Human Restoration Project

Human Restoration Project
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Since 2018, the Human Restoration Project Podcast has reimaged education through critical, progressive, human-centered learning!  Across nearly 200 episodes, and counting, we've explored every topic in education: ungrading and alternative assessment, interdisciplinary play-based and project-based learning, SEL, education reforms and systemic school change in society with students, teachers, leaders, researchers, and advocates around the world.  Join us on our mission to restore humanity to education, together!

  1. 1d ago

    Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It w/ Dr. GInie Servant-Miklos

    On Friday, July 31st, we hosted Dr. Ginie Servant-Miklos for a Q&A about her book Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It. This was the conclusion of our Pedagogies of Collapse book club, where we met biweekly to discuss the book and its implication for education. Here is the full unedited Q&A. I wanted to give you a heads up that this conversation gets heavy pretty quickly, includes explicit language, and remind you that HRP is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3), and the views expressed by our guests are their own and do not constitute an endorsement.

    Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It w/ Dr. GInie Servant-Miklos

  2. Jul 18

    The Power of Critical Play w/ Dr. Mary Flanagan

    We all grew up playing games — I fondly remember playing Go Fish with my grandma and her next door neighbor, as a 90s kid who grew up with an NES, it felt like every console generation was a leap forward in graphics and game quality, and, regardless of who you’re cheering for, tomorrow’s World Cup final  will be watched by an estimated 2 billion people. But even though at some point many of us stop playing games—even if we don’t stop paying attention to them—we hold onto the experiences, the feelings, and the lessons: what they taught us about ourselves, each other, and the world around us. And it’s because games play an important role in human development and tell us so much about societies and cultures at large, the relationship between play, games, and learning has always been a focus of our work. It’s also been the lifelong interest of my guest today, game designer, artist, author, and researcher, Dr. Mary Flanagan. Mary Flanagan is the founder of Tiltfactor game studio, whose tabletop and digital games intentionally tackle a number of social issues. The tagline on the Tiltfactor homepage reads “Game design for social change” with the challenge, “Can you make a more just and equitable world with games? At Tiltfactor, we believe we can.” Mary has also authored several incredible books, including the pivotal Critical Play about radical game design, and coauthored, Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games. Given Mary Flanagan’s unique and consequential focus, I wanted to sit down with her to see what we can learn at the intersection of play and critical pedagogy. Playing Oppression : The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games Critical Play: Radical Game Design Critical.play on Instagram http://tiltfactor.org/ https://resonym.com/

    The Power of Critical Play w/ Dr. Mary Flanagan

  3. Jul 4

    Restoring Humanity to "Special Education": Global Perspectives on Inclusion w/ Dr. Sarah K Benson

    Hey there, Nick here at Human Restoration Project. We took the longest break in our podcast’s history last month, and I hope you were able to take a break, too. We’re back for biweekly releases through the summer starting today with Dr. Sarah Benson. Sarah is Associate Professor in Inclusion and Disabilities at the University of Birmingham campus in Dubai where she teaches students from around the world as Head of Subject group for the School of education and lecturer for inclusion and special needs programs. "Inclusion" has become a word everyone nods along to but almost no one defines the same way, And since so much of special education has historically been about sorting and labeling kids in relation to an imaginary average. I was so curious to ask Sarah, what does genuine inclusion require of us, and of schools, and what would it mean to restore the humanity of a special education system that was built to put kids into buckets? Sarah and I also talked a bit about HRP Australia, which is a real thing you can check out at humanrestorationproject.au. HRP Australia is headed by Vaughan Cleary, former Learning and Teaching Head and Senior Deputy Principal at Assumption College in Kilmore, Victoria, and I’ll be headed down there at the end of this month to visit schools and experience Australian education firsthand. Also a quick reminder that we’re reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know it for our HRP Summer Book Club, and there’s still time to join us. You can learn more at humanrestorationproject.org/book-club. Episode notes: HRP Australia HRP Summer Book Club - Pedagogies of Collapse ‘I’m Determined’ at James Madison University

    Restoring Humanity to "Special Education": Global Perspectives on Inclusion w/ Dr. Sarah K Benson

  4. May 30

    Teaching in the Wreckage of the Real: A Narration

    This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we’re inviting you to join us.  Visit humanrestorationproject.org/book-club to sign up for our summer book club, where we'll meet to discuss the ideas and implications of Pedagogies of Collapse and be joined by the author, for a Q&A on July 31. I’ll include a link to the book in the show notes, which is available on Open Access through Bloomsbury. Hope to see you there! I’m back this week with another narrated piece from our upcoming Progressive Education Primer. If you like this format and want to have more narrated essay content, or if you can’t stand it, leave a comment on YouTube or Discord to let us know. This one is written by our Executive Director, Chris McNutt, titled Teaching in the Wreckage of the Real. HRP Book Club Pedagogies of Collapse, Bloomsbury Open Access Teaching in the Wreckage of the Real, Chris McNutt Additional music credits: Dandelion by | e s c p | https://www.escp.space | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com

    Teaching in the Wreckage of the Real: A Narration

  5. May 16

    We Are Worldbuilders: A Narration

    Progressive education is a world-building project rooted in the radical hope that schools can become something fit for human beings. This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we’re inviting you to join us.  Visit humanrestorationproject.org/book-club to sign up for our summer book club, where we'll meet to discuss the ideas and implications of Pedagogies of Collapse and be joined by the author, for a Q&A on July 31. I’ll include a link to the book in the show notes, which is available on Open Access through Bloomsbury. Hope to see you there! The HRP team has been on the road for 3 of the last 4 weeks. At the end of April, we were on the ground working with Third Coast Learning Collaborative schools in Michigan. Last week, we were in Boston for school visits, meeting with folks at the Boston Museum of Science about an upcoming grant partnership, and I went to prison with Jennifer Berkshire to sit in on her journalism class at MCI-Shirley. At the time of recording, I’m headed to Ohio to present student listening reports to school districts who held focus groups this year based around student agency. This is all to say I don’t have an epic 90 minute conversation or hour-long topical deep dive for you this week, but what I will offer is an audio reading of the opening piece from our revised Progressive Education Primer, it’s called We Are Worldbuilders. See you in two weeks! HRP Book Club Pedagogies of Collapse, Bloomsbury Open Access We Are Worldbuilders, Nick Covington Additional music credits: Dandelion by | e s c p | https://www.escp.space | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com

    We Are Worldbuilders: A Narration

  6. May 2

    The Future of Public Education is a Community School feat. Kelly McMahon, Jitu Brown, Angelia Ebner, and Dave Greenberg

    This conversation started 2 years ago, when I ran into Kelly McMahon at a summer conference. Kelly’s a kindergarten teacher at Hoover Community School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I was curious about what that label “community school” means in practice for teachers, students, and the community served by this new model for the area. I’ve since learned that just because your kids attend Ames Community School District, for example, that doesn’t mean they attend a “community school.” Kelly put me in touch with Dave Greenberg and Angelia Ebner, senior policy analysts and community schools program specialists at the National Education Association, who have helped build and support thousands of community schools, as Angelia described it, from “coast to coast and border to border.” And no exploration of the community schools model could be complete without including the story of Sustainable Community Schools in Chicago.  Just last year, Major Brandon Johnson announced a near doubling of the number of community schools in the city, bringing the number to 36. I spoke with foundational community organizer, advocate, and elected Chicago Public Schools Board Member, Jitu Brown, about how organizing for Sustainable Community Schools defused the push by elected officials for school closures, privatization, and charter-ization of Chicago Public Schools.  For Jitu, the title of School Board member may be new, but he is Chicago born and raised, and he’s been organizing around education and all of its related issues since the 90s. While there were just hundreds of community schools in the United States 15 years ago, today there are over 5,000 and growing in nearly every state in the nation. A consistent refrain from every person I spoke with for this episode was that community schools are the future of public education and the alternative to narratives about “failing public schools” that favor privatization as a solution. NEA - What are community schools? NEA - 5 Steps to Kickstarting Community Schools in Your District NEA Community School Measurement Guidance Tool  Chicago Sustainable Community Schools  Eve Ewing - Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side You can read out directly to Angelia & Dave @ NEA: aebner@nea.org | DGreenberg@nea.org

    The Future of Public Education is a Community School feat. Kelly McMahon, Jitu Brown, Angelia Ebner, and Dave Greenberg

  7. Apr 18

    The Promise (and Persistent Myths) of Montessori Education w/ Andrew Faulstich, Dr. Ayize Sabater, and Kelly Jonelis

    Montessori schools are some of the few that wear their pedagogy on their signage: Cottontail Creek Montessori School. Montessori Children’s House. Acappella Montessori. (just to name a few of the dozen or so in Iowa). While the majority are private schools, there’s a growing number of public Montessori schools and programs as well. I think because of these two factors, being largely private and one of the only public-facing pedagogies around, you don’t necessarily have to be acquainted with the Montessori method to develop an opinion about it. We recorded this in two sessions, one with Andrew Faulstich – Director of Education at Oneness Family School and co-founder of Developing Education – and Dr Ayize Sabater, school founder, co-founder of the Black Montessori Education Fund, and former Executive Director of Association Montessori International-USA. And a second session with Kelly Jonelis, Montessori Adolescent Program Director, Math Specialist, and Co-Founder of Developing Education. In this episode you’ll hear the journeys that brought them to Montessori education, what Montessori is and is not, and what otherwise “mainstream” education can learn from the ideas and practices first developed by Dr. Maria Montessori over 100 years ago. Recommended Reading & Media List: The Montessori Child: A Parent's Guide to Raising Capable Children with Creative Minds and Compassionate Hearts - Simone Davies & Junnifa Uzodike Erica Maretti - The Best Weapon for Peace Montessori - The Child and Adolescence Montessori - Psychogeometry Montessori - Citizen of the World Montessori Potential - Paula Preschlack Diverse Families, Desirable Schools - Mira Debs Montessori - From Childhood to Adolescence Montessori - Education and Peace Breaking the Paradigm Podcast w/ Andrew Faulstitch Breaking the Paradigm: You ARE Good at Math with Kelly Jonelis Dr. Ayize Sabater - WPFW 89.3 DC #YouMustLearn, Thursdays 6pm - wpfwfm.org #YouMustLearn

    The Promise (and Persistent Myths) of Montessori Education w/ Andrew Faulstich, Dr. Ayize Sabater, and Kelly Jonelis

  8. Apr 4

    Spring Break 2026: HRP Summer Book Club & Montessori Mythbusting

    This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we’re inviting you to join us.  Visit humanrestorationproject.org/book-club to sign up for our summer book club, where we'll meet to discuss the ideas and implications of Pedagogies of Collapse and be joined by the author, for a Q&A on July 31. I’ll include a link to the book in the show notes, which is available on Open Access through Bloomsbury. Hope to see you there! Spring Break has officially sprung for so many schools across the country. Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, a student, or a combination of any of the above, we hope you have a well-deserved and restful break. We’ll be taking a break this week too and be back on April 18th with a deep dive into Montessori education with an incredible team of Montessori educators, Andrew Faulstitch, Dr. Ayize Sabater, and Kelly Jonelis. Here’s a quick preview, and see you back here in two weeks for the full episode. HRP Book Club Sign-Up: https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/book-club Read Pedagogies of Collapse for free through Open Access on Bloomsbury

    Spring Break 2026: HRP Summer Book Club & Montessori Mythbusting
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Since 2018, the Human Restoration Project Podcast has reimaged education through critical, progressive, human-centered learning!  Across nearly 200 episodes, and counting, we've explored every topic in education: ungrading and alternative assessment, interdisciplinary play-based and project-based learning, SEL, education reforms and systemic school change in society with students, teachers, leaders, researchers, and advocates around the world.  Join us on our mission to restore humanity to education, together!

Information

  • Creator
    Human Restoration Project
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    191
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Creative Commons SA-BY with Attribution
  • Show Website
    Human Restoration Project

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