For the past two years, I have been a member of a group known as the Radical Education Research Collective, or RERC. Founded by educator Amber Yared in 2009, RERC is a group of 8 diverse individuals who share a common interest in learning and sharing ideas about progressive, alternative, unconventional education practices. I met Amber through my work at the Center for Urban Pedagogy, and joined RERC in 2010.
We meet about every three weeks at a member's house to discuss a chosen topic for the day. One or two members take on the role of facilitating each meeting, selecting readings, videos, or organizing field trips to share a concept with the group.
Our discussions range from asking questions such as "What is RADICAL education?" and "What makes a school 'alternative'?" to investigating practices of artists and educators such as Michael Goulish (performance and collaborative process), Stephanie Springgay (embodied learning), and Annette Krauss (hidden curriculum).
In March 2010, RERC presented a public workshop called "Concrete Dreams: A Fantasy School" at Hart House as part of the Extra-Curricular conference. This conference was structured as a meeting of collectives, groups, and activists working on creative initiatives in a variety of locations using explicitly pedagogical models, formats, and tools in their work.
Participation in RERC is a constant source of stimulating ideas for me to bring into my teaching practice. By learning about current pedagogical theory from a variety of colleagues, I am able to better bring progressive ideas into my classroom, whether it's involving students in Green Industries in place-based learning, or engaging civics students in dialogue about the democratization of school, many of my lessons have been informed by my participation in RERC.
Furthermore, RERC has provided me with an sounding board to share ideas with and build collaborative projects. For example, after sharing ideas around food and education, Micah offered to share his expertise with my class, and made 5 classroom visits to our class during the Farm Project. This has also led to a collaboration between RERC members Micah, Nicole, Gabe and me. We have submitted a grant to the Ontario Arts Council to build a large-scale indoor farm at the YMCA Academy (Nicole's school), with students from my Green Industries class acting as teachers to the students at the YMCA, Micah facilitating the design and construction, and Gabe helping us to build a model for financial sustainability for the project.
RERC members have a variety of background, interests, and career paths, including: a primary teacher from a public alternative school, a secondary teacher from a school for students with learning disabilities, two university professors, an art educator, a television host/artist/food producer, a secondary teacher from a public arts highschool, an adult educator, and secondary teacher from an independent school (me). Every meeting is also a potluck, so it's great for recipe sharing as well!
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