14. Patriarchy-Disrupting Pedagogy in International High Schools

Patriarchy-Disrupting Pedagogy in International High Schools: Curriculum Design and Praxis for Collaborative Peer Education

Convenors: Melinda Russial, United World College - USA & Yijing Yang, Undergraduate Student

Contact: melinda.russial (at) uwc-usa.org

Seminar room: TH118

Format: Hybrid

Patriarchy-Disrupting Pedagogy in International High Schools: Curriculum Design and Praxis for Collaborative Peer Education is a workshop designed to leverage curricular experiences of faculty and students in Experiential Education at United World College-USA for a broader community of activists and educators. The UWC-USA Student Life program offers a rigorous curriculum in leadership, advocacy, and teen empowerment with a model that can be reproduced in a variety of settings. The model is characterized by co-development of curriculum between faculty members and student participants, and pedagogical training for students to instruct their peers in issues of diversity, equity, access, inclusion, mental health, sexual health and sexual misconduct advocacy, substance use harm reduction, and overall wellness. Curriculum is re-created each year to support tailoring it to the unique experiences of students actively enrolled in the boarding school for that year, and to engage students in the process of continuous curriculum-building. We emphasize a feminist lens in our approach to sexual wellness, mental health, and diversity, and empower students to carry these lenses forward with them after graduating from our program.

The proposed workshop will offer instructional modeling, conversation about application across diverse demographics, and question-and-answer opportunities with the lead instructor at UWC-USA (Melinda Russial, Director of Arts and Culture and Student Life Curriculum) and two undergraduate alumni of the program. Special emphasis will be on incorporating a feminist educational lens in communities with diverse values -- UWC-USA serves 220 students (ages 16-19) from over 90 countries each year, and affords many opportunities to explore conflicting values frameworks in a shared global landscape.