Repair in Educational Settings
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Comprehensive Educator Resources
The material below describes my work directly supporting teaching about repair.
My efforts are currently focused on bringing repair into K - 12 schools and other educational settings.
I work principally through sharing resources — gathering and collating existent materials, supporting the development of new materials, serving as a thought partner, helping people network, and offering grants.
Development of new materials designed to be widely shared is of particular interest.
In the East Bay, I also help bring repair into educational settings by connecting educators with volunteers.
London-based Restart Project: "We are working with keen educators and student leaders to discover how best to spread our Restart activities and ethos in schools."
I’m working on several fronts:
Educator Resources
In addition to the projects described below that I directly participate in, I maintain a compilation of information about repair-related educational resources from around the world.
This resource library includes the projects described below and ever so much more.
For the goods, go directly here: EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit
I collaborated with educators from Maker Ed and Agency by Design - Oakland in exploring integrating repair into maker education. After extensive research, classroom testing and work-shopping with other educators, the team developed materials to support teachers’ bringing repair into the maker education context.
The Cultivating A Repair Mindset Toolkit includes teaching and learning strategies, tactics and classroom materials designed to develop in students the distinctive characteristics associated with a Repair Mindset.
Also included are research findings by the maker-educators who created the Toolkit, and the Maker-Centered Learning pedagogical framework for bringing repair into the learning environment.
Go HERE for information about the project, to download the Toolkit (free of charge), and to order a hard copy (at cost).
Guidebook for Establishing a Student-Led Repair Shop
The Rudolf Steiner School in Munich-Schwabing, Germany created a German-language guidebook for establishing repair classes in middle and high school settings. I supported and collaborated with the school to translate Fixing Things for the Future into English, Spanish and French, and with its distribution.
Designed as a regular class, the well-established program naturally teaches diagnostic and hands-on skills. But, importantly, it also incorporates many aspects of repair relevant to students’ development as healthy and responsible citizens of the world. For example: understanding the environmental impact of consumerism, developing a holistic view of society, discussing values that contribute to well-being, cultivating collaborative team work, and developing practical organizational skills.
The handbook draws on the extensive experience of the program’s educators. It includes the program’s pedagogical grounding, conceptual design, structure, a step-by-step outline for establishing a repair class, practical resources and more.
Go HERE for information about the project, to download the English handbook (free of charge), and to order a hard copy (at cost). Information for downloading the German and Spanish handbooks is on that page as well. The handbook is currently being translated into French. Please check back here or on the school’s website for information.
Fixfest 2022 Online Session: Repair in K - 12 Educational Settings
I organized the online session devoted to repair in educational settings for Fixfest 2022, held on October 1, 2022.
Information about the programs presented, links to the educational resources they offer free of charge, and the session video are HERE.
Bicycle Repair In Oakland, CA
In 2020 and 2021 the Culture of Repair Project supported the expansion of The Crucible’s Bicycle Repair Program through research and funding, resulting in a revamped Bike Shop, additional staff, and new classes and events. With our ongoing assistance and advocacy, The Crucible is laying the groundwork for creating a vocational program including both training and job placement.
The Crucible offers classes in over nineteen different art departments — welding, blacksmithing, glass flameworking, and more — in a 56,000-square-foot space in West Oakland.
”As part of celebrating and empowering Oakland, we also offer free programming, scholarships, and paid leadership opportunities for youth and adults who live locally and otherwise could not participate.”
About The Crucible
Bike Repair Manual
Bike Maintenance Manual
Volunteers
I maintain a database of repair-inclined people, with a range of skills, interested in volunteering in East Bay schools. Information is here.