The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation & Resources
Hosted by Dr. Lisa Hassler, an educator and parent, The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation, & Resources is a research-informed podcast offering action-based solutions for teachers and parents. Committed to spotlight innovative individuals who bring about positive change in education, its primary mission is to connect educators and parents to resources that pave the way to a brighter future for our children. The podcast's music was created by Brandon Picciolini, her son, from The Lonesome Family Band. You can explore more of his work on Instagram.
The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation & Resources
Equity-Centered Teaching: A Path to Educational Justice with Director Dr. Emily Affolter
What if we could transform education to truly empower every student, regardless of their background? Join me, Dr. Lisa Hassler, and our inspiring guest, Dr. Emily Affolter, as we uncover the potential of building just and inclusive educational environments. Drawing from Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and Jean Anyon's "Social Class in the Hidden Curriculum of Work," we explore how education can challenge social inequalities and become a tool for liberation.
In this episode, Dr. Affolter shares her journey from activism in Seattle to her pivotal role as the director of Prescott College's Sustainability Education PhD program. Her commitment to equity and inclusion is evident as she emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive teaching and equitable leadership. Discover how recognizing students as co-learners and moving beyond the traditional banking model of education creates spaces of dignity and respect. Emily shares inclusive assessment practices and the significance of making implicit expectations explicit to bridge educational gaps.
We also highlight real-world applications and success stories from Prescott University, illustrating how culturally responsive pedagogy empowers students. Hear about innovative projects, such as climate justice-related screenplays, that connect theory to practice. As we discuss the vital roles educators and parents play in fostering a culture of equity and justice, we encourage you to share your stories and support the mission of creating positive change in education. Let’s work together to dismantle inequitable power dynamics and champion a brighter, more inclusive future for all students.
Connect with Dr. Emily Affolter at eaffolter@prescott.edu.
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Want to share a story? Email me at lisa@drlisarhassler.com.
Visit my website for resources: http://www.drlisarhassler.com
The music in this podcast was written and performed by Brandon Picciolini of the Lonesome Family Band. Visit and follow him on Instagram.
My publications:
America's Embarrassing Reading Crisis: What we learned from COVID, A guide to help educational leaders, teachers, and parents change the game, is available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible, and iTunes.
My Weekly Writing Journal: 15 Weeks of Writing for Primary Grades on Amazon.
World of Words: A Middle School Writing Notebook Using...
Welcome to The Brighter Side of Education: Research, Innovation and Resources. I'm your host, Dr. Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In this episode, we explore ways to build a just and inclusive educational environment for everyone. But before we begin our conversation, I'd like to briefly highlight two foundational works in educational theory that are relevant to our discussion today Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, published in 1968, and Jean Anyon's Social Class in the Hidden Curriculum of Work, published in 1980.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Freire advocated for liberating the working classes through a just and equitable model of education. He argued that traditional teaching methods often leave marginalized groups powerless by treating them as passive recipients of knowledge. Instead, he promoted active participation, dialogue and critical thinking between educators and students, enabling individuals to develop a sense of self, liberating themselves from societal injustices and becoming agents of change. Jean Anyon's study explores how schools serving different social classes provide distinct types of education, preparing students for specific societal roles. Anyon found that the implicit lessons, which she called the hidden curriculum, often reinforce social inequities. For example, schools in wealthier areas might encourage critical thinking and creativity, while those in poorer areas might focus more on rote learning and discipline.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:These works highlight how education can either reinforce or challenge social inequalities, providing a lens to understand the impact of teaching practices on different social groups. In today's discussion, we will explore the relevance of these ideas to current educational practices and how they can be applied to address contemporary challenges in equity and inclusion. As the director of Prescott College's Sustainability Education PhD program and a leading authority in equity-centered teaching, culturally responsive pedagogy and equitable leadership, Dr. Emily Affolter joins us today to share her insights and practical applications for creating more equitable and inclusive educational environments. Welcome, it is so wonderful to have you here today.
Dr. Emily Affolter:Thank you, Lisa, I'm delighted.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:So, Emily, can you start by sharing a bit about yourself, your background and what inspired you to focus on equity and inclusion in education?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Well, yeah, my name's Emily Affolter and currently I'm the director of the Sustainability Education PhD at Prescott College and we look at the convergence of social and environmental justice as they pertain to teaching, learning and leading, and I, you know, I always was interested in issues of injustice. I think it really started. I grew up in the Seattle area and I went to a public high school that was really known for activism. It was the place of Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones, and we had a lot of like Black Panther legacy, and so when I was a young person, they had a program called Cultural Relations where they would take a racialized, gendered quota of different people, so maybe there were like a couple white young women and then you know this whole racial stratification. They looked at and built a cadre of facilitators maybe a hundred of us that were gender and racially diverse, and they put us in a learning weekend that was run by former Black Panther activists to help us, as really young people, think about how we can disrupt issues of injustice, and so they gave us tools to think and talk about issues that pertain to discrimination, oppression and prejudice, and then so we were getting really empowered to do so and getting a lot of tools to disrupt, and then the school would shut down for a week and we all got to facilitate.
Dr. Emily Affolter:Like, me and a co-facilitator who had a different positionality would sit together in a room and we would talk with our peers and facilitate conversations about racism, homophobia, police brutality, and that was something that was so strong in the culture of the place that I was growing up, and even though the place had real issues with these things, there was also a tenacity to address them. And so, even though you know I'm a white cis woman, I also always grew up with this sort of I know it could be so much better, and how can I in this body, continue to work towards that? And so I've carried that spirit along with me throughout my whole career, because it was a core value that not everything is fair and power and privilege permeate our world and our epistemologies and our educational spaces, and how can we, in our own accountability, show up to try to make it a better place? So fast forward way far?
Dr. Emily Affolter:I was a Spanish educator and I kept feeling like the curricula that I was handed was super Eurocentric and pretty homogenous, and I just kept feeling like there's got to be more freedom, there's got to be more freedom, and kept pursuing further education to sort of reinforce that questioning, which, which you know, was validating, and I ended with a PhD in multicultural education, working under the guidance and mentorship of the great Dr Geneva Gay, who founded Culturally Responsive Teaching, and she's really informed so much of my research, teaching and scholarship for the last dozen plus years, and so that's what I carry forward.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:What an impactful background. I can see where that really made a big impression and what an inspiration you then become to others. So, when you're talking about working underneath the guise of Dr Geneva Gay, Geneva Gay, and then she is the founder of Culturally Responsive Teaching, yes, so what is Culturally Responsive Teaching? And then why should educators use this approach?
Dr. Emily Affolter:So Culturally Responsive Teaching is again Dr Geneva Gay's baby. It was sort of founded under the umbrella of multicultural education and it's really a methodology and a pedagogy that looks at the importance of plurality in learning spaces. Students of color, just general, like the fact that we have this incredibly diverse cadre of students, ways of being. They come with their own stories and funds of knowledge and languages and rich heritage. And how do we take an honoring of that plurality and center it in the way that we show up for our students from? You know the content that we curate so that it reflects the students themselves, systems of power and privilege, in order to change how power is dispersed and increase access and opportunity, particularly for our students of color, but any student that is disenfranchised or minoritized. How do we actually change the way that we think about teaching so that it is reflecting that heterogeneity of method of approach that would then support a heterogeneous group of students and uplift them in their assets?
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Yeah, and you know, when I was reading about you and about this subject, I was thinking about the theorist and the author, paulo Freire, and he's Brazilian and he published the Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968. And so when we think about this type of education and how it's not a new problem, even across different countries, it exists. It still exists today. His focus was on how to achieve freedom and the importance of becoming aware of those social injustices, and you had collaborated with the publication just last year and it was Can we Be Free, an Engineer's Guide to Culturally Responsive Teaching. That theme of freedom with education rang out to me and I wondered how do those ideas influence your work and how can they help empower students, especially those from marginalized backgrounds?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Thank you for bringing up Freire. Yes, freire's work has really been. It's informed a lot of the work that I've done and many just even the way that this institution that I'm working for approaches education Prescott College. Freire talks about the banking system of education as the status quo, where we, you know, as educators who have power, would deposit knowledge in the vessels of our students. Right, and critiques that and really horizontalizes the approach to teaching and learning.
Dr. Emily Affolter:What happens when we no longer consider ourselves as the educators, the holders of power and the holders of finite knowledge, and imagine the possibility of everyone in the room having something incredibly generative to offer and co-learning, and so, in so many ways, that is a disruption of the power structure of education. Who gets to transmit knowledge? And then how does that reinforce how we feel about our freedom, like you said, or our potential, or access and opportunity and even efficacy? Right, if we can horizontalize that in our classrooms and we come in with this deep, profound honoring and respect of all of the students as holders of knowledge or co-learners, then all of a sudden, freedom is possible because we get to co-author this trajectory together out of a place of dignity and respect.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Yeah, absolutely. It just makes us think back to our teaching practices and why it is that we want that critical thinking and why it is that we approach teaching as everyone has something to teach each other. It's this conversation of ideas and it's this exchange of intellect that allows us to grow and then understand our own potential, which is empowering.
Dr. Emily Affolter:Absolutely, and then understand our own potential, which is empowering.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Absolutely. And then Jean Anion's research shows how social class can affect the type of education that students receive. Can you talk about the impact of these differences and how educators can bridge these gaps?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Absolutely yeah. First of all, I think that, as as an educator, I'm first always thinking about my positionality and that's sort of the layers of what make me who I am, and some of those might be social identities, and of this we're all made up, of these intersecting identities that have relationships to power and privilege. So if we think about how every person and every experience is laden with sort of the politics of positionality, informed by our intersectional experiences, then all of a sudden we recognize that some people are just going to have more access to what the dominant narrative is in education and others much less, and so dominant narrative really leans on middle to upper middle class folks who would have sort of some basic literacy and fluency around educational topics that might just be implicitly woven into curricula of culturally responsive teaching, in my mind is explicit communication and transparency around unveiling what this hidden curriculum could be. So, when you're thinking about classes, how can we create a really common language around economizing the pathway for students, the classes that they need to take, the skills that they will garner in those classes, students, the classes that they need to take, the skills that they will garner in those classes, how those skills might translate to the professional sector, what you need in order to go out and get a job. What does creating a CV look like? How could you move through the publication process? How might you get on the TEDx stage?
Dr. Emily Affolter:You know, like I know, I'm getting a little esoteric in higher ed, but you don't just jump from. They're great leaps, right For any, and we can think about it in K-12 too. They're great leaps to get to literacy, you know, or great leaps to get to algebra. And so how do we make sure that we're not skipping steps that are so often implicit, not explicit, in our curriculum, because those steps might feel explicit in certain households, with certain norms and decorum, and others not. And so, first of all, it's just neutralizing that by making sure that there are no assumptions around what our learners do and don't have access to in the home space, and also not privileging the fact that some people might have access to more literacy supports, more you know, math practice, more sort of transference in the home. It seems so simple, but I think so often if we're in the dominant, if we exist in the dominant paradigm and those things seem second nature to us, that can really deeply further stratify access and opportunity gaps for our learners.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Absolutely. And when I think about the hidden curriculum, when it comes to Jean Anion's study, how powerful it was for me to see, as an educator I just assume everyone gets the same as I had right, because that's my experience. So I just think everyone had what I had. Everyone was taught the same way, we were taught the same things. And then when I became an educator and I went into the schools and you're thinking, these are the standards, they're the state standards, every child gets those standards. Fifth grade classes same standards were taught very, very differently. How did we deliver that content to them? What were our expectations as an educator?
Dr. Lisa Hassler:So when I think about that hidden curriculum, it really makes me think what is it that the students are expected? And are we challenging? When we think about the complexity of our comprehension, do we ask just for wrote back, because we think that's all they can give us? Or do we challenge them to be creative and to create something because we feel that they have the ability? So so much is in our own expectations that they have the ability. So so much is in our own expectations. But then also, I was surprised by how often, like what I had done, grew up in one area and I taught in that area. So my experience became then my students' experience, right, how I was taught I was teaching. In a sense, your expectations transfer to the same and that way it continues and you don't even realize that we're continuing these hitting curriculum expectations of inequalities. Yeah, if you, if you've never experienced anything else, we just perpetuate it without knowing it no-transcript, just as siloing and myopic as anything else.
Dr. Emily Affolter:And, of course, with the stats. When we look at, you know, racial stratification in terms of access and opportunity, based on our educational systems and who's teaching predominantly, we can see how those patterns would reinforce themselves if we don't act to interrupt them.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Absolutely. Yeah, it's understanding where our blinders are. You do some work with assessment as well, like how to be able to assess for equity. What kind of assessments do you do with that?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Oh yay.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I love assessment.
Dr. Emily Affolter:I used to work as an evaluator for a research team at the UW and I just love the potential for really being reflective about oneself in order to act differently. I have found in my process that the most culturally responsive assessment is formative, and so, as much as we can emphasize formative assessment for our students which meaning, you know, for anyone who's not in the assessment world really the action piece, the action completion process over product, if our students are in the process of engaging, if they're tenacious, opposed to, it's done and we look at the final product and we give it a summative grade, right, you know, I think that there's function in summative assessment and it can be done with nuance and finesse. But I've tried to take the work that I do and create much more of an emphasis on the scaffold from an assessment angle. So it's it's like if there's a final assignment in a course and it's, you know, you're creating some singular thing, how can the scaffold of the process, so if you're creating something that you're going to create multiple metrics for students to turn in and often that turn in could be to each other, to their peers, to create trust in themselves and in one another and sort of recognize that it's not just the instructor that is going to be assessing, but there's a deeper sense of self-assessment.
Dr. Emily Affolter:You know I'm going to turn this in and I know that because I did the work, there's going to be value in it and then I'm going to offer my insights for my peers so that they can improve upon it. And then, all of a sudden, the nexus of power shifts and they start to feel more agency and ownership in themselves and in the importance of process, knowing that if they emphasize process with care and continuous just diligence, that the product will ensue as something that is going to be satisfactory. I work with STEM teachers in K-12, and we found so many ways to shift the way that assessment is going down and then in summative assessments. Also, how can we shift some of those questions in summative assessments so that they aren't so singular? You know, close ended.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Yes.
Dr. Emily Affolter:But actually allowing for plural and conditional possibilities, open ended opportunities for students to think creatively. Those kinds of assessments can really mitigate stereotype threat, like allow students to believe in themselves and imagine and think critically in ways that are close-ended sort of binary thinking norms. Do not support.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I think that a lot of workplaces are even going to those type of evaluations where you do a self-reflection, your peers are assessing your work and then your boss, right, and so I think that that's becoming more calming and getting kids used to how they feel about their work and then how the people on their team feel about their work also matters, and so it's not just I'm impressing this person, who's the authority they have the power to control my grade but I also have to think about what does that learning look like and mean to this community as well?
Dr. Lisa Hassler:And so that's powerful and then take that type of feedback, look at it constructively and say how can I keep getting better and growing? And so this positive feeling about feedback instead of this one and done. And, like you're saying, with those questions, when we think about biases, sometimes the way that we're wording questions, we're just assuming everybody has the same background knowledge and they don't, and so something as simple as the way that a question is worded can throw up a barrier with our students that we're not even aware of because we're just assuming we all came to the table with the same knowing. Can you share some successful examples of how educators and institutions have empowered students through inclusive practices and equity-centered initiatives? You guys do a lot of that at your campus.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:I went onto your website and, even though we are not in the same community, I wished I could go to your school. What a positive feeling that I got just from going to your website. The college really has done a great job of making you feel very included and invited and welcoming, even from someone doing a virtual tour. So you guys are doing some great things on that campus. Can you talk about that and some of the impact that it's had on your school community?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Absolutely. Thank you for all the accolades. I'm so fuzzied by it and it's you know, I'm so proud of what we do pedagogically here, because I do think that it we really the classroom to you know the just the encounters that happen outside of the classroom so frequently In terms of every student has a unique fund of knowledge and unique goals and curiosities and skills, and all of our classrooms are sort of built around the sense that our students are exceptional, and I mean that, and I would extend that to any human, but I just mean so that is true though that we feel like such an honor to get to co-learn with them, and we want them to let their expertise, their purpose and their goals inform the way that they approach the content. So if we're doing a course in culturally responsive pedagogy and we're saying let's create a pedagogical model based on all this literature around culturally responsive pedagogy, and we're saying let's create a pedagogical model based on all this literature around culturally responsive pedagogy, how might you in the banking sector let your workplace and your values around financial equity permeate and enmesh with this theory?
Dr. Emily Affolter:The same is true for, you know, one of one.
Dr. Emily Affolter:It's so exciting to see what's going to unfurl because it comes from a place of care, curiosity and respect for the unique gifts that every person, no matter who, brings to the table.
Dr. Emily Affolter:And I think the other thing is that we really value a connection between theory and practice. So if there is an opportunity to operationalize anything that you're learning in your community, we encourage it and we promote it. You know and so I'm just thinking of one of our students is a theater leader like, owns a theater and company and was able to take all of this work in various classes around climate justice and create culturally responsive, climate justice-related screenplays for communities in Latin America, and it ended in a beautiful Fulbright and all these other things. But the truth is it's such a thrill for us because the students come in with so many great ideas and skills and we just wonder together how might these skills be put into practice and where? And so the how and the application piece is, if at least as, if not more important than the theoretical underpinnings, and I think that that, with the tenets of social and environmental justice, sort of fueling those thrusts right, and so how exciting is that? I mean, and it sounds so simple, but it really is intentionally dexterous.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Educators can get stuck Like every year I teach the same things, but I feel like when you come at it with the way that you were talking about culturally responsive teaching and about having that impact or an influence on the students being able to contribute, every year is different because you are creating with the student how you're going to move forward in this and the content kind of just gets enriched Absolutely.
Dr. Emily Affolter:I love that and I think about. We think about process over product in so many ways in culturally responsive teaching. But if we think about what we're delivering as 50%, like what we pre-plan as educators is 50%, and that 50% will emerge based on the constellation of who's in the room and what curiosities, inquiry, gifts, positionalities they're bringing in, how exciting is that? And that comes back to, you know, windows and mirrors, like we were talking, they're going to look different. And how exciting to remain curious and humbled by that, because that is the process of relationality and horizontalizing the classroom.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:So, when you think of the future now, what is your hope for equity and inclusion in education, and how can parents and educators contribute to that?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Thank you. I think that one of the big principles that I would wish we all really adhered to is the notion of the asset pedagogy, the strengths of our students, and opposed to the deficit pedagogy like the student didn't do well on the test, it's on them. Because, like we've talked about in this conversation, if we get really curious and we rethink the way that we structure assessment or we structure our courses methodologically and content, and we emphasize the assets of all of us, especially the students and the systemically minoritized folks in the room, then we can see the tables turn quickly, the onus on the educator to get curious about the system and wonder how the system has a relationship to reinforcing inequitable power dynamics and then look for ways to change and dismantle those areas that reinforce inequity. Then all of a sudden the assets of all of us and all of our students become the core focus and I think that is the key to equitable futures in our educational realms.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Well, I think that's hopeful and I look forward to that future. Thank you so much for this amazing conversation on equity and inclusion in the classroom. I learned a lot from you, so thank you for all that you're doing in your university and contributing to the classroom. I learned a lot from you, so thank you for all that you're doing in your university and contributing to the literature. How would someone get ahold of you if they wanted to reach out?
Dr. Emily Affolter:Thank you. Well, they could email ea ffolter@prescott. edu.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Your university, Prescott University. And your university, Prescott University.
Dr. Emily Affolter:And where are you located? We're on Yavapai lands in Prescott, Arizona, so this is Northern Arizona Prescott College. We can hear the cicadas humming in the background and it's a lovely place. So if you're ever in the area, please hit me up and we just yeah, we love you can hit up the Prescott College website and we'd love to hear from you and just continue to build our epistemological community. I'm so happy we got to talk. Lisa and I have such incredible respect for you and the work you're doing in the world.
Dr. Lisa Hassler:Thank you. Thank you. As educators and parents. We each have a role to play in fostering a culture of equity and justice. I hope today's discussion inspired you to reflect and consider how you can contribute to fostering equity, whether it's through adopting culturally responsive teaching practices, challenging the hidden curriculum or simply engaging in conversations about inclusion, Every action counts. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at lisa@ drlisarhassler. com, or visit my website at www. drlisarhassler. com and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.
