New podcast launched!
The Open System with Canadian podcaster Stephen Hurley (Director of VoiceEd Radio Canada) launched in late 2023 and will be continuing forward in 2024 with even more episodes. Each episodes brings on a special guest who leads exciting open system work somewhere in North America and explores different open system principle.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Check in our directly from VoiceEd Radio
We are thrilled to announce a joint podcast with Canadian education podcaster extraordinaire Stephen Hurley. The first two episodes are out and over the course of the series we will hear from experts, practitioners, and community leaders on the open principles featured in the book. Stay tunes for the launch!
Join us on Thursday, September 28th at 1:30 pm ET for Practicing Democracy Together: The Open System Institute and SCG Leadership Collaboration Network.
The TALK will be moderated by Dr. Landon Mascareñaz, Co-Founder of The Open System Institute and co-author of The Open System: Redesigning Education and Reigniting Democracy from Harvard Education Press, with an introduction from Sandy Boyd, CEO and Co-Founder at Seek Common Ground (SCG).
Dr. Mascareñaz will host a panel made up of SCG Leadership Collaboration Network members Kit Anderson (CivicLex), Morgan Craven, J.D. (Intercultural Development Research Association), and Sanford Johnson (TeachPlus Mississippi). The leaders will discuss how they put open leadership principles into practice during their time in the Network, and what it means for the future of their work in engaging communities and systems.
Assessment for Learning launching a virtual learning group on Open Systems. Doannie will be hosting this and it could be for you if traditional forms of “community engagement” are starting to feel inadequate - if surveys and focus groups don’t feel like the only way to empower your community, but you’re not sure what else to do. Join here!
Our co-authors joined Jim Beach for his conversations on School for Start-Ups Radio about open systems and reimagining school systems to partner with other organizations.
The Authority Podcast is hosted by Ross Romano, a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Doannie and Landon sit down to discuss open systems with Ross.
Landon was grateful to keynote the ECMC Foundation conference with a message of bringing open systems to career and workforce development.
On this episode of the New Books Network, host Deidre Tyler hosts Landon and Doannie to discuss the key ideas in the book and what readers should expect from the experience.
Landon and Doannie talk with the ethical schools podcast about co-creating and co-producing school initiatives with parents and community members. "Openness" is a radical departure from legacy closed systems, and begins with “openers,” those committed to ensuring that all stakeholders, especially those traditionally far from power, are full participants. The opening process can start in one classroom, one school, or one district, and can be adapted in other settings.
“Reject this doomerism that says that we can't change the institution.”
LM and DT spoke with Mila about how education is our greatest democracy-building endeavor. They discussed rebuilding trust in public education and marshaling the public will to do something great together.
We spent time working through how the democratic act is in the spark of everyday interactions with our community, such as in schools. Families and communities should be an integral part of the way that schools function. We need to practice new ways of making decisions together as a society, and education is a fertile place for this practice.
Doannie reminds us that “If people can change, institutions can change, because they're nothing more than the people within them.”
Doannie and Landon were joined by Erica Breunlin of the Colorado Sun for a special event with community members from across Colorado hosted at Outer Range Brewing in Summit County, Colorado to launch the book. Thanks for everyone who made it and showed up for the discussion!
Up north in New Hampshire, Doannie speaks with the New Hampshire Associated of Superintendents and educators. The episode explored how open communication between education stakeholders can improve equity and bolster public trust in our schools. Doannie and the host discuss how honest, daily exchange of ideas can counteract the overheated confrontations at school board meetings and the lack of civility regarding schools on social media.
Doannie and Landon speak with WPR, discussing how Wisconsin and the nation have seen heated confrontations at school board meetings over high-profile issues in recent years. They share how there's a better way for schools and their communities to interact--by bringing the public into the decision-making process more and earlier and make the case for an "Open System" for schools.
Co-authors Doannie and Landon are interviewed by Rebecca Midles on the Getting Smart Podcast, and discuss Open System work, public leadership, and the work ahead.
Doannie shared: “What are we apprenticing our young people to do, and apprenticing them to be?
Thanks to the Aurora Institute for giving space the Open System in their recent blog post on Competency Works:
“We are deeply aligned with the Aurora Institute’s principles of exploring new ways of learning, including competency-based education. We believe that it is important that if any community embarks on that journey, that it be an open versus a closed design process. Too many of our best educational efforts begin and end with a small group of educators or leaders around the same table designing what comes next for kids.”
On an episode of Education Perspectives, host Liza Holland discusses the mission to create more responsive and open education systems that involve communities, and center democracy, family engagement, and student input that is the foundation of open system work.
Landon and Doannie are tremendously excited to be reunited with their former professor Jal Mehta from Harvard,for a conversation about their new book, The Open System: Redesigning Education and Reigniting Democracy - what it means for the education space and what we can learn from community-driven work.
