Using the PYP’s 7 Key Concepts to Talk about Race, Injustice and Change

NOTE: PYP Coordinator Melissa Powers and I collaboratively authored this post. In addition to being a PYP Coordinator in Arizona, United States, Melissa is a part of the IB Educator Network (IBEN), leading PYP workshops and participating in site visits. She and I first went through our initial IBEN training together. I am grateful for her partnership, her thoughtful perspective and her voice.

The International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) posits that “The Learning Community” is inclusive of everyone involved in the life of the school. Together, this community’s goal is to, “live peacefully together, prioritize people and their relationships, and assume shared responsibility for learning, health and well-being,” (A Community of Learners from PYP: From Principles into Practice > The Learning Community).

With the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of police officers, there is a sense of urgency from principled and caring elementary-school teachers to speak with their learning communities — their students — about issues of safety, race, justice, change and action.

As we engage with our immediate learning community, it is important to have a clear objective and structure. Successful teachers use thinking routines and discussion protocols so that conversations that center around seemingly controversial topics do not stray off course. As PYP teachers, we are empowered to take risks and should not be afraid to facilitate these discussions in our classrooms. 

Those who work in PYP schools can leverage the components of the PYP’s international framework to help structure spaces and opportunities for meaningful processing and reflective conversation. The PYP’s key concepts are seven powerful, broad and abstract organizing ideas that can frame conversations and drive learning. When PYP teachers identify topics and investigate them through the key concepts, students learn to be inquirers and think critically about big ideas. It is essential to explicitly teach critical thinking skills so that students learn how to think for themselves and not blindly emote. 

When teachers view the key concepts as a set of open-ended questions, they can more easily direct purposeful and manageable conversations (Concepts from PYP: From Principles into Practice > Learning and Teaching). Below, we have brainstormed key concept questions with the intention of provoking PYP teachers to think about how they will provide safe spaces and opportunities for their students to critically engage in meaningful conversations that lead to authentic and mindful action.

We sorted the questions by primary and intermediate, as the conversations that will take place in these two different settings will inevitably require different approaches, however we encourage teachers to use the questions that best fit the needs of their contexts; you know your students the best!

Think of the questions below as a start. We call to you, dear reader, to contribute questions that you'd want to ask your students. As you put forth ideas, we’ll update the collection below.

Form

• Primary
• What is racism?
• What is antiracism?
• What is a protest?
• Intermediate
• What is racial injustice?
• What is systemic racism?
• What does it mean to be an antiracist?
• What is a protest?
• What is implicit bias?
• What is prejudice?
• What is privilege?

Function

• Primary
• If someone does something wrong, how can they make it right?
• Intermediate
• How important is the study of racial injustice?

Causation

• Primary
• Why do people protest?
• Intermediate
• What effect do dehumanizing and devaluing black and brown people have?

Change

• Primary
• How can something unfair change into something fair?
• Intermediate
• What can young people do to promote change?
• How can you challenge any implicit biases you might have to make a change in your own beliefs and actions?

Connection

• Primary
• How are different people groups connected to each other?
• What sets us apart and makes us unique?
• Intermediate
• How is the US’s history of slavery and Jim Crow connected to current events?
• How are the seemingly separate incidents of violence against black and brown people connected?
• Are racism and prejudice the same thing? How are they different?

Perspective

• Primary
• What are the ways we can appreciate and celebrate others who don’t look like you / are different from you?
• Intermediate
• Why do we say “Black Lives Matter” and not “All Lives Matter”?
• What biases do you have about racial groups different from yours?

Responsibility

• Primary
• How can you show other people you care?
• How can you stand up for other people when wrong is being done to them?
• Intermediate
• What action can you take to fight racial injustice? Use the PYP’s 5 types of action to help frame your thinking: social justice, advocacy, social entrepreneurship, participation, lifestyle choices.
• How can you be a responsible inquirer and critical thinker? Why is it important?
• How can you show other people you care?
• How will you learn about racial groups that are different from yours?
• How can people examine their own privilege and use it to help?

For more information about facilitating challenging or difficult conversations, check out this resource from Common Sense Education: A best-of-the-best collection of resources for social justice- and equity-focused educators.

Concepts in the PYP

In January 2018, the elementary teachers in our district's two PYP schools set out to explore the enhanced PYP content that make up the document "PYP: From principles into practice." Many thanks to fifth grade teacher and guest blogger, Lauren Ryan, for authoring this post on concepts in the PYP.

As an educator in the fast-paced, digital era of the 2000s I feel fortunate to be a teacher at a PYP school where inquiry, curiosity and student-centered learning is celebrated. I remember seeing a meme on the Internet a few years back about how readily information is available to people in today’s world. It depicted a math teacher from decades ago saying to his class of students who were sitting in well defined, compliant rows, “Now you better memorize this because it’s not like you’re going to be carrying a calculator around with you in your pocket every day.” Enter a picture of a pocket-sized smartphone.

People today have access to endless amounts of facts and information at the click of a button, on a device that is regularly not more than a few feet from us at any given point. It makes me wonder what a teacher can provide to her students in today’s world that they can’t receive from a quick Internet search. The answer- a conceptually-based, inquiry driven curriculum.

The Primary Years Program says that “concept-based inquiry is a powerful vehicle for learning that promotes meaning and understanding, and challenges students to engage with significant ideas.” It is a way for learning to be built around big ideas that transfer across subject areas and can be applied to new situations. The seven Key Concepts defined by the PYP are form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective and responsibility. Teaching through these concepts allows me to help students construct mental models of how things work and connect throughout the world. It is a way to connect new, abstract, or complicated learning with things that students already know and to extend their learning to new ideas and topics.

An example of this is when I taught first graders about addition through the concepts of change and balance. While addition can feel complicated and abstract for students, I was able to help students explore the idea that an addition sign will change a number by adding more to it or making it bigger. We also explored the idea of balance when thinking about the function of an equal sign. The equal sign is often thought of by kids as meaning “the answer”, which is a narrow way of thinking and has implications for future learning when it comes to more complex math topics, such as algebra. Additionally, we looked at the concept of balance so that students understood the idea that both sides of an equal sign had to be the same. Looking at addition through the lens of balance helped our students make the connection to the idea of “same as” instead of just “equal to”. For example, we read basic addition as 2 + 2 is the same as 4 rather and just 2 + 2 = 4. Now, as an intermediate teacher I value conceptual teaching even more as I see how much more successful a student can be when he or she is able to make connections to previous learning and transfer past knowledge to new situations.

In general, concepts help guide the way I construct learning experiences in the classroom and they help my students think critically about big ideas. They are a launching point for questions around a topic and help students develop their curiosity and understanding. When key concepts are too broad, related concepts act as way to explore concepts in more detail or to add depth to an area of study. Related concepts are narrower and more focused, often addressing content specific information, or standards that must be addressed on a more local level.

Knowledge is accessible nearly everywhere in today’s world, but true understanding of the world is the heart of what a PYP teacher’s role is in preparing students for success in school and beyond. Key and related concepts allow teachers in today’s age to root essential learning of skills, facts and knowledge in concepts that are deep, transferable, broad, abstract and not locked in place or time, so that students are able keep pace with a fast-moving world, full of complex systems and relationships.

As a PYP teacher I feel I get to address the evolving needs of students in an environment that encourages me to think about the enduring understanding I want my students to walk away with. An area of action for me is to be more intentional about teaching conceptually in stand-alone units or in content areas that do not align directly with a unit of inquiry. This might look like writing concepts on my “Learning Targets” bulletin board, or leading a lesson with questions about a topic that are concept driven. It might also look like backwards planning an ELA or math unit thinking about the long term concepts or deep understanding I want my students to understand and creating lesson content that will drive towards deeper conceptual understanding of a topic.

As a school, PYP buildings have a unique opportunity to provide students with common language that develops the skill of conceptual learning. All teachers, from kindergarten through intermediate grades, can teach students to recognize patterns in learning and talk about content in terms of key concepts. This can be supported through collaborative time for team teachers to plan units and lessons that align with concepts that will provide students with common and rigorous learning experiences and through vertical alignment of content so that conceptual understanding begins at a young age and is carried on through a child’s PYP experience. Furthermore, PYP coordinators can work with their teachers to develop skill as writers of curriculum and help craft lessons and units that are conceptually driven and be provided with support for developing inquiry opportunities that support students’ ability to access curriculum in a way that connects to their natural interest and prior knowledge.

Source:
The PYP Curriculum Framework. International Baccalaureate Organization, 2005-2018, <https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/works/pyp_11162-51681?c=2972d4b6>