SEEDs of Change in Social Justice Education

‘Energizing’ professional development program sows hope for growth

In the winter of 2019, Mayfield’s diversity practitioners, Cassandra Gonzales and Sarah Briuer Boland, signed up for intensive leadership training with the National SEED Project, a professional development program that Head of School Kate Morin has described as “transformative.” They planned to spend two weeks in the Bay Area the following summer immersed in conversations and workshops with other educators about justice, diversity, equity and inclusion (JDEI) issues.

But the summer of 2020 brought forth many pivots and perspective shifts. The SEED organizers couldn’t have anticipated the pandemic, which moved all the in-person training onto Zoom. And SEED participants couldn’t have predicted the social and racial justice movements that would find new momentum and capture nationwide attention, highlighting the urgent relevance of their work.

The National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project was established in 1987 to promote institutional and societal change by creating “conversational communities” around social justice inside schools and organizations. The idea is that SEED-trained leaders facilitate a series of probing and insightful discussions—on challenging and sensitive subjects—with small groups of their peers.

Ms. Gonzales, Mayfield’s Interim Director of JDEI, explains the way the program is designed: “It’s called SEED because you’re planting these seeds, and then they’re growing, and then they’re starting other SEED groups, until the whole community is having these transformational conversations.”

And she sees direct benefits for Mayfield students. “Students benefit from faculty and staff members participating in SEED because it makes our community a more just and welcoming place,” she says. “Understanding the links between personal experiences and structures of oppression allow for our community to examine how we can support all students in all aspects of the school.”

So, in the fall of 2020, Mayfield’s first SEED cohort of 15 faculty and staff members embarked on a year-long JDEI training together. Ms. Briuer Boland, Mayfield’s JDEI Coordinator, admits that she and Ms. Gonzales were both worried that “one more Zoom meeting would be kind of onerous” for faculty and staff already facing the demands of this uniquely challenging year. But the reaction was quite the opposite.

“Being in a space of 15 people who came from 15 different life stories, people that I care about and respect— that changed everything,” says veteran mathematics instructor Melissa Tighe. She saw how these diverse perspectives created the kind of vibrant, thought-provoking discussions that inspire creative problem-solving. The possibilities clearly set her brain alight as Mayfield’s Director of Innovation and Community Partnerships. “I want more spaces where different groups of people—they have to be from different perspectives—get brought together and given a common thing to chew on,” says Mrs. Tighe. “That transforms you.”

Mayfield’s SEED meetings happened on the first Monday of each month and tackled a broad range of topics relating to seeing and being seen, race and gender messaging, the limits and segments of self-knowledge. A meeting usually

involved lecture, discussion, engaging in reading materials and video content, and often creating art around the relevant topic. Participants were probed to ask, what makes an environment a safe “nest” versus a restrictive “cage”? Where are the “mirrors” where you see your culture and the “windows” where you perceive others? Colleagues came to understand “intersecting identities” in themselves and those around them. The complexity of these topics sometimes unearthed deep and forgotten wounds, but in spite of this heavy lift, almost every SEED member affirmed that this work was “energizing.”

Director of Library Services Ann Pibel found the SEED program to be a natural extension of Mayfield’s Holy Child goals, one that was perfectly aligned with the “incarnational theology” of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. As the head of Mayfield’s Mission Effectiveness Committee (MEC), Ms. Pibel was intricately involved in the school’s periodic re-evaluation and recommitment to the Holy Child educational mission in 2019. This deep dive, which involves objective institutional reflection and goalsetting, set a target of expanding JDEI professional development opportunities for staff. “Everyone here made a commitment to [SEED],” said Ms. Pibel. “I think it was brilliant.”

Faculty members…also gained more understanding as to why it matters to have a curriculum that serves as both ‘windows’ and ‘mirrors’ to our community.

—CASSANDRA GONZALES, INTERIM DIRECTOR OF JDEI

When it comes to unraveling systematic messaging and unconscious biases, Ms. Gonzales and Ms. Briuer Boland are acutely aware that a single program, even one as lauded as SEED, is not a quick fix. “SEED can’t be the only tool,” says Ms. Gonzales. “But it’s a useful tool.” And much of that comes down to the fact that it’s not a purely academic approach, but rather a “relational” one. SEED relies on honoring individual perspectives for growth—deeply aligned with Holy Child Goal 5, which compels our community to foster spaces “based on trust and reverence for the dignity and uniqueness of each person.”

Although Teri Gonzales, Mayfield’s Director of Campus Ministry, had participated in SEED training at her previous school, she embraced the opportunity to connect with her Mayfield colleagues this way. Born and raised in the Philippines, Ms. Gonzales says, “English is my second language, and there are all the insecurities that come with that.” But working in Mayfield’s SEED cohort “really built my confidence that you are in a community that values what you value, and that we all will continue to grow and know the people who are willing to join you on that journey.”

Cassandra Gonzales is encouraged by the way SEED helps “expand capacity for change” inside an organization— especially in the classroom. “On the more concrete side of things, faculty members were able to learn tools for integrating discussions of diversity, equity and inclusion into their classroom,” she says. “They also gained more understanding as to why it matters to have a curriculum that serves as both ‘windows’ and ‘mirrors’ to our community.”

“I love the analogies of ‘windows’ and ‘mirrors,’ ” says SEED participant Billy Abdallah, a freshman physics teacher who just finished his first year of instruction at Mayfield. “I think when you compare something simple, it makes talking about it a little bit easier… relaying that to students who are just coming into their own individuality, giving them these terms and giving them opportunity to talk about it, using these different ways. That’s beautiful.”

Ms. Gonzales and Ms. Briuer Boland are already thinking about how to nurture and grow the SEED program beyond these yearly professional development staff cohorts. They see parents leading parent SEED groups, board members leading SEED groups for their fellow trustees, administrators leading SEED groups for their colleagues. As Ms. Briuer Boland says, “It has to be a group effort, and you need a community to do it.”

Back row: Melissa Tighe, math teacher and Director of Innovation and Community Partnerships; Billy Abdallah, science teacher; Cheyenne Sons, librarian; Ann Pibel, Director of Library Services; Lynn Maloney, Co-Director of College Counseling; Sarah Briuer Boland, JDEI Coordinator and SEED facilitator; Julie Sanchez Brehove ’11, English teacher; Center row: Christin Hablewitz, Director of Instrumental Conservatory; Lauren Marks ’98, Director of Communications; Front row: Emily Baratta Goodell ’99, Math Department Chair and Director of Summer Studies; Krista Ellis, English teacher; Michael Dimen, math and science teacher; Cassandra Gonzales, Interim Director of JDEI and SEED facilitator; Nicole Cosand Burcham, Director of Alum Engagement; Teri Gonzales, Director of Campus Ministry