4 Learning offers our signature recording arts-based DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) and anti-racism training for educators.
This program engages participants in developing their critical frameworks and anti-racist positionalities within the unique space of a recording studio.
By asking such questions as — “What kinds of moments of exclusion occur in the recording studio?” — our DEIB program pushes educators to step outside the classroom in their conceptions of learning spaces in order to reckon with notions of power, privilege and positionality.
“Our DEIB program pushes educators to reckon with notions of power, privilege and positionality by utilizing the unique benefits of the recording arts.”
The 4 Learning DEIB program uses storytelling to ask educators to develop soundscapes of their own childhood neighborhoods in order to unpack their own identities as educators.
We also ask participants to record their professional introductions before their first session using simple app-based programs, omitting any identifiers such as name, age, gender, race or sexual orientation, so as to engage in critical conversations about assumption and bias based on only the sounds of our voices.
We ask participants to listen to a difficult conversation, take notes on what they think they hear, then reflect on how what they think they heard informs their own identities, those of the speakers they listened to, and their own biases and assumptions.
At the end of a given session, we engage participants in metacognitively reflecting on their experiences in order to bring awareness to the process of (un)learning racism and oppression and to apply these (un)learnings to their practices with young people.