The Teach Out Project Proposal

 Rhode Island College • Feinstein School of Education & Human Development • Educational Studies

FNED 502  — Social Issues in Education

The Teach Out Project

For the final project in FNED 502, you will work to share some aspect of the course with a broader community (either your school, your family, your home community, or RIC). This project may concentrate on one or several particular social issues in education that we explored and may take any form—an artwork, children’s book, wiki, professional development workshop, an interview with a colleague/family member, a video, a poster, a performance, informative pamphlet, unit of study, or any other medium of art or written work. Your goal is to TEACH OUT the ideas you are learning here so they enter the real world.  

The project has several parts/stages:

1. PICK A TOPIC:  Pick a topic related to the reading we have done.  What articles inspire you?  What topic matters most to you in terms of your own work?  Who do you want to teach others about this issue?

2. TEXT SUMMARIES: Write two 1-2 paragraph summaries of TWO different articles/texts we have read together that are most closely related to your interest.  Write them up in casual language, using a teaching voice to explain what the text is about. Due in hard copy in class on Thursday, 3/19.

3. PROPOSAL: Write an informal  proposal (see below) about what you want to do to TEACH OUT our articles/concepts, and post it to your blog by Thursday, 3/26.  Also bring a hard copy to class. 

4. RESEARCH:  Do some additional research about your topic.  History and context as well as lessons, videos, blog posts that others have created will help you! (no due date – on your own time)

5. CREATE:  Create something cool to teach this theory out in the real world. ← this is the Teach Out part

6. REFLECTION:  Write a 3-5 page reflection about why you chose this project, what you did, and how what you have learned in this course informed it. Due on blog Thursday, 4/23.

7. PRESENT: Present your TEACH OUT in class on the last 2 nights:  Thursday, 4/23 & 4/30.  5 minutes each. 6 slides.

Final complete projects (including all sections above) 

submitted via this form by Monday, May 4

Rhode Island College • Feinstein School of Education & Human Development • Educational Studies

FNED 502  — Social Issues in Education

The Teach Out Project Proposal

This is the first step in brainstorming your final project in this class.  Please post this document to your blog and bring this document to class on March 26.  This is just the planning stage – no formalities!

CHOOSE A TEXT: Review your whole blog to remind yourself about what we have read so far in class. What texts have stayed with you so far? What articles inspire you? What topic matters most to you in terms of your own work? Are there any of these texts that you would like to share with others in your life?  The texts that have stayed with me the most are Lisa Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” and Renkly & Bertolini’s work on shifting from deficit-oriented thinking to asset-based models. Both texts focus on how systems influence the way people are perceived, judged, and treated. Delpit explains that schools operate within a “culture of power,” where certain behaviors, language, and ways of being are seen as correct. Students who do not align with those expectations, especially Black students, are often misunderstood or labeled. Renkly and Bertolini build on this idea by explaining how deficit thinking reinforces these labels, causing people to focus on what individuals lack rather than what they bring. This topic matters most to me because I have seen how quickly students, particularly Black students, are labeled based on behavior or assumptions rather than being fully understood. These texts helped me recognize that what we often describe as “behavior” or “ability” is often shaped by power and perception. I would like to share these ideas with others because they connect directly to real-life experiences and how individuals are treated within different systems. These ideas also helped me think about power structures in a more complex way. Power structures are not just systems that people enter, they are also systems that act on individuals at the same time. This means that someone can hold authority within a system, while still being shaped by how that system perceives them. This is especially important when thinking about Black men. A Black man entering law enforcement becomes part of a system of power, but he is also still navigating societal perceptions, stereotypes, and expectations placed on him. There are both visible structures, such as laws and roles, and invisible forces, such as bias and assumptions, that influence how he is treated and how he must operate. These same dynamics begin in the classroom. Black boys are often perceived, labeled, and responded to in ways that shape how they see themselves and how others see them over time. This connection between classroom experiences and larger systems is something I want to explore through this project.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH? Are there people in your life with whom you would really like to talk about these texts? Colleagues? Students? Family members? Friends? Children? In addition to being a member of the same social fellowship organization community as me, I would like to share this project with a Black male in my life that I am currently getting to know. I am a member of Swing Phi Swing Social Fellowship, Inc., and he is a member of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Inc. Building solid relationships, mentoring, service, and community uplift are the main goals of both organizations. This discussion feels more significant than merely an assignment because of that shared foundation. It relates to the principles that both of us uphold when it comes to giving back to and participating in our communities. While working as a marketing director and in security positions at major events like Washington Commanders games and concerts, where he has been in high-pressure situations and around sizable crowds, including well-known people, he is also getting ready to enter law enforcement. He is already making choices in these settings, quickly assessing circumstances, and observing how those in positions of authority react to him. He is already navigating systems of power and being a Black man within those same systems, which is why I'm interested in talking to him. I'm interested in learning how he views himself in those roles, how he believes others see him, and how that might change as he pursues a career in law enforcement. I also want to relate this to the classroom because I have witnessed how Black boys are frequently misinterpreted or given labels at a young age. These experiences follow students into adulthood and into larger systems; they are not limited to the classroom. This discussion serves as a means of making the connection between those early experiences and later life events.

WHAT FORMAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU? Individual interview? Small group discussion? Art activity? Professional development workshop? Poster for your office? Pamphlet to share? Lesson plan? Etc? I will talk about some important ideas from the readings, like the following: the culture of power (Delpit) deficit vs. asset thinking, colorblind vs. color-brave thinking, and how visible and invisible forces affect how we see things After that, I'll have a structured but natural conversation with him in which I ask him to think about his time in school, what he's doing now, and how he sees himself becoming a police officer. This will let me see how these ideas work in different settings, like the office, the classroom, and larger systems of power. I will write down what we talked about and think about how his answers fit with what we learned in class. The goal is to have a real conversation about how power, perception, and identity change how people are seen and treated over time, not just talk about it.