Duration: 20/10/2016 - 23/10/2016
Location: Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Participants:
Visitors:
Number of Events: 4

Public Faculty No. 11: Imagining a Curriculum in Sunset Park

Public Faculty is a method for practicing public converstations and ways of relating. The purpose is to learn how to listen to people describe their daily conditions. It is a practice of determining how an existing conflict can be made productive by speaking and thinking together. A Public Faculty takes four days, four hours each day. During these hours, facilitators stand at locations where they can speak with passersby about the issues at hand.

Public Faculty No. 11: Imagining a Curriculum for Sunset Park was envisioned as a tool to unearth the voices of residents, parents, students, and teachers from an immigrant neighborhood where basic services have not satisfied some of the needs of its increasing population due to lack of public investment and attention.

An initial open-ended question was formulated: What makes a good school? With follow up questions that included: What is a good school for you?, What makes a good space for learning?, and What is your favorite thing/aspect about school/learning?. The locations for conversations were discussed during the workshop and places where the different local communities - Chinese, Hispanic and Middle Eastern - congregate were selected.

A large white board was used to document the conversations each day. The board served not only as a sketchbook to archive different voices but also as a space for knowledge exchange. The most recurrent topics addressed collaboration between schools and families, budget for enrichment programs, embracing cultural and language differences, the need for after-school programs to assist immigrant and working parents, as well as other issues related to the lack of quality spaces for regular instruction, enrichment classes, recess and other learning environments capable to facilitate education improvement.