Uncovering Possible: Pedagogies for Apocalyptic Times

'Uncovering Possible: Pedagogies for Apocalyptic Times' is an edited volume that holds our experiences as educators, activists, and community members navigating the global pandemic of the past several years. This pandemic is situated within the context of ongoing interconnected crises: oppressive systems, worsening climate, and economic urgency, all at an unsustainable pace. The work in this volume confronts the grief, loss, and injustice that apocalypse brings, while also engaging with the possibility and intentional, resilient joy necessary to build a better world. This volume is an invitation to explore both the impacts of this and many other apocalyptic events in learning spaces, as well as (re)imagine what’s essential to learning in community.

Through research, storytelling, reflections from the field, poetry, and interactive activities, this volume shares lessons from those on the front lines of apocalyptic learning, inviting the reader to find their place in building the more equitable communities we need and deserve. This apocalypse is situated within a social context that extends beyond this single event. For many, apocalypse has, and continues to happen, through colonial white-supremacist capitalism. What we carry forward must include the collective knowledges capable of carrying us not just through this apocalypse but the apocalypses ahead.

Acknowledgements
Foreword: Whose World is Ending?
Soraya Chemaly
Introduction: Course Schedule
Nora Maybury
What if We Never Looked Back Toward ‘Normal’? Framing Apocalyptic Pedagogies
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center
Cara Berg Powers
Clark University

Section 1: Navigating a World in Permacrisis
Introduction: The Weight of Rising to the Occasion
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center
Chapter 1
Search: American Education
Amy Alvarez
Boston College
Chapter 2
We Were Not Phoenixes: Relearning Lessons for Rebuilding
Susan X. Jane
Culture Navigators
Chapter 3
[Black] Joy Comes in the Morning...and Other Dissonant Considerations in Pursuit of Affirming Methodologies
Jacquie Forbes
Dickinson College, The BLESS Collective
Chapter 4
Learning Loss Before and After the Pandemic: The Plight of Minoritized Students in Culturally Unresponsive Systems of Higher Education
Rashid Faisal
University of Michigan, Dearborn
Chapter 5
Separation from Community as Apocalypse
Jayeesha Dutta
Windcall Institute
Chapter 6
Rebirthing From the Void and Finding Center: The Will to Create Community
Ivy Alphonse-Crean
Dedham Country Day School
Interactive Activity: How to Not Get Lost at Sea When We Want to “Boil the Ocean.”

Section 2: Cultivating and Maintaining Communities of Care and Criticality
Introduction: Un-yielding Our Commitment to Each Other
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center
Chapter 7
A Shabbat Prayer in the Time of the Pandemic
Cara Berg Powers
Chapter 8
A Tale of Two Skateparks or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Fight the City
John Powers
CopJuju
Chapter 9
Teaching Toward Action: Navigating Risk, Crisis, and Community In and Out of the Classroom
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center
Siobhan Senier
University of New Hampshire
Leif Taranta
Climate Disobedience Center
Chapter 10
School as Community Care Constant
Ivy Alphonse-Crean
Dedham Country Day School
AnaMaria Correa
Brooklyn Friends School
Cabrina Kang
The Pingry School
Regina Hardatt
The Pingry School
Chapter 11
Building Community Trust and Breaking Free of Punitive Punishment Cycles
Ezra Schwerner
Clark University
Chapter 12
Making Space for Joy: Reflections on the Importance of Play, Creativity, Agency, and Community Building
Holly Dolan
Clark University
Annie Cohn
Worcester Public Schools
Lora Barish
Worcester Public Schools
Kathryn Egnazcak
Jacob Hiatt Magnet School
Meg Tighe
Worcester Public Schools
Kaila Skeet Browning
Worcester Public Schools
Interactive Activity: Cultivating Community

Section 3: Confronting What is Unveiled in Apocalypse and Building More Resilient Realities
Introduction: Holding Steadfast to What Needs to be Seen
Cara Berg Powers
Clark University
Chapter 13
2020 Was the Longest Game of Telephone
Carly Lazarus
Chapter 14
Tangled Threads and Sideways Ruptures: What We Learned, What We Already Knew About Disability, Pandemic and Schooling
Katie Newhouse
New York University
Maddie Neufeld
Teachers College
Chapter 15
Learning From Our Youth: What Youth of Promise Taught Educators Through the Pandemic
Anthony Peña
Claremont Graduate University
Chapter 16
Pushing Back on the Pushback: Future Proofing Communities Through Defending and Practicing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Malia Lazu
The Lazu Group
Chapter 17
Zoomer, Zoom, and Zealous Youth Teachers: Gen Z Students Emerging as Mid-Pandemic Educators and Facilitators
Mendrick Banzuela
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Brittany Giroux
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Brett Iarrobino
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Elya
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Edgar Lopez
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Bảo Nguyen
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Francesca Toy
Worcester Public Schools and Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound
Chapter 18
COVID and Learning: A Long-Term View
Ogechi Irondi
University of Pittsburgh
Anneliese Martinez
University of Pittsburgh
Jasmine Mao
University of Pittsburgh
Leigh Patel
University of Pittsburgh
Interactive Activity: Working With What Gets Uncovered

Section 4: Growing Solidarity Through Reflexive and Relational Action
Introduction: Rooting Ourselves in Reciprocity
Cara Berg Powers
Clark University
Chapter 19
Praise Song That Refuses to Play Favorites
Becky Thompson
Simmons College
Chapter 20
Remote Support for Water Protectors: Lessons on Movement Building Through Apocalypse
Marla Marcum
Climate Disobedience Center
Kira Kelley
Climate Defense Project
Sophia Dantzic
with Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Chapter 21
Building Foundations: EducateUS and the Role of Liberatory Sex Ed
Jaclyn Friedman
EducateUs
Chapter 22
Facilitating Community Care: A Conversation with the Moderators of Mutual Aid Worcester
Deborah Powers
Mutual Aid Worcester
Jennifer Gaskin
Mutual Aid Worcester
with Cara Berg Powers
Chapter 23
Navigating Negative Solidarity and Building Power: An Interview with Lupinewood Collective
Terran Ranier
and Lupinewood Collective
Interactive Activity: Building Reflexivity to Sustain Ourselves in the Work
Chapter 24
Moving Forward: (Re)Locating Ourselves in the Work Ahead
Cara Berg Powers
Clark University
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center

Epilogue: The Last Word: Make Way for Gen Alpha
Cara Berg Powers
Clark University
Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor
Climate Disobedience Center
with Ella Berg Powers (she/her), Elliot Carelton (he/him), Ethan Carelton, Nora Duram-Minasian (she/her), Harriet Gage, Ella Mills (she/her), Zola Greenberg Norsigian (he/they), Mae Parham, Gabriel Sticklor (he/they)
Index

Cara Berg Powers has been working for over 15 years in arts, education, and culture to help people reimagine and reshape the world, most recently as Executive Director of the Transformative Culture Project. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Education at Clark University, and has also taught at Worcester State University, UMASS Boston and Wheelock College, as well as guest lecturing at a number of colleges and universities. She has produced content for MTV and NBC, and has presented at national conferences on issues of media, culture and equity. She has also provided training for non-profit leaders like Facing History and Ourselves and OxFam America. Cara founded the Youth Media Institute at Project: Think Different (now amplifyme) and also ran Digital Media programming for the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC). Her work has been published by Harvard University in partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, as well as through several feminist publications. She was featured in Gloria Feldt’s 'No Excuses: Nine Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power' and gave the inaugural keynote for the UpTake’s groundbreaking Conflict Sensitive Journalism fellowship. Cara holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change in addition to an MA in Transformative Media Arts and a BA in Screen Studies and Urban Development/Social Change.

Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor is an educator, climate justice activist, and nonviolent direct-action practitioner and trainer. She is a core team member with the Climate Disobedience Center, focusing on research and organizing at the intersection of environmental justice, restorative justice, and youth voice and leadership in education. She approaches this work with the belief that climate justice can only be reached through decolonizing and dismantling white supremacist, capitalist, and patriarchal systems and that our resistance to these systems lies in our solidarity and interconnectedness. Nastasia previously worked at the Hiatt Center for Urban Education at Clark University, cultivating spaces that uplift youth voices through qualitative research. Her teaching practice, both in the classroom and community spaces, focuses on interrogating traditional pedagogies and exploring ways to build antiracist and liberatory teaching practices that are grounded in multigenerational collaboration and relationship building. She has co-authored multiple articles and presentations with educators and youth. Nastasia holds a Masters’ in Teaching from Clark University and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Simmons University. She is currently pursuing a degree in Restorative Justice at Vermont Law School.

Apocalyptic pedagogies, apocalypse, pandemic learning, anti-racist education, community care, culturally responsive learning, disability justice, inclusion, liberatory education