HxA awarded $380,000 to support members working to increase open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in education.
We were proud to award $380,000 over the past year in support of 24 member-led projects that promoted heterodox values in education. Congratulations to our final round of HxCommunities Flexible Funding Opportunity (FFO) grantees.
“Inaugural HxLibraries Community Read”
Michael Hughes, Librarian and Associate Professor, Trinity University | HxLibraries
With his FFO grant, Hughes organized a community read of Julia Galef’s The Scout Mindset for members of HxLibraries with the goal of improving every participant’s ability to defend intellectual freedom and propound its value. Galef’s book and the group discussion helped participants improve the cognitive habits necessary for practicing intellectual charity and humility and help them better understand how to work through epistemic challenges whenever they arise.
“Engaging with Netflix’s series “The Chair” the Heterodox Way: A Guide for Moving Forward”
Terry Newman, Course Lecturer, McGill Writing Centre, McGill University and
Andy Sellwood, Instructional Associate, Vancouver Community College | HxCanada
HxA awarded Newman and Sellwood an FFO grant for their project to turn the Netflix series The Chair into a plug-and-play tool with a lecture guide for the HxA community. The tool uses select scenes from the series to open discussions that encourage a playful, distanced exploration of the potential tensions that can exist on campus among professors, students, and administrators. It introduces and models a constructive dialogue format that encourages participants to exercise charity and humility when encountering different viewpoints.
Connect with Terry and Andy on Twitter.
“Fireside Chat with Irshad Manji: Dialoguing Through Differences”
Lisa Potter, Head of School, Seven Acres Montessori | HxK-12 Community
Potter received a grant to host a fireside chat event with author Irshad Manji and a subsequent staff training based on Manji’s “Diversity Without Division” online course. The Fireside Chat expanded exposure and dialogue around Seven Acres Montessori’s value of diversity of thought as well as the HxA mission. The event attracted a broad group of attendees from the local community and beyond, including Seven Acres parents, staff, and leaders from other private/independent schools and the public school sector. The format encouraged dialogue and questions about how to converse about difficult topics in a respectful and productive way.
Concurrently, Seven Acres staff completed the Diversity without Division online course, which served to level-set staff understanding on practical approaches to classroom and family interaction and facilitation.
The HxCommunities Flexible Funding Opportunity was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed by funded programs, projects, or events are those of the individual Grantees, organizers, speakers, presenters, and attendees of such events/activities and do not necessarily reflect the views of Heterodox Academy and/or the John Templeton Foundation.
