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Beginning with one teacher committed to ensuring equitable learning
experiences for the increasingly diverse students in her school, a network
has developed in Elk Grove in partnership with SEED, an acronym for Seeking
Educational Equity and Diversity. This national professional development
initiative has created a markedly democratic, faculty-centered approach to
creating equitable and inclusive strategies for teaching and learning. (See
http://www.wcwonline.org/seed )
The foundational idea of SEED (McIntosh & Style) is that responding to
diverse students_ needs requires that educators actively, collaboratively,
and consistently discuss and investigate both multiple human perspectives
and equitable educational approaches. Thus, SEED holds yearly summer
workshops where self-selected leaders explore their own identities and
experiences as well as multicultural and gender-fair facilitation. Afterward
these SEED leaders return to their local schools and districts and recruit
colleagues to engage in monthly seminars to do the same. While SEED leaders
agree to facilitate a seminar for one year as a condition of their training,
most seminars continue to meet, all voluntarily and without compensation,
over a period of years.
Ninety-six Elk Grove educators have attended these national SEED New Leaders
Weeks, making it, with the generous support of the Lucent Technologies
Foundation, the first district in the country to incorporate SEED strategies
district-wide. As a result, a cumulative total of 1,492 Elk Grove educators
have participated in monthly seminars focused on issues of equity and
diversity in the six school years between 1997 and 2003. In those groups
authentic, democratic dialogue has become the currency for collaboration,
professional development, and culturally responsive teaching.
At the request of the Lucent Technologies Foundation in 2003, a research
team from the Collaborative Inquiry and Development Group at the University
of Southern Maine conducted a retrospective study of the impact of SEED in
Elk Grove. In keeping with the spirit of the SEED work, the researchers
worked closely with Elk Grove and National SEED leaders using an adaptation
of a _Learning History_ approach (Roth & Kleiner). The design attempts to
capture the stories of change efforts and their impact on educators_
thinking and practice; curriculum, school culture and organizational
structures; students_ learning and experience of school, and families. The
resulting history is intended to be a learning tool for participants, as
well as a vehicle for disseminating the lessons of their work to a broader
audience.
Beginning with mapping a project timeline with the Elk Grove SEED Advisory
Group, the team conducted interviews and focus groups with nearly 100 Elk
Grove SEED leaders and participants, and observations of group activities.
In addition, Elk Grove educators collected local documentation including
examples of curriculum representative of inclusive educational practices.
After analyzing nearly 400 pages of transcripts and notes, and related
materials, the research team identified emergent themes and wrote a draft
report that was then reviewed by Elk Grove educators and national SEED
leaders. An intensive discussion of the report was held in Elk Grove in
August 2004 and revisions will be completed in early 2005.
Executive Summary
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