The Education & Opportunity deck is for teachers and students who want civil discourse and critical thinking in the classroom, for discussion groups that want a structured conversation on an important subject, and for families talking across generations about what education means.
It is one of FlourishTalk's Critical Conversations decks, and its questions explore educational equity, access to learning, and how education shapes the opportunities in a life. Like the other Critical Conversations, it favours inquiry over advocacy. The questions treat an issue as complex rather than either-or, connect personal experience with the systems around it, and make it safer to admit uncertainty and change your mind.
Each card holds one question, and the topics include educational equity, student debt, media literacy and standardised testing. Across the Critical Conversations, a question such as what side you are on gives way to what experiences have shaped your perspective on this issue, and what would need to be true for a different approach to work. The questions also invite you to think about solutions, trade-offs and what meaningful change might look like. Like every FlourishTalk deck it is made for you, with your name on every card, and arrives by email as a print-ready PDF to print on cardstock and an eBook for a phone, tablet or computer.
I suggest a class or group begins with a topic from its own experience of learning, such as standardised testing or student debt, and lets each person first say what experiences have shaped their view. These conversations touch real lives, and the questions are written to keep them respectful.
Dr Alten du PlessisFounder, LearnSmart4Life