“If we give our children sound self-love, they will be able to deal with whatever life puts before them.” -bell hooks

 

Elissa is a teacher on a mission to change the way we approach Education in America. After becoming a certified EC-8 Texas Educator in 2009, she taught exclusively in Title 1 public and charter schools for 7 years. As time went on, she began to see for herself the reality of what standardized tests and regulations have done to the teaching profession, and even our concept of what “education” means on a societal level. On the verge of leaving the profession entirely, all of the wishing for other options turned into wondering what those options might look like, and her idea to create this network of educators and leaders called CLEAR Education was born. Since leaving the elementary classroom in 2016 to pursue this project, she has earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum Studies at Texas Christian University and has become a mother to two beautiful children of her own. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Curriculum Studies at TCU, in the dissertation phase of completing her PhD. She has also obtained certifications from the Women and Gender Studies (WGST) and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES)programs at TCU. Her educational research is primarily focused on free play, shared purpose, mindfulness, and art-based trauma-informed interventions for children and teachers, specifically as these concepts relate to childhood/adolescent social-emotional growth, sense of purpose and belonging, school climate, and classroom diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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If you would like more insight regarding the impact these interests might have on the future of CLEAR Education, you can contact Elissa via email at elissa.bryant@tcu.edu, or read her Master’s Thesis (published May 2019) here:

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Bullying Intervention within Garden Playscapes: Supporting Childhood Identity Formation through Free Play and Philosophy

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