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at Otterbein |
Story of NExT Hub:
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Re-imagining Erase the Space
In February 2020, Erase the Space teachers met to collaborate on their “shared learning” step to their exchanges. There were 16 teachers (8 exchanges in all) that were preparing for their students to collaborate on solutions to shared social issues. Otterbein was to host all of the exchanges in May. Soon after Ohio got the stay-at-home order on March 13, 2020, we realized these classroom collaborations were not going to happen in person. As the pandemic continued, we realized that in-person exchanges weren’t going to happen in the 2020-21 school year either. Schools were facing unprecedented challenges and teachers shouldered much of the legwork as districts moved forward. Teachers needed space. We’ve needed shared space for a while. We needed space to regroup and figure out how to care for students as we returned to school. We needed space to listen and respond to student voices telling stories of racism and other forms of discrimination in our buildings. The need for space remains as we continue to confront the realities of white supremacy in our school districts. Much of our research has led us to understand that teachers are often insulated in their classroom experience and isolated within their school district. As we began to listen to the moment, we started to understand that space for teachers to collaborate across districts was just as important as students working across segregated experiences. We proposed to Otterbein that we apply for a grant through the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation to build more cross-district networks like Erase the Space. We imagined a place that addressed the need for teachers to connect across districts around the shared work of antiracism. In July 2020, we found out that we were funded and got to work on NExT Hub. |
What is NExT Hub?
NExT (Networks for Excellent Teaching) Hub is a community of networks engaging educators in antiracist work in their schools. The idea behind this community is to have teachers, principals, librarians work across segregated school districts to transform themselves, their classrooms, their schools, and the education system at large. Our focus on cross-district collaboration is grounded in contact theory and the necessity for teachers to collaborate outside of their building/district. During the 2020-21 school year, NExT Hub created and facilitated three networks of educators. Our initial network of teachers participated in a program entitled “From ‘Civil’ Voyeurism to Civic Action.” This network met once a month to investigate white supremacy in ourselves, in our classrooms, and in our schools. Giving teachers the time to reflect and transform is necessary before teachers take action during the 2021-22 school year engaging their students in Erase the Space classroom collaborations. Since then, NExT Hub has facilitated 8 more networks and supported over 200 educators that have participated with us. From "Beyond the Book Club" in-depth looks at integrating professional reading into our classrooms, a nonviolent communications foundations course for administrators and teachers, to conversations with national leaders in the field of educational justice, NExT Hub continues to make space for teachers to work across districts and break out of their silos. Read our interview and write up in the Martha Holden Jennings blog: "A Passionate Network of Educators" Click here to download the NExT Hub 2022 calendar
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Past Networks
Teaching Right Now
Five practicing teachers from across Central Ohio shared about their experiences teaching right now in elementary, middle, and high school and what keeps them going when the system and the world can be so exhausting. Topics hit on were how to support students during this particularly trying time and what school has been like from people who have been pushing for change and reimagining their relationship to the classroom.
Five practicing teachers from across Central Ohio shared about their experiences teaching right now in elementary, middle, and high school and what keeps them going when the system and the world can be so exhausting. Topics hit on were how to support students during this particularly trying time and what school has been like from people who have been pushing for change and reimagining their relationship to the classroom.
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“Beyond the Book Club” is another NExT Hub concept that was created and facilitated the past two school years. We bring teachers together, again across districts, to engage in self-reflection and theory beyond just reading and reacting to a book. We focus on teacher identity and meeting the needs of students through the text in hopes that our teachers take more intention into their planning and curriculum before rushing to teach a text. We have had three of these networks over the past two years: one on teaching the book Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and We Want to do More Than Survive by Bettina Love during the 2020-2021 school year and Cultivating Genius by Gholdy Muhammad in fall 2021.
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At the end of year 1, NExT Hub invited Dr. Bettina Love to talk with any teachers who have participated in our networks. In May 2021, over 50 teachers from 10 districts got the chance to listen to and have dialogue with Dr. Love around the idea of not going back to the status quo. Her words breathed life into us all as we ended one of the toughest years of teaching in recent memory, and we hoped to generate momentum among teachers engaged in social justice work in their schools. |
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In the summer of 2021 NExT Hub launched “Support Through Story: A Network for Educators of Color” in hopes to provide space for teachers of color to connect outside of their building and across districts to engage in empathy and storytelling with each other. Other ideas and networks will be created throughout the year as we listen to teachers and attempt to create the space they are asking for. We hope to give teachers space to understand why we teach now.
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In January and February 2022, Erase the Space hosted a 6-week exchange with parents, teachers, and other stakeholders in education from across the central Ohio area to grapple with the question, "What future do we want for our children in Central Ohio?" The parent, teacher, stakeholder exchange mimicked what our students go through but has been adjusted for adults in the community and hoped to give our participants an understanding of what we do with students while addressing needs for critical conversations in their lives.
More networks like this will be available in the future. Please email us if you are interested. |
