, that this blog is just a beginning in our own work towards supporting racial equity and that we have more work to do. We welcome your feedback, and are here to learn.

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In a recent blogpost, the researchers of The Good Project noted our unequivocal belief that Black Lives Matter.

The recent death of George Floyd has made apparent our own need to continually review our roles in promoting structural racism. Moreover, as we seek to encourage reflection and introspection as strategies to help people to do good in the world, we need to think about how these methods can be used to bring about a more racially just future.

As you consider your own work or profession, think of the 3Es of Good Work-- excellence, ethics, and engagement. How can excellent, ethical, and engaging work facilitate just, equitable, and humane work?

For example, some companies, such as Zillow, Amazon, and Nordstrom, have recently been posting on social media in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Yet now several big name companies have been called out by former employees for using such maneuvers as public relations stunts rather than true indications of company values. 

You might ask yourself whether your own company or workplace is fulfilling the 3Es in an effort to promote racial justice. For example:

Ethics: How can a company best fulfill its responsibilities in this situation? Is signalling support for the Black Lives Matter movement online an important step in the fulfillment of professional responsibility, even if it is not echoed elsewhere in an institution’s values? What are the other important ethical steps a company should take to demonstrate support of this movement, either via its mission, the impact of its work, or beyond? Should individual workers be held responsible/accountable, and if so, how? As one example, was it right for Amy Cooper to be fired from her job for calling the police on a Black man, Christian Cooper, bird watching in New York’s Central Park?

Excellence: Do you consider posting support for BLM online excellent work, done to the best of a company’s ability? If not, how might an organization more excellently signal their support for BLM? What is the relationship between excellence in business and racial justice?

Engagement: Does posting support online for BLM indicate engagement with this issue, or that this is a meaningful area of work for an organization? If not, how might engagement be better expressed? Consider the individual workers in a company and how they may or may not find personal meaning in the company’s actions. How should a business give voice to all of its workers, and if there are dissenting opinions - for example, voices that are skeptical for whatever reason about racial justice - what are the company’s responsibilities?

Certainly many other organizations and workers are encountering questions of how to best fulfill their roles justly and ethically during this moment. For example, some small business owners have had to weigh whether to continue protesting when their own businesses are being looted.

As you think about ways to move forward as a worker or company, consider these suggestions from the Harvard Business Review about how to create inclusivity in the workplace:

• Make sure diversity and inclusion are core values of your institution and hold leaders accountable to these values;

• Hire people of color and provide them with mentors in the workplace who will help advocate for their voices and advancement;

• Create safe workplaces for people of color;

• Recognize bias and have all staff participate in de-biasing trainings; and

• Emphasize the business case for diversity and inclusion.

What are other questions and actions you think are important for you and for companies and organizations to be asking and doing to promote racial justice and equity in the world?

The Good Project and COVID-19

by Howard Gardner, Shelby Clark, and Kirsten McHugh

At this time—unprecedented for almost everyone—it is important for those of us who have so far remained healthy to consider what we might do that is constructive for others. And for those of us who curate this website, the following question arises and looms large: After over two decades of research, can The Good Project offer anything that might address current challenges?  To be sure, in no way can we be as timely and as helpful as researchers who are investigating the disease and/or attempting to find a treatment or vaccine. But we believe that the conceptual toolkit that we have created might be helpful.

On the project we speak about the ethics of roles—the thoughts and behaviors that are appropriate for the role of ‘professional’ or ‘worker’ as well as for the role of citizen.

Take the role of scientific researcher: We believe that the researcher should be well informed—or excellent; given the stakes, we assume that the researcher would be deeply engaged. But it is crucial as well that the researcher be ethical—continuously pondering what’s the better course of action in the current environment.

To list just two issues:

1. Should preliminary promising results be published and promulgated, or should one hold back until proper analyses have been carried out and necessary controls have been implemented?

2. Should one share all of one’s findings with other research laboratories, including ones with which one usually competes; or should one hold back, so that the credit (or the blame) remains squarely within one’s own laboratory?

Turn, next, to the role of citizen—for convenience, let’s assume that you are a citizen of the United States. We hope that you know and obey the laws that govern our form of government. We hope that you also are engaged as a citizen—keeping up with the news, discussing what you are learning, writing letters, voting, perhaps volunteering to help with ongoing restorative efforts in your community. But it’s also important that you confront the ethical dilemmas of a citizen:

For example, should you support efforts to vote by absentee ballot (safe but open to tampering or delays); or, instead, should you push for voting that can occur in a neighborhood but without risking the health of anyone else in the precinct?

In thinking about these issues, it is also useful to consider what we have termed the rings of responsibility. As you ponder “to whom or what do you feel responsible,” try to think beyond yourself and your family. In addition, consider more broadly your trade, the community in which you live, and even the broader geographic regions of our planet.

In addition to the ethics of roles, COVID also raises issues of neighborly morality—the range of situations addressed in the Ten Commandments and in the Golden Rule. We have all observed individuals who wear face masks and maintain social distance, as well as individuals who flaunt one or both of these norms. One does not require professional training or courses in citizenship to understand that by such flaunting, one is putting at risk not only oneself but also all those with whom one comes in contact. Not only does a mask-less mien violate the Golden Rule—it foregrounds particular disrespect to those who are older or have medical conditions and, accordingly, are more vulnerable.

Returning to the area of work, we raise one more timely issue. In our professional roles, each of us faces a personal dilemma: Should we devote all of our efforts to addressing the challenges posed by COVID19? Should we, instead, continue doing our customary work as best we can—noting that our ability to draw on our expertise in this situation is strictly limited? Or should we try to strike some kind of balance?

In recent Good Project blogs. we have taken up these questions and tensions. For example, in “The Financial Fallout of COVID-19: Business as Usual?" our colleague Daniel Mucinskas takes up the tension between a local Boston tenant who has lost his job due to COVID-19 and who has appealed to his apartment landlord for an extension on his rent. In this case, the landlord has to consider both his ethics of roles as a landlord, but also his role as a citizen during these difficult pandemic times.

In another COVID19-related blog entitled, “Remotely Polite and Professional,” Kirsten McHugh discussed how communicating online via Zoom can raise new ethical dilemmas. This blog describes how private chat transcripts between two other colleagues were released after a Zoom call. The transcripts reveal that a woman’s colleagues had ridiculed her weight. The woman then must pit consideration of neighborly morality versus the ethics of roles. To be specific,  she debates whether to approach her colleagues directly about their insensitivity—or instead to put her professional ethics first and report her colleagues directly to the relevant officer of HR (Human Resources). Such situations highlight how the “new normal” of COVID can foreground issues of neighborly morality, ethics of roles, and the role of a citizen.

On The Good Project, we regularly employ a tool—the 5Ds—designed to help individuals or teams determine which course of action to follow. When faced with a difficult decision, we work as a team to:

1. Define the Dilemma: Through conversation (over email, in person, or remote), we explain the overview of the situation and what we currently see as the possible options.

2. Discuss the Dilemma: In as much detail as possible, group members consider alternative viewpoints and scenarios.

3. Debate the Dilemma: We think through the pros and cons of each course of action, including whatever new options emerge. We each try to determine the optimal approach.

4. Deciding: We make a final decision on the best next steps, considering all we have discussed.

5.   Debriefing: No matter what the outcome, after a reasonable amount of time has played out and events unfold following out decision and action, we re-examine our process. We reflect on what we did right and what we could have done better. This step is key in making better decisions in the future.

Once one uses the 5Ds regularly, it becomes second nature to apply this procedure to matters big and small. As an example, we recently heard from a publisher interested in using our materials but concerned about a decades-old funder listed in the acknowledgements of the original work. First, a team member flagged the email and request as a matter that should be considered carefully and shared the communication with the rest of the team. Second, the group met online to discuss the problem space and what we saw as possible next steps. Third, we debated the merits and downfalls of each available option, trying our best to think of any short- and long-term repercussions (both positive and negative). Should we delete the funders name, leave the document “as is”, add an explanation of our termination of the funding relationship, or is there some other alternative scenario? Next, we came back together as a group and agreed upon the appropriate course of action. We reached out to the requester with our final decision. Ultimately, once enough time has passed, we will revisit this scenario and examine how our decisions played out—good or bad.

This is but one recent example—the 5Ds can be applied to any of the dilemmas outlined here.

In Howard’s case as a teacher, researcher, and writer in psychology and education, his own capacity to address COVID is limited; also, as an individual in the second half of his eighth decade, he is more vulnerable to the life-threatening aspects of the disease than most of his colleagues and most other citizens. That said, Howard is redoubling his efforts to carry out his own work in as excellent, engaging, and ethical a way as possible And whenever he feels that he can be helpful to anyone who comes across his path—by mail, over the phone, or in the course of carrying out their challenging responsibilities —he makes an extra effort to serve, and serve well.

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Howard Gardner is the long-time senior director of The Good Project. Shelby Clark and Kirsten McHugh are project managers at Harvard Project Zero.

The 3 E’s of Leadership

by Reha Bublani, Head – Training, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation

Leadership is a broad concept, with several dimensions and perspectives. No single theory or example can explain its depth or intensity, and no single leader can exemplify all qualities of leadership.

Working on instilling leadership skills in youth, our foundation found communicating what is at the essence of leadership to be a big challenge. Who is a leader? What makes him/her a leader? What can  one do to nurture one’s own leadership potential? These are some common questions that The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, based out of Gurgaon, India, has frequently faced. We explored possible solutions to this puzzle and found something we fell in love with: The GoodWork Toolkit.

We were delighted to share and present our work at the Project Zero Conference in London, held in October 2013. Attended by educators from across the globe, the workshop fostered intense discussions and sharing of experiences as the participants tried to reflect on their own leadership potential. Before discussing this workshop, we would like to present some background on our involvement with the Good Work Project.

Lynn Barendsen and Wendy Fischman, from the Project Zero Team, introduced the GoodWork Toolkit to us as part of the GoodWork Toolkit Certification course conducted for 35 partner schools across India. What started as an endeavor to encourage passionate, introspective discussions in the classroom soon turned into a movement aimed at promoting “good work culture” in schools.  Our students saw themselves in the vignettes, rattled their brains through the ‘value sort’ and above all related their real life decisions to the values they chose as most important. Through these activities, discovery and learning –  some expected, some surprising –  was taking place. In due course, the students gained clarity on leadership. As teachers and students came to comprehend the depth of the 3 E’s (Ethics, Excellence and Engagement), they drew connections to global leaders we had spoken about – Gandhi, Mandela, and Mother Teresa. That is when, together, we created a new definition of leadership:

Leadership = Ethics (Values) + Excellence (Being good at what you do) + Engagement (Working with others)

While this is in no way the ultimate leadership formula, we believe it is a strong starting point for students. It helps them understand the relationship between each of the 3 E’s  to leadership, and how the absence of one can lead to the possibility of weak leadership.

At the Project Zero conference, our audience was willing to engage in the same kind of reflection we had participated in on the road to learning about good work.  We explored each “E” in terms of leadership, understanding, and experiences facilitated by use of activities in the classroom.

Ethics, defined as values in action, was the anchor for a meaningful discussion as we saw participants exploring their own important values using the value sort. Further, the difference between espousing a value and living a value was highlighted, using stories and leadership examples. A key question we posed, “We all believe in honesty, but do we live out that value?”,  encouraged participants to explore their own value-behavior gaps.

Excellence, defined as “being good at what you do”, formed the second ingredient of leadership. In our discussions, participants stressed that there is no substitute for excellence and a leader needs to be good at what he/she does. Sharing their own moments of excellence helped participants solidify their success stories and plan paths ahead. It also inspired participants to consider how they can walk the “extra mile” towards achieving excellence in professional and personal realms.

Finally, Engagement, as constructed by us to mean “working with others”, was brought forward with groups forming “human machines”. This not only reinforced the importance of teamwork but also highlighted its role in leadership.

The participants felt that the activities and games conducted during the workshop could help students back in the classroom to understand their leadership potential. They also felt that it was a good starting point for facilitators and educators to conduct discussions relating to leadership and life skills.

As The Global Education & Leadership Foundation grows in its journey to create change-makers of tomorrow, Project Zero and The GoodWork Toolkit have added incredible value, bringing a variety of flavors to the delicacy called “Leadership.”

Connecting the Elementary Toolkit to Models of Thinking

by Amy Hoffman

As a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, I recently completed a course that  encompassed research-based theories on student thinking and learning. I was intrigued by the content matter and found myself reflecting on the elementary toolkit activities through the lens of a landscape of thinking skills. In case you are not familiar with the Elementary GoodWork Toolkit, it is a set of activities based on the original GoodWork Toolkit to introduce elementary-age students to GoodWork concepts. There are connections between models of thinking and Good Work:  when creating curriculum for young students, it is essential to give them opportunities to explore their thinking and learning and to self-reflect on a deep level about their learning processes.

In this blog entry, I explore the connections between visuospatial thinking and word mapping activities.  In my classroom, students use word mapping activities to research definitions and meanings for each of the 3 E’s and then construct a word web of their understanding. According to the organization Reading Rockets, “a word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development” (Reading Rockets, 2012). Word maps are used in classrooms to assist students in understanding abstract words and concepts. The use of word mapping in this activity allows students to construct a “spatial mental” model of the content being presented (Hegarty, Stull 2012). For students first encountering a complex concept such as Good Work, visuospatial thinking provides a means for grasping the concept that is accessible and age-appropriate for students.

Most recently, the students in my classroom engaged in a word mapping activity to help them further explore their understandings of Good Work terminology. I was able to develop a webquest (http://questgarden.com/146/51/5/120716111216/) for student use and to assist in keeping a structured eye on the content being searched. The webquest and modeling led the students to work in small groups to research multiple definitions of excellence, ethics and engagement and jot down notes of their thoughts surrounding what they were discovering. From there, the small groups of students were asked to turn their thoughts into word maps- creating a visual representation of their thoughts- the goal being a series of connected words surrounding each one of the 3E’s. Below is an example of a student’s word map:

In this example, when these young students were faced with the task of creating their own thoughts surrounding these complex ideas, they were at first apprehensive. For many, this was their first independent experience with exploring a concept using the Internet. Through continued discussion during the activity, I supported their research by guiding questions, “Can you make a personal connection to words?” “Are there any group members that have a different connection?”  Students were given the opportunity to discuss their experiences and explorations with each other, they were able to learn about multiple perspectives and eventually, they moved beyond their initial hesitations. At this young age, the students have had success in constructing meanings through guided partnership discussion and activities. The students have been able to find clear connections between themselves and others, discuss the meaning of true social and academic success, and begin to become excited about their future possibilities.

Visuospatial thinking skills are an essential part of a young child’s development. In giving students the opportunity to work on this development through discussion and activities, students are able to utilize their creative thinking to construct meaning of vocabulary as related to Good Work. I am looking forward to providing students with subsequent activities to enhance their thinking skills and to continue to make connections to Good Project ideas.

References

Frederiksen N., (1984). Implications of Cognitive Theory of Instruction in Problem

Solving. Review of Educational Research. 54 (3), pp.363-407.

Hegarty, M., & Stull, A., (2012). ‘Visuospatial Reasoning’. In: Holyoak, K., & Morrison, R. (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.606 – 630.

Marzano, Robert J. (1998). A theory-based meta-analysis of research on

instruction. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Educational Research Laboratory. Retrieved June 28, 2013, from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/Instruction/5982RR_InstructionMeta_Analysis.pdf

Conference Reflections from a Classroom Teacher: Three Human Phenomena and the Three E’s of Good Work

by Amy Hoffman

Recently, I attended the first GoodWork conference at Noble and Greenbough School in Dedham, Massachusetts. Armed with and ready to present the elementary toolkit that I had been developing with my mother, Jo Hoffman, and Good Team members Margot Locker, Wendy Fischman, and Lynn Barendsen, I arrived on that very snowy Friday not sure what to expect. I had never presented at a conference before, but I had attended several – listened to interesting people, took notes, and walked away really the same as I had entered. I had no idea how my understanding of conferences and in fact, my ideas about teaching, were about to change.

I teach a 1st and 2nd grade multiage class at a small charter school in New Jersey, and for the past two years I have been working with my young students to develop their understandings of the basic principles of GoodWork. The students have been working hard exploring ethics, excellence, and engagement through hands-on activities and class discussions. I start each year with the students by exploring the definitions of the 3 “E’s” through word mapping, looking for examples through children’s literature and narratives written for the toolkit, and ending with activities during which students write their own narratives and role-play that work. Students have benefitted from the activities, participating happily, and their understanding of concepts related to the 3 E’s has evolved since the beginning of the school year.  Nonetheless, after reflecting about my experiences at the conference, I began to formulate an idea for another entry point to explore and deepen their connections to the essence of the 3 E’s and being human.

During his plenary session at the GoodWork Conference, Esa Saarinen (philosopher and professor at Aalto University in Finland) spoke about “Three Human Phenomena”- Being Present, Being-By-Your-Sideness, and Magical Uplift- concepts that were new to me but resonated deeply.  In listening to Esa speak and reflecting on this conversation, I started thinking about how these concepts can and should be brought into my classroom and how they fit into our conversation about GoodWork.

As Howard Gardner once relayed to me, it’s not about the students memorizing definitions but really being able to model GoodWork and recognize it in the behavior of others. My question is: how can these “three human phenomena” be leveraged and woven into the discussion about GoodWork to assist students in synthesizing their understandings of its concepts and help them to better understand their social world and their responsibilities to our community?

When I returned to my classroom, I reflected on this question and started with myself. How might I be a better teacher as a result of what I’d learned?  I have been working with the elementary toolkit for 2 years now and we keep the discussion of ethics, excellence, and engagement ongoing throughout the school year-what these principles look like, sound like, feel like. A teacher’s role is being present in the classroom – constantly assisting and supporting students, and being engaged in the profession and the daily give and take within the classroom. A teacher’s role is also to support her students, be by their side, and guide them through learning –  living the principles of excellence. Finally, I believe a teacher’s role is to develop an uplifting classroom community: fostering confidence, optimism, and trust in order to assist students in achieving their goals.   I view creating this positive space in the classroom as part of my ethical responsibility to my students.

So on a bright spring day at our Morning Meeting, I started a conversation with my students, first sharing the thinking and reflecting that I was having personally about being human and the 3 E’s.  I shared with them my ideas and personal reflections. After explaining the Three Human Phenomena, we engaged in a discussion. First, I asked my students to think about what they know about human beings. They responded with answers like, “all humans are good at different things,” “humans have 2 eyes, 2 legs, 2 arms, etc.,” “some humans are kind,” and “some humans are shy.” Then I asked them how their responses are connected to the 3 Es, while I guided the conversation by asking about the Three Human Phenomena.  My initial assessment from this first discussion is that my students were making the connections between the two ideas. They were able to see a link between engagement and being present by commenting on how “if you are present in the classroom, it means you’re listening and learning.”  The students also participated in a conversation surrounding “human kindness”, Magical Uplift, and ethics. These 6, 7 and 8 year olds were able to point out the importance of creating a positive space by being kind, making smart choices, and helping others.

After this conversation about the Three Human Phenomena, the feel of the classroom seemed to change, however slightly. The students seemed ready to synthesize these ideas and implement their understandings of the 3 Es through thinking about uplifting their peers, being present in the classroom, and working together seamlessly.  I look forward to watching how this understanding evolves in the weeks and months ahead.