Institute 1

 Using Descriptive Process and Reflective Conversations to:

• Develop a strength-based stance toward children and families that counters the deficit lens so often applied to our students

• Create political ground to reimagine school as public and democratic space, supporting equity, diversity, and complexity

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

Many educators work in contexts where we face pressure to view our students through a deficit lens. This is often amplified when families’ race, language, immigration status, educational attainment, etc. are offered as a justification for why learners struggle in our schools. The conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified a sense of disconnection between educators and the children, youth, and families with whom we work. Descriptive Process offers a counter-narrative, one in which the strengths of children, families, and teachers are made visible, which supports us in building authentic, mutual relationships. Through our work in the Institute, we will use Prospect Descriptive Processes to look deeply at children’s work and words in order to strengthen our capacity to teach and learn alongside them.

• What does it mean to take the time to look closely and describe?

• What does a school or classroom have to be in order that each child be recognized and heard?

• What of importance to children and their education is made visible through their works?

• What must we do to enable each child to be the agent of her/his own learning?

This residential Institute is a five-day workshop for parents, teachers, and other educators who wish to examine issues of teaching and learning through the perspective of the  Descriptive Processes. 

Observation and description of children and their works are central to this Institute. The context for our inquiry is formed both from our shared recollections of ourselves as learners and from reading about and discussing issues such as standards and values, school culture, race, and gender. We will use Prospect’s Descriptive Processes to study individual children and the writing, drawing, painting, model making, talk, and other “works” they produce in their classrooms. A core of the work the group does together is describing from the spanning collections found in the Prospect Archive of Children’s Work housed now at the University of Vermont Special Collections. Participants are urged to gather collections of children’s work with them for the purpose of describing. Readings will be emailed to registered participants well before the start of the Institute.

The Institute is designed to serve “returnees” as well as first-time participants. Everyone will take part in Descriptive Reviews of the Child, Descriptive Reviews of Work, and Reflective Conversations. Those who are new to these processes will get to know them well. Participants, who are more experienced, but not yet confident in the role of chairperson, will be asked to act as facilitators, helping presenters prepare and co-chairing groups. We also encourage groups from the same school to attend together. This enables schools to begin to use the Descriptive Processes as part of their ongoing work. 

The Processes on which this work is based were developed at the Prospect School and Center (1965-2011). This Institute on Descriptive Process (Institute 1)  runs concurrently with the first week of the Institute on Descriptive Inquiry (Institute 2), which is a self-governing, collaborative study group, composed of educators and other experienced professionals, that has convened annually since 1978. 

Institute 1 and Institute 2 run concurrently in a residential setting and there are many opportunities for connection and cross pollination of ideas between participants in both of the institutes. 

FACULTY

The faculty of this Institute consists of educators who are deeply knowledgeable about the Descriptive Inquiry Processes and ways of thinking about educational practices and issues. 

   QUESTIONS? 

Please contact Taeko Onishi or Kirsten Cole with questions about the Institute or to be added to our mailing list for future announcements. 

Photos taken on and near Hampshire College campus by Stephane Barile (2022).