Professional Development for Educators

Ensuring equity is essential for improving student achievement and promoting student and staff well-being. unlearn.’s Professional Development workshops assist educators to develop and implement Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy (CRRP) by applying an equity lens to important social justice and human rights issues. Inspired by the Socratic philosophy, “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think,” unlearn workshops are an interactive and experiential learning opportunity for educators to develop new skills to support student success. The workshop takes participants on an in-depth journey through the concept of “unlearning” by examining our unconscious biases, beliefs, and conditioning. The capacity-building workshops help educators to develop socio-cultural consciousness and promote inquiry-based learning.

Outcomes

• Strengthen Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy (CRRP) by applying an equity lens to important social justice and human rights issues.
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  Implement teaching practices that reflect the needs and realities of all students.
  
• 
  Explore practical strategies that will make equity and inclusion a part of your daily instruction.
  
• Uncover strategies and tools that capture student thinking across the curriculum. Determine the most effective ways to capture, show and share.

• Identify and eliminate discriminatory practices.
• Empower educators to facilitate equity, diversity and inclusion discussions.
• Encourage inquiry-based learning connected to real-world settings over lessons in isolation.
• Assists educators, staff and communities to better understand the perceptual, institutional and psychological processes that impact the way that people interact with each other.

Student Workshops

Students should expect their interactions with their school community to leave them feeling accepted for who they are. unlearn Student Programs are designed to engage youth with access to rich learning experiences which establish a strong foundation for the development of Global Competencies. We challenge participants to think critically about their own biases and examine how they can be reinforced by media and experiences with peers. Our programs explore the mechanisms that we can use to interrupt stereotypes and challenge societal norms that marginalize others. unlearn equips students with the tools and skills to analyze the validity of information and the context of their assumptions. Our programs are designed to help schools meet the objectives set out by Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy.

Outcomes

• Assist students in their development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
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  Provide students with a platform to articulate their thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills.
  
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  Prepare students to consider context or incorporate different perspectives to evaluate their thoughts or actions.
  
• Become self-aware and self-directed learners. Practice respectfully disagreeing, compromising or negotiating in the spirit of cooperation

• Understand and identify omission.
• Explores the complexity of local-global connections, views, values, and assumptions to understand multiple perspectives.
• Provide learners with a platform to share ideas without being “wrong”.
• Engage in an exploration into their own preconceived biases.
• Engage in an exploration into their own preconceived biases.
• Teach visual literacy, design and media literacy.

Community Workshops

This interactive session is framed with the understanding that parents/guardians and caregivers play a vital role in education. When they have involved our schools become increasingly rich and positive places to learn and grow.

unlearn will facilitate dialogue and discussion primarily aimed at sharing perspectives and understandings of our new global reality and each other.  This session will make connections from the classroom to the home.

Outcomes

• Strengthen Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy (CRRP) by applying an equity lens to important social justice and human rights issues.
• 
  Implement teaching practices that reflect the needs and realities of all students.
  
• 
  Explore practical strategies that will make equity and inclusion a part of your daily instruction.
  
• Uncover strategies and tools that capture student thinking across the curriculum. Determine the most effective ways to capture, show and share.

• Identify and eliminate discriminatory practices.
• Empower educators to facilitate equity, diversity and inclusion discussions.
• Encourage inquiry-based learning connected to real-world settings over lessons in isolation.
• Assists educators, staff and communities to better understand the perceptual, institutional and psychological processes that impact the way that people interact with each other.