Unboxed Pedagogy: Project-Based Learning

Unboxed Pedagogy: Project-Based Learning for Justice-Driven Educators Reimagining Power, Identity, and Voice in P-12 Classrooms 1. Session Summary This session challenges traditional power dynamics in the classroom by reimagining what it means to center student voice, cultural relevance, and community impact through Project-Based Learning (PBL). We will explore how authentic PBL design can be a liberatory practice that disrupts norms in schools—like compliance, hierarchy, and individualism—and replaces them with inquiry, collaboration, and critical consciousness. Educators will leave with practical tools for designing anti-oppressive PBL units that affirm identity, build collective agency, and radically shift who holds power in the classroom. 2. Target Audience -P-12 classroom teachers -Instructional coaches -Curriculum designers -School and district leaders -Educators seeking to center racial and gender equity in instruction 3. Objectives / Learning Outcomes By the end of this session, participants will: ✅ Understand how PBL can serve as a tool for dismantling systems of oppression in schools ✅ Identify patriarchal norms embedded in traditional curriculum structures ✅ Explore strategies for designing PBL units that center justice, voice, and community impact ✅ Review real-world examples of liberatory PBL in action from historically underserved communities ✅ Leave with a framework for planning culturally sustaining, equity-centered PBL units 4. Session Structure Duration: 60–90 minutes Format: Interactive workshop (virtual or in-person) Agenda: 🔥 Icebreaker: “What are you smashing?” (A communal release of oppressive classroom practices) 🎯 Brief Framework: Unpacking White Supremacy Culture in Curriculum (e.g. perfectionism, urgency, control) 📚 Case Study: A walk-through of a PBL unit that centers racial justice and student agency ✍🏾 Planning Time: Identify and reframe a unit or lesson to reflect anti-oppressive goals