Liz Perry Leads Faculty Workshop on Open Discourse at Hotchkiss

At the end of June, Assistant Head of School for Academics Liz Perry helped lead a three-day workshop on open discourse for 45 secondary school teachers and administrators hosted at the Hotchkiss School. 

Throughout the conference, attendees engaged in conversations with educational leaders about open discourse and free speech in the classroom, participated in classroom scenarios and simulations on difficult topics, including political ideology and social issues, received the tools and techniques necessary for handling complex, controversial topics, and considered the question of whether schools should make statements on such matters. 

Dr. Leila Brammer, Director of the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse at the University of Chicago, and Byron Hulsey, Head of School at Woodberry Forest and a committee member who helped create Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools, were the featured speakers.

Perry helped to design and facilitate the conference. She created the scenarios that participants worked through using reflection questions and facilitated the sessions based on those scenarios. During the conference, Perry also served as a facilitator for the debrief of two mock classes taught in a fishbowl format with participants playing the role of students.

When reflecting on the experience, Perry shared, “It was inspiring to see such broad and genuine interest in the work of open discourse and community building. It was also affirming to hear how many schools grapple with similar questions about what disciplined nonpartisanship looks like in a K-12 setting. In polarizing times, schools play a key role in fostering open discourse and teaching young people how to navigate conflict respectfully.”