The primary purpose of these vignettes is to provide clarity and inspiration about how select key functions could be actualized and may look in real life. They are not comprehensive, nor do they capture the full span of possibilities for a key function. These vignettes were a result of the synthesis of the work of the People and People Systems team. Adriana Martinez served as the lead author.

Jose works from one of his ecosystem’s home bases and is part of several cross-functional teams for the learners in that home base. He specializes in primary education, so he is more involved in supporting younger learners; however, as his learners grow up, he stays involved in their cross-functional team as a mentor. As a literacy advisor, Jose works individually with the learners he supports. He helps them set goals and milestones related to their literacy journey and provides them individualized support in areas where learners need additional help. He collaborates with each learner’s learning coach to document the learner’s progress in literacy. As part of this work, he collects artifacts, formative assessments, and learners’ self-assessments, which the learning coach captures in the learner’s learning plan. Jose collaborates with other learning advisors (e.g., arts, STEM, social studies) and young learners to develop interdisciplinary learning projects.

Helping children discover a love for reading is Jose’s passion. He is most excited when learners who struggle with reading make breakthroughs and find joy upon discovering the different worlds that the written word offers. Sometimes, Jose gets frustrated because his learners are digitally savvy, and he is not. He is working with his mentor to improve his technological literacy so that he can become more comfortable with using technology tools to carry out his key functions. An important area of focus for Jose is developing creative ways to integrate technology to support his learners. He has found that some of his mentees have been helpful. One of his mentees connected him to a local blogger and the three of them brainstormed projects, including one where learners might blog stories on topics of their choice to strengthen their literacy skills.

Ten-year-old Chedaya engages in learning in many different forms. At her home base, she works with her learning advisor, Joon, to develop a learning plan through which she sets her learning goals and makes decisions about her learning experiences. She engages at the YMCA, where she co-facilitates learning for younger learners and practices her communication skills. She also loves going to the park to learn about nature and insects—especially ants!

Several times a week, Chedaya talks with Joon about where she is progressing or where she needs help. For example, Chedaya loves writing stories about ants. Joon and Chedaya check-in with her literacy advisor, Jose, who helps both of them realize that Chedaya is a very strong writer. These conversations help Chedaya realize how much she is growing and improving. Now, Joon wants Chedaya to apply her passion for insects to learn about biology and start to engage in scientific inquiry. She doesn’t think that is as exciting as writing stories. Joon tells Chedaya that this will ultimately help her become a better writer, so Chedaya decides to give it a chance.

Note: This vignette was based on the story of Chedaya as featured in Education Reimagined’s The Big Idea series.⁷

Ten-year-old Chedaya is very creative and loves telling stories about the different topics that fascinate her. Chedaya is writing a story about ants that she is publishing in a series of blogs. Jose is Chedaya’s literacy advisor. He started working with Chedaya about two years ago.

Chedaya, Jose, and a local blogger, Aminesh, are all collaborating on the project together. Aminesh uses his blog to showcase learners’ interests and passions to the broader community. Often, he will give them tips about creative writing. For example, he told Chedaya that describing details really helps the story come alive. Jose sees this as an opportunity to help Chedaya write more complex sentences.

Chedaya has also been learning about insects as part of her science learning. She has been working with her advisor and staff at the park to investigate questions like: What characteristics do ants share with other insects? How are ants similar or different from other insects? What are the unique behaviors of ants? Chedaya thinks these questions will help her come up with lots of information that she can use to improve the use of descriptions in her story. She can’t wait to write her next story and see what others think.

Zahara is an assessment specialist in social emotional learning. She knows how to recognize when learners demonstrate growth in critical thinking. For example, from observing learners when they engage in dialogue on an issue (e.g. a socio-scientific issue), she can identify when learners make arguments, reasoning, and evidence to back their claims. She can identify when learners progress from basic understanding and reflections to more nuanced and sophisticated forms of understanding and communicating their own arguments.

This is a unique gift Zahara uses when she collaborates with learners and their learning advisors to help them understand where they are in their learning progression, where they need to grow, and how they might go about those next steps.

With Zahara’s help, learners and advisors are able to carefully build a storybook of their learning journey that documents their skills and abilities and where they need to go next, as well as identifying where they might pursue and earn a credential in their learning portfolio.

Seventeen-year-old Cat has many passions. She loves crafting—anything from making herb-infused candles to personalizing Christmas ornaments for her friends and family. She’s also a skilled photographer and prolific artist. She identifies as many things—creator, sister, immigrant, and connector—but her main passion is her art. Her artwork is inspired by her family’s heritage and immigrant background. When she paints, Cat brings to life personal stories with bright colors and Mexican motifs.

Cat spends a lot of her time with her friends who are likeminded creatives at a local Learning Hub housed in an art studio. Her friend Ariel is a photographer, and Julia makes jewelry. Javi paints, although his style differs from Cat’s. This group of friends were connected with each other three years ago by Cat’s advisor, Larry, when Cat was looking for peers with whom she could share her passion.

Even though they have different artistic styles, they give each other constructive feedback on their work. But more importantly, they support each other and spend time creating art together. Together, Cat, Ariel, Julia, and Javi go to art exhibits and organize events like pop-up shows and festivals. They visit each other often, and occasionally host paint or drawing sessions. In these sessions, they share their visions for their art, ask questions, and make suggestions. What color palette goes well with this concept? How is Cat’s artistic style evolving? Sometimes Cat struggles with her confidence, but her friends always help her see her strength as an artist who channels her Mexican heritage and personal stories through her art.

Lucy was a math major in college and was recruited to her ecosystem as a math specialist for young adolescents (approximately ages 13 through 15). Lucy is from Boston and has recently moved to Arizona in a community with several generations of immigrants. As part of her orientation, she (along with young learners and a learning coach) developed a learning plan for her new role. In her plan, she’s committed to visiting the families of the learners in her home base and shadowing them in their work. Her goal is to notice how math is practiced formally and informally in the community that is welcoming her.

She observes that several mothers, grandmothers, and aunts are seamstresses who are experts in measurement, designing patterns, and making calculations based on the needs of their clients. One of the families also invites her over to dinner and over the conversation, Lucy asks about the meal. Here she learns that the recipes were handed down through generations, and they use produce from the neighborhood’s community garden.

When Lucy meets with her learning coach, LaTonya, she shares these observations, and they brainstorm possible projects and lesson plans using geography, statistics, and algebra that involve seamstress projects and the community garden.

She also meets with the learners who are part of her welcoming team. She shares with them her observations and the ideas she brainstormed. The learners give her feedback and also provide additional ideas. One learner, Fuyi, loves fashion, so he thinks they can work together on creating a lesson plan. Another learner, Shaun, thinks that the project on the community garden should involve the broader community. He encourages Lucy to talk with other community members who could collaborate on the project. He mentions that although Lucy specializes in older learners, the younger children in the neighborhood love working in the community garden, so she might think about ways to integrate them into these projects. So, Lucy makes a list of other people to talk to, including the early childhood learning specialist and the young learners, their families, and their learning coaches. Finally, she meets with the home base’s wellness coach, Rob, to consider how they might collaborate in the work.

Note: This vignette was inspired by ethnographic educational research by Luis Moll, Norma Gonzalez, Deborah Neff, and Cathy Amanti on learners’ and families’ funds of knowledge⁸ and by Gloria Ladson-Billings’ research on culturally sustaining pedagogy.⁹

Sophia is an adolescent counselor who recently attended a national conference on adolescent development, attended by leaders from schools, districts, and ecosystems. At the event, she learned something rather curious that kept nagging her when she came back home. She had attended a session on adolescent sleep debt because she thought it was an odd idea and wanted to learn more. In the session, she learned that as adolescents go through drastic and rapid physiological and psychological changes, their sleep-wake cycles get disrupted.

The research showed that early school start times, usually between 7 and 8 in the morning, were not optimal for adolescent learning because young people function best, physically and cognitively, later in the day and in the evenings. This was not surprising to Sophia. She had often heard people complain that the conventional school schedule did not make sense for teens. Unfortunately, because adolescents tend to stay awake later due to changes in their sleep-wake cycle but are forced to wake up at early hours, they accumulate sleep debt, leading many to worry that school schedules cause students to become disengaged in learning, especially in their morning classes. She had seen anecdotal examples in her community’s ecosystem of teenagers altering their days to better match their sleep needs, but this was not a topic she’d heard much conversation about.

So, while the data made sense, what surprised Sophia was that many school districts had attempted to change school schedules to address this concern but failed, mostly because of pushback from the community. Community members protested because changing schedules would disrupt traffic patterns. Parents complained that schedule changes meant their adolescent children would not be home to babysit younger siblings. Bus drivers complained that if they had different routes for elementary schools and secondary schools there would not be enough buses or drivers.

Sophia decided that she needed to consider adolescent sleep-debt with the learners and the families she supported more intentionally. She wanted to make sure that adolescent learners, their families, and cross-functional teams took this into account when planning their schedules. Fortunately, in her learner-centered ecosystem, she felt it might be easier to collaborate across different stakeholders. She also wanted to connect with other counselors who worked with adolescent learners as well. Based on what she learned, she made a checklist of people to connect with and questions she wanted to ask.

Jamie found himself facing the type of problem that is good to have, but still a little worrisome. This month, he was trying out a new project that came from an impromptu brainstorming session with folks at a soccer game. Each week, he planned to invite a family member of one of the children in his home base to do a community learning workshop.

The first week, Yvonne’s dad, Antoine, hosted a carpentry workshop, and it was a great success. Young children learned about shapes, middle grade learners practiced algebra, and older learners explored how physics concepts inform the design of tables and chairs. The following week, Gabriel’s grandmother, Yvette, hosted a pie-baking workshop.

Suddenly, all the families of the children in his home base wanted to participate, and before he knew it, Jamie had depleted his budget for the quarter. For the workshops to be a success, he needed to ensure there were enough materials and supplies so that everyone could participate and engage in meaningful learning.

He reached out to Michele, his regional coordinator, to find a solution. Together they worked on a plan to adjust budgeting, but it was not enough to cover the additional expenses. Michele suggested that his home base put together a proposal to see if some local businesses would be willing to sponsor the program or donate materials.

Note: This vignette was inspired by Gloria Ladson-Billings’ research on culturally sustaining pedagogy.¹⁰