Q: What IS this project?

What kind of people do we want to be? What kind of world do we want to live in? What is the purpose of education, and how do we go about enacting it? These questions are at the heart of the ROW Initiative. We believe that in deep discussion of these questions, people recognize what must change in order to become who we choose to be and to contribute to the world we want to champion. It is in these discussions that we can find the courage to step away from practices we no longer (or never did!) believe in and step into new and ever evolving opportunities.

In the ROW Initiative, small groups of people come together as a study-for-action cohort for a series of conversations over a substantial stretch of time to do the work of reimagining early childhood education. As a catalyst for this work, the Reimagining group reads From Teaching to Thinking: A Pedagogy for Reimagining Our Work, using it as a tool to uncover longings and to call forward new possibilities for how we do our work in early learning. Facilitators guide this process.

But the ROW Initiative is not a book study. It is study for action. We envision that questions and longings will give rise to change-making action. The work of the ROW Initiative is not simply to read a book together, but to move the reimagining process forward, and create necessary change in the early learning landscape.

Q: What are the expectations for facilitators?

Study-for-action discussions deserve thoughtfully considered facilitation. We believe that “the kind of talking needed to educate ourselves cannot arise spontaneously and unaided just from talking. It needs to be carefully planned and scaffolded” (Power of Protocols, 2003). This is the role of facilitators.

The ROW Initiative invites diverse perspectives and experiences into dialogue about vision, values, longings, and action, which promises disequilibrium and discomfort as well as energizing congruence. The role of facilitators of the study-for-action groups is to support deep listening, to encourage open hearts and minds, to add complexity, and to invite challenge.

As a facilitator, you’ll decide how often your group will meet and the shape of your meetings, building from facilitation guidelines that we will offer. We expect groups to be small, with eight to ten participants. And we expect that you’ll meet regularly, either on-line or in-person. But the Reimagining cohorts will each find their own shape and follow their own rhythms. They are independent groups with a shared commitment to reimagining early learning and enacting change.

There is no overarching agenda or curriculum to follow, but we ask that participants subscribe to the ROW Initiative Charter. We expect that each study-for-action group will work together to establish agreements for how they will work together to create a respectful, equitable learning space.

We, the ROW conveners, don’t expect to direct what unfolds in your groups. We do expect to be engaged and excited by this leadership initiative, and the impactful undertakings that emerge!

Q: How will study-for-action groups be formed? How will facilitators be paired with study-for-action groups? 

There are two ways that reimagining cohorts will form. A facilitator may decide to convene a Reimagining cohort of eight to ten people in her or his or their community. Other groups will be formed through our call to Reimagine Our Work, published initially in Exchange Magazine and later in a variety of other places; that call will lead folks to a portal on the Exchange website. Pam Boulton, who heads the Exchange Leaders Initiative, along with members of the convening team, will gather these folks into study-for-action groups, pair them with facilitators, and send each group on their journey.

Q: Is there financial support to enable people to buy books? 

Absolutely. We are committed to equity in access for the ROW Initiative. For participants in Reimagining cohorts, Exchange Press is offering discounted copies of From Teaching to Thinking. Facilitators are eligible for a 20% discount on a one-time purchase of From Teaching to Thinking.

Q: Can I lead a group in my preferred language, if that’s not English? 

Absolutely! We encourage this, and are ready to work to support it. We expect that there will be several Spanish-language Reimagining cohorts; if you would like to facilitate a study-for-action group in Spanish, please let us know. And let us know if there’s another language you would like to use for a group.

Q: Is there a guidebook for working with From Teaching to Thinking? What support is there for facilitators?

Rather than a guidebook, which is static and frozen in time, we look to the facilitators in this project as an on-going, forward-flowing, IRL source of guidance and support for people working with the book.

We anticipate that facilitators will come together, themselves, in communities of learning to share their experiences with leading study-for-action groups, for exploring questions and wonderings about the art of facilitating, and for reporting on emerging actions. We, the convening team, expect to offer ongoing support for facilitators through optional webinars and resources on the ROW Initiative portal on the Exchange website.

Q: If each group is autonomous, how do we stay connected? 

We will have to invent this as we go, but for now, these are the things we have in place to help us all stay connected as leaders in Reimagining Our Work:

• A Charter developed by the conveners of the ROW Initiative, which articulates core values to guide study-for-action groups;
• a website for the ROW Initiative, hosted by Exchange, with resources for facilitators and opportunities for connecting with other facilitators;
• a very wise leadership guide, Pam Boulton, working with the support of the ROW Convening committee.
  
  

Q: What does this lead to? What’s the conclusion?

Our colleague, Matt Karlsen, said in a recent conversation, “One theory of change is 10,000 independent revolutions happening in intimate, personal spaces. Is that what you’re imagining with this?”

He captured our hopes beautifully! Yes, revolutions in individual early childhood classrooms! Yes, revolutions in child care centers and Head Start programs and family child care! Yes, revolutions in early learning organizations and agencies, in college classrooms and community professional learning!

Our hope is that each study-for-action group will emphasize action. Another colleague, Nikki Baldwin, has led three cohorts in reading and responding to From Teaching to Thinking; she says, “We closed each study with every person generating their own call to action: What will they do, now, because of our shared study of the book? The book taps into people’s longings, but the bigger question is how they will live into the book’s ideas.”

Q: When will this project launch?

The ROW Initiative will be formally launched with a Call to Action in Exchange Magazine’s July/August issue. Study-for-action groups will begin forming in late summer, and continue forming in the months ahead.

As one of our conveners, Pam Boulton, describes the project: “The structure of this Initiative is being invented as we go. Just as we don’t know where things are going with the Covid19 pandemic, the global economic recession, with climate change and the work towards restorative justice to address systemic racism, we don’t know where this ROW Initiative will take us. What we do know is that we in the early childhood field have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to work towards reimagined realities for our field: to offer leadership, to be open and agile so that we can engage possibilities unlike anything we have imagined as they arrive. We know we must hold ourselves accountable for what we want to unfold. This is what will save our humanity.”

We, the conveners, look forward with anticipation to learning from your stories of transformative action. Ten thousand revolutions, all of us together: reimagining early childhood education.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]

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