#83 Dr Michelle Pledger on dream designing for liberatory futures
“I encourage folks to engage in freedom dream teams. Who else can you onboard because oppression is working 24 hours a day, non-stop. We can try to [dream] alone but it’s so much better when we’re doing it in collaboration. So how can we form freedom dream teams to not only get the work done together but to celebrate together, to experience joy together, to experience connection, because that’s going to be that eco-friendly fuel that keeps the freedom dreaming and the freedom-doing going. ”
Amidst political instability, humanitarian and ecologies crises and social fragmentation, where do we begin to create space for designing our freedom dreams for ourselves and our communities? How do we give ourselves permission to dream of a liberated future within creatively restrictive systems?
In this first episode of 2025, we bring onto the show Dr Michelle Pledger, the founder of Living for Liberation, an organisation that supports liberation of self, systems and society, and academic focusing her research on cultivating culturally responsive teaching and classroom management for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Michelle is committed to disrupting inequity in education and cultivating a community of practitioners who honor the lived experiences of all their students and educators. It is with this commitment that we begin the new year by exploring the ways we can engage in personal and collective freedom dreaming towards liberatory futures.
Dr. Michelle Sadrena Pledger is the Director of Liberation at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, an institution that brings together practitioners, researchers and youth to address complex problems of practice in K-12 education and create more equitable, engaging learning environments for all students. She co-directed the Share Your Learning Campaign which spread student-centered practices (exhibitions, student led conferences, and presentations of learning) to 5 million students. As a faculty member at High Tech High’s Graduate School of Education, she co-teaches Justice: Self, Schools, and Society course in the San Diego Teacher Residency Program, Leadership for School Change in the Master’s Program, and Culturally Responsive Continuous Improvement in the new teacher induction program. As a Freedom Facilitator, Dr. Pledger consults with organizations and districts who seek to liberate self, others, and systems.
Dr. Pledger has been recognized as a Yale University Bouchet Graduate Honor Society member, a David L. Clark Scholar, a Billions Institute Fellow, a Chrispeels Doctoral Fellow, a Shoephlin Fellow, a recipient of the National Society of High School Scholars Higher Education Award, as well as the Inter-American Development Award. She was recently awarded the 2022 Outstanding Alumnus Award by the CSUSM College of Health and Human Services. She earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in social justice education through a joint doctoral program at the University of California, San Diego and California State University, San Marcos. She holds a Master’s degree in Pacific International Affairs and a Bachelor's degree in International Studies with a minor in Clinical Psychology.
Dr. Pledger is committed to disrupting inequity in education and cultivating a community of practitioners who honor the lived experiences of all their students and educators. Her book, LIBERATE! Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning is a must read for any educator who aspires to design educational experiences that are responsive to culturally and linguistically diverse young people. Whether it is through the vehicle of project-based learning, culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy, or freedom facilitation, her hope is to develop educators and students who think critically, act empathetically, and live a life of liberation.
What will be covered:
Michelle’s personal liberation journey shaping and guiding her professional journey
Decolonising the classroom - insight into Michelle’s culturally-sensitive pedagogical toolkit for educators in tending to the needs of culturally, linguistically and neuro-diverse young people (showcased in Michelle’s book Liberate: Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning)
David Montez de Oca - liberate text study guide
Unlearning deficit thinking in Eurocentric education systems
Inclusive communication especially for students where English is not their first language
Affirming bilingualism as a super power, supporting fluency in both/all languages a student speaks e.g. allowing for non-European languages to be spoken in the classroom
Code-switching and decoding codes of power for young people
Self-systems-society approach to mapping out freedom dreams
Self as internalised oppression
Honouring the freedom dreaming of our ancestors before we named it as such
Resource: Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
The role of creative and immersive experiences in dream designing - engaging the body to connect our dreams to other dreams, expanding our imaginations and harmonising efforts for a transformative future
Freeing the body workshops
Creativity in collaboration as opposed to isolation —> dream sharing where people can amplify creativity and impact through better connectivity
Permission to dream through slowing down and building freedom dream teams (sustaining freedom dreaming and doing)
Cultivating cultures of care for educators - importance of rest when leading reimagining work
CARE framework
Michelle’s Unapologetic and Uninterrupted podcast - liberating life in some capacity e.g. emotions, risk-taking, potential (Season 2 oncoming!)
Michelle’s Spanish song in the works - extending pedagogical legacy to music legacy
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms
Mind Full of Everything is a podcast calling for the radical healing of the self and community to outgrow the broken dominant culture of radical individualism and disconnection from our place as interdependent beings, so that we can collectively re-envision a safer, healthier and equitable world. Each episode takes a healing-centric approach to explore the embodied ways in which we can collectively restore and transform our journeys as stewards of community and earth through conversations with writers, researchers, coaches and educators, as well as reflection episodes with the host Agrita Dandriyal on her journey navigating the world as a deeply conscious, culturally-rooted and relational being. Learn more here.
